December 27, 2001 — Mudeif Productions

We are trying to combine relaxation and sight-seeing in this trip. When you are somewhere as spectacularly old and storied as Egypt, the latter is easy - the former nears impossibility. Even so, today we took it slow.

Our resting place for the time we are here is Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo. Christians in Egypt tend to refer to themselves as Copts, not Arabs (whereas in Palestine, Jordan, and Syria, Christians are quite clear that they are Arabs). The word Copt comes from the ancient Egyptian word for Egypt, whereas the Arabic word is masr. We were told that Christians here see themselves as descendants of the ancient cultures of Egypt, whereas Muslim Egyptians identify themselves more closely with their Arab heritage.

The evangelical church is the result of the work of Presbyterian missionaries here in the 19th century, and in many ways parallels what happened during the Reformation in Europe - a response to corruption and ignorance in a priesthood which often served not so much the gospel as their own ends (we heard many stories of how and why families changed from the Coptic Orthodox church to the Presbyterian). As a result, the seminary was established in 1863. Rules at the time governing church property meant that the church couldn't build, and so the seminary floated up and down the Nile River for a while. The Presbyterian missionaries clung tight to a vision of mission which combined fidelity to the gospel and respect for cultural and national integrity. And so, within fifty years, the Coptic Evangelical church had been turned over into the hands of local leadership and has been thriving since.

We headed off to the American University of Cairo to visit the bookshop and to take a peek around the campus. It's quite the calm in the midst of Cairo's downtown chaos: three lanes usually means six cars across, as well as ten or twenty jockeying for position. Otherwise, a relaxing day of visiting and playing games with our friends and their one and a half year-old son Calvin (Presbyterians or what?).