Al-Ahram Weekly | Profile | Safwat El-Bayyadi: Drive to tolerate

His encyclopaedic knowledge leaves you breathless. With little prodding, he will launch into a complex discussion, annotated with historical information, backed with recent statistics, analytically sound and deeply thought out: just give him a topic, from politics to economics, from the clergy to education. The effect is always the same. Meet Safwat El-Bayyadi, head of the Evangelical Church in Egypt, who also happens to be president of the Egyptian Protestant Churches and of the Middle East Council of Churches. Once you have met him, it becomes clear why. I arrived at his office at the Girls College on Ramses Street before the appointed time, a precaution that may not have been necessary. For despite his evidently busy schedule, he was remarkably obliging; and he acted as if we had known each other for years.

El-Bayyadi was born in March 1940 in Al-Bayyadiya, a dominantly Christian village near Mallawi, Minya, towards the south of the country -- and the first major stop in the conservative, morally strict and often sectarian provinces of Upper Egypt. He was born into a family of six children. And he attended Catholic school as a child, then graduated to several Evangelical and Catholic schools. This mixing of orientations, besides his own precocious gift, must have done its work. For, contrary to the aforementioned view of the Saeed (Upper Egypt), El-Bayyadi is the glowing face of that fascinating culture in terms of his capacity for tolerance. He studied not only law and religion at the Evangelical Seminary in Cairo but (secular and Muslim) law at Cairo University. Later on, he obtained a masters degree in education from the University of New York as well as a PhD from the University of San Francisco. By then the constituents of this very remarkable personality were complete. It was time for business, but first he had to be married. His wife, Genevieve, is former deputy minister of irrigation. They have two sons: Freddie, a doctor; and Victor, a computer engineer. Both are involved in church-related social work, especially with the young.

When I asked El-Bayyadi about the Evangelical Church's background, he was surprisingly open about the missionary activities during the colonial era. Some countries, such as Lebanon and Syria, he said, leaned towards Catholicism because of French influence. The presence of the British in Egypt, on the other hand, encouraged Evangelical churches to come into the country. But El-Bayyadi is careful to point out that, this link, notwithstanding, it was not the military who called in the missionaries. Rather, missionaries saw an opportunity for spreading their ideas and services; and they were eager enough to seize it. For a small community, at least, it worked. And the eventual result is the Evangelical Church we have today.

Egypt was a special case, however, for it is in origin a Coptic country: "The Coptic Church has a history of which we have remained proud. We in the Evangelical denomination feel that, if not for the martyrs who gave their lives during the Diocletian era, there would have been no Christianity in Egypt at all." In the 16th century, the issue was somewhat ticklish, for there existed a real division between the Coptic and Protestant faiths. Egypt was not initially receptive to the Reformation of Martin Luther. But at a later date, the Coptic Church became more open to Protestant ideals. At one point, El-Bayyadi recounts, a Coptic Pope even went so far as to burn the icons during a church-organised event, because the people had begun worshipping them, forgetting their original purpose; this marked a turning point. "The missionaries did not plan to establish an Evangelical Church at the beginning; they were just trying to help the existing church rid itself of narrow-minded ideas. And the Evangelists were particularly active in the field of education, for it is education, more than anything else, that leads to intellectual openness." The main objective of the early missionaries was to reform the Coptic Church, but none of the Coptic popes made any attempt at that; they actually made the church reject the Evangelical movement. And in response to this, Copts who had embraced the Reformation walked out of the church. At first, they had to congregate in one of their houses, but eventually they established their own denomination and house of worship in which they could practise. "The missionary movement was not a separatist movement, but a reformist one."

While Protestantism spread through Egypt, there occurred another split within the Evangelical Church, over differences in perspective on education and administrative methods. The Evangelical system is based on freedom of expression and the authority of the Bible, but people interpret the Bible in many different ways. "Differences of interpretation led to differences in approach, method and administration..."

Yet Egypt remains one of the least doctrinally divided countries, as far as the Evangelical Church is concerned. Other countries may have hundreds of Evangelical doctrines within their borders, El-Bayyadi pointed out. South Korea, for example, has over 1,000 churches within the Evangelical demarcation; each has its own interpretation of the faith. Of course, El-Bayyadi conceded, there are differences in Orthodox and Catholic churches of the country. Egypt has seven Catholic and four Orthodox communities, which have their own doctrinal differences. But, though fully aware of the differences in approach between the Coptic and Evangelical churches in such matters as fasting, he assures me that the two churches are easily reconciled; they live in perfect harmony. For the Evangelical Church, for example, to fast is to stop eating altogether and devote oneself to prayers. Fasting doesn't have to happen on specific days of the year. As for the seven canonical sacraments of the Orthodox Church, the Evangelical Church recognises only two: baptism and communion. Confession doesn't have to happen through a clergyman, and the Evangelical Church does not intervene in marriage, aside from blessing the couple. Significant differences, after all. Yet why should they result in any strife of any kind?

As head of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), El-Bayyadi favours harmony over unity per se. The latter would be an impossible task, comparable to asking countries to abolish the political borders separating them, as he put it. The Christian church, El-Bayyadi explains, was originally a single entity with five geographical dominions, but a conflict emerged which led to its division to eastern and western churches, Orthodox and Catholic -- a phenomenon that was to prove remarkably recurrent. So instead of seeking unity, improbably, one should learn to tolerate differences. This is how the MECC sees its work, as pluralistic.

But El-Bayyadi is eager to point out that the Evangelical Church is as interested in daily life as it is in clerical matters. Since it started working in Egypt in the early 19th century, the Evangelical Church has created schools and orphanages, including the Lillian Thrasher Orphanage, which is still a leading institute in this field service. The church is also involved in finding jobs for young people irrespective of religion. The only topic in which the Church goes to great lengths to avoid involvement is politics. The Church believes that individuals should be free to hold their own political views, for these are ultimately a personal choice lying beyond its domain.

The Church may advise the faithful on morality, life after death, and baptism, El-Bayyadi says, but it cannot tell people which party to join. In general, he is sceptical of groups that employ religion in the service of political agendas. "We're against people who use religion in this way," he says. What bothers El-Bayyadi, rather, are incidents like the quarrel over a play staged in a church theatre in Alexandria that was said to offend Muslims. The quarrel took place just days before the parliamentary elections, he points out. It was as if someone was waiting for the right time to trigger off a certain chain of events. Dialogue between Muslims and Christians is a necessity, he insists. In Al-Liwaa, a publication of the early 20th century, priests and sheikhs engaged in debate, something the public saw as perfectly normal.

That said, El-Bayyadi hopes to see regulations relaxed on the building of churches. "President Mubarak is used to giving us a gift every year, just to show that we're close to his heart," he said. For example, the president made 7 January, the Orthodox Christmas, a national holiday. He recently issued Decree 291 for 2005, delegating the authority of demolishing and rebuilding churches to governors. This was a good step, but El-Bayyadi says it's important to follow up on it. For example, he wants all existing churches to become fully licensed and authorised. "Many of our churches are unauthorised for several reasons. One is that church registration was not accurate before the July 1952 Revolution. Some licenses were issued but their files were lost. This means that if the church collapsed, we wouldn't be able to rebuild it."

According to the current regulations, churches that have no licenses cannot be rebuilt. "I am waiting for a decision concerning all existing churches, all churches run by recognised communities, and all churches that own their land, as authorised and licensed. This would make it possible to rebuild churches."