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Christianity in North Africa Today

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Christianity in North Africa Today Christianityin North Africa Today Norman A. Horner he glory and decline of Christianity in the region com­ liar religious development, and especially because of the uneven T prising Libya and the Maghrib (the Arab West) is a story political evolution in that region over the last two decades. well documented in the annals of church history. The early church in North Africa-home of Tertullian, Cyprian, Augustine and the Libya Augustinian theological tradition, the dynamic Donatist move­ ment-was a church of profound impact on the Christian world at With a land area of nearly 700,000 square miles, Libya has a total large, but it failed to establish deep roots in the soil of its own re­ population of less than 3 million. Major cities are Tripoli, the cap­ gion. Broadly stated, there are two reasons for that failure: (1) the ital, and Benghazi. Secondary centers are Charian, Zawia, Mis­ church never became truly indigenous, and (2) it had no effective ureta, Horns, Jebel Akhdar, Derna, Khalij, and Sebha. Oil is the missionary outreach among the masses living outside the imported major source of national income, and it is abundant. After an ini­ Roman culture. tial lag during the first eighteen months of the present govern­ Unlike the Coptic Church in Egypt or the Syrian and Arme­ ment, 1969-70, economic development of the country has steadily nian churches in other parts of the Middle East, the North African improved. Government priorities for national development, in the church did not successfully survive the Muslin conquest from the order of current emphasis, are agriculture, industry, health, educa­ end of the seventh century onward. It was a Latin-speaking tion, and telecommunications. church, centered in urban areas, and already in decline because of Adult literacy is estimated at only 17 percent, and hence radio the Donatist controversy and other disputes. It had made no sig­ and television are the chief means of communication. As a foreign nificant inroads into rural areas. Neither had it produced any diplomat in Tripoli put it, "This country has jumped over the Gu­ translation of the Scriptures into the language of the Berbers, the tenberg period into the radio-TV era." Despite the fact that both dominant indigenous population. Mesnage attributes the disap­ elementary and secondary education are still very limited, the Uni­ pearance of this church to the slight advance made among the Ber­ versity of Libya has had a large campus in Tripoli for some years bers and the almost general apostasy of the few Berber converts and, in 1971, completed the construction of another in Benghazi. A when the Islamic invasions came.! Groves notes that even the professor in Benghazi stated that the faculty includes a substantial monastic communities of North Africa were established in towns number of Europeans, mainly British. He added that "the new already Christian and made little attempt to evangelize pagan ter­ campus facilities compare favorably with those of most any ritory." American or European university, but neither students nor faculty Of some 700 North African bishoprics in Augustine's day, are able to use them effectively." only about thirty-five were left at the time of Arab conquest, and Islam in Libya is almost as conservative as that of the Arabian most of those had disappeared by the end of the eighth century. peninsula, with President Qaddafi as the most influential Libyan The remnants of that once great church then seem to have been guardian of conservatism. Press censorship, and the virtually total taken under the protection and authority of the Alexandria Patri­ absence of foreign journals from the newsstands, is as much to archate, but the relentless decline continued. In the fourteenth safeguard against introducing unconventional morality as to pre­ century only a few Christian villages were left and, with the de­ vent political subversion. The law against proselytizing is rigidly mise of a small community in Tunis a century later, Christianity enforced, .and no missionaries as such are in the country at the had virtually disappeared from North Africa." present time. The claim that "there is not a single Libyan Chris­ The purpose of this article is not to detail the history of North tian" is all but literally true within Libya itself, although an unde­ African Christianity but, rather, to describe its present situation. termined number of Libyan converts to Christianity (both Catho­ The brief foregoing paragraphs are merely to show that the lack of lics and Protestants) are living abroad, mainly in southern Europe. any strong, indigenous Christian community in that region is by A total of less than 5000 people, all expatriates and relatively no means a new phenomenon, and to insist that Muslim rule is not few of them permanent residents of Libya, are actively involved in the sole reason for its absence today. the organized Christian churches found in that country today. Across North Africa, from the western frontier of Egypt to the Greek Orthodox (Alexandria Patriarchate). A Greek community Atlantic, the present-day Christian population is small and com­ of some 1200 is in Libya at the present time. About half that num­ posed mostly of foreigners. The situation of the churches is every­ ber, the tiny remnant of a once powerful church there, actively where circumscribed and difficult, but by no means identical participate in two Greek Orthodox congregations, one in the cap­ throughout the vast region. * One cannot speak of Libya and the Maghrib as though it were a homogeneous bloc, either religiously or politically. Each of the countries (Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco) must be considered separately because of its own pecu- "Informaiion about Christian communities in thefour countries under consideration wascol­ lected by the writer in thecourse of extensive travel across North Africa, from Benghazi to Casablanca, during thesummer of 1972. The research team with which he participated in thisproject included theRev. Albertlsieero, then general secretary oftheNearEast Council ofChurches (now theMiddle East Council ofChurches), theRev. Dennis Hilgendorf, direc­ toroftheMiddle'East Lutheran Ministry, andMr. William DunnoftheSouthern Baptist Norman A. Horner, Associate Editor of the Occasional Bulletin, was consultant on Mission in Lebanon. Reports received and materials published since that date indicate no interchurch relationships in theMiddle East until 1976, when he became Associate Direc­ major changes in thesize, distribution, andsituation ofthe various churches andfellowship toroftheOoerseas Ministries StudyCenter. groups, butsuch modifications as seem significant have been incorporated into thisarticle. Arrri]. lQ~O ital city and the other in Benghazi. Most members of these two headquarters for the police, and the remaining Church of Christ congregations are permanent residents, but of non-Libyan origin people use the Baptist property for such meetings as they still con­ and citizenship. Their strong attachment to Greek language and duct. (A former Seventh-day Adventist hospital in Benghazi was culture makes it unlikely that they will contribute significantly to also taken by the government in 1970, and if there are still the rise of any indigenous Christian movement. Adventists anywhere in Libya they are without an organization of Coptic Orthodox. Prior to political troubles between Egypt and any kind.) The most recent Protestant development is the emer­ Libya in 1974, as estimated 200,000 Egyptians were living in gence of a small but vigorous congregation of Pakistanis in Tripoli. Libya-many of them professional people or skilled craftsmen. It seems clear that the only hope of numerical increase in any The number of Christians (mostly Coptic Orthodox) among them of the churches in Libya-Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, or Prot­ is thought to have been as much as 30 percent of the total, a much estant-lies in the potential influx of Egyptian Christians into the higher percentage than in the population of Egypt itself. Vast country. Few Italians have returned to date, and they are on short­ numbers of those people have of necessity returned to Egypt or term contracts with the businesses that employ them. Restrictions gone elsewhere during the last few years, but many will go back to on the residence of other Europeans and Americans are likely also Libya whenever the political situation permits. to continue. In the opinion of this writer, Egyptian Christians (es­ Libya is part of an enormous ecclesiastical area known histori ­ pecially the Coptic Orthodox) are likely to become the major cally to the Coptic Orthodox as the diocese of the "Five Cities." Christian community in Libya, and they are also better suited than The bishop of the Copts in North Africa presently lives at any other expatriate group to make an impact on Libyan culture. Damenhour in the Nile Delta and visits both Libya and Algeria pe­ riodically. The current situation of this church in Libya is, never­ Tunisia theless, quite limited. Some eight years ago, President Qaddafi authorized their use of a former Roman Catholic church building Tunisia has a land area of 63,000 square miles and a population of in farm country about seven miles outside Tripoli. That parish nearly 6 million, of whom 56 percent are under age nineteen. now claims a total constituency of approximately 1000, but only a About half the population is concentrated in the areas in and fraction of that number can participate regularly because of the around Tunis, Sous, and Sfax. There are some 30,000 resident Eu­ distance from the city and lack of public transportation. Another ropeans in the country, including 2000 French teachers in univer­ community of some fifty Coptic Orthodox families in Benghazi sity and secondary schools. A large and relatively stable Jewish has its own priest but uses the Greek Orthodox building for ser­ community may account for the fact that both Saturday and Fri­ vices.
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