Beyond the gates

By Sameh Fawzy

---

The second Coptic Lay Conference was held between 26 and 27 April. Hosted by the Egyptian Organisation for Enlightenment, it attracted some 30 participants, mostly media workers or else friends of the organisers.

Though better organised than its predecessor, the event provoked just as much controversy. The first Lay Conference, held last December, consisted of little beyond a handful of poorly researched papers introduced by young and inexperienced Coptic scholars. Better known intellectuals and public figures boycotted the event for several reasons. Some did not want to upset the Coptic hierarchy, which had viewed the gathering with suspicion. Others suspected that the real agenda of the convention had been brokered by the regime, and that the conference was a means for the state apparatus to intervene in church affairs by the backdoor, ahead of the battles that will be fought over who succeeds Pope Shenouda. The event's organisers repeatedly tried to allay such suspicions, but with little success.

Papers presented at the second conference were on the whole more promising, and deserve a more considerate response. Sadly, some of the theological debates held during the two days served only to tarnish the image of participants who have tended to portray themselves as interested only in structural and administrative reform of the church, and not in dogma. The press, say the organisers, did the event a disservice by focusing only on the most contentious, rather than the most significant, opinions expressed during debates.

Whatever the media coverage, though, we must ask ourselves whether such activities can really impact on any reform of the organisation of the church. The answer to such a question is simple. Nobody who has even a rudimentary knowledge of Coptic history would contemplate arguing that groups operating outside the church can force it to reform. New ideas can change the church, but only if they emanate from within its own existing structures; ideas propagated by outside reformists are all too easily marginalised as being alien imports to Coptic theology and history. And that, I'm afraid, will be the fate of the current round of initiatives.

This week's Soapbox speaker is a political commentator.