SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

Relations Between the Church of England and the Coptic Church (1836-1848) (by Hany N. Takla)

Background: In the late 1970's, the two Coptic churches in Los Angeles, used to hold periodic joint meetings of their Sunday School servants. At times they would organize joint day-long meetings. In one of these meetings, held at Virgin. Mary and St. Pshoy Coptic Orthodox Church in Los Angeles, the guest speaker was the peiest who served in our first Coptic Church, established in London. His name was Fr. Wissa, a monk from el-Surian Monastery in Wadi 'N Natrun, who later was ordained a bishop. His talk centered about how the Lord has the establishment of this church. In summary, he recounted being called to the office of the bishop of missions in the Church of England, after he submitted an application to establish a Coptic church there. To his great surprise, the bishop told him that after his application was received, they searched their archives and found an old file related to the Coptic Church. In it they discovered that the Anglican Church, being concerned about a lack of Christian presence in Egypt and recognizing the importance that Christianity be existing there, they dispatched an exploratory mission to Cairo. They arrived there during the Pascha week, the week prior to Resurrection Sunday. To their pleasant surprise they found the churches crowded with parishioners who were devoutly participating in the worship with beautiful tunes. Upon their return, they told the Missionary Society that they found a vibrant Church needing only the help in publishing Christian literature for them, for the Church possessed no printing press at the time. The story made such a strong impression on me that I often thought of how to document and investigate its history. Several years after that event we received a book gift, printed in London in 1826 in Coptic and Arabic of the Psalms. I realized at the time that this was evidence for substantiating the story that I heard. But it was

not until 2003 when I was searching the internet for books to acquire for our Coptic Library that I found a curious book, titled Christianity in Egypt 1836-1851 . Its brief description stated it was a collection of letters found in the papers of The Archbishop of Canterbury related to the Church in Egypt. The price tag and the vagueness of the description did not motivate me to send for it immediately. But eventually my bibliophilic weakness prompted me to order this mysterious book from a bookshop in Ireland. Upon receiving this less than 100-page hard-bound small book, I found evidence for events which followed that first missionary visit and the publication of the above mentioned Psalms volume. Overview: This book is a collection of 53 documents and letters that were found among the papers of Archbishop of Canterbury, Howley, who died in 1848. These documents dealt with individuals who were actively engaged in activities related directly or indirectly with the Coptic Church in Egypt. It was published by the Association for the Furtherance of Christianity in Egypt. Publication date was 1883, which shortly followed the start of the British Occupation of Egypt in 1882. Also a final note is included by the publisher concerning the school that was founded in Egypt. Apparently this event rekindled interest in the Coptic Church again for a third time. The first time, which Fr. Wissa alluded to in his talk was actually in 1815 which resulted in helping the Coptic Church by providing publications needed. The second time is what will be discussed below, which featured more interaction with the Church on publications and education. The third time which followed the British Occupation, dealt primarily with serving the British personnel and starting an independent Anglican Church among the native population.

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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