Bible Lands Summer 2014 Magazine of the Jerusalem and the Middle East Church Association www.jmeca.org.uk & TH M E M LE ID SA DL RU E E EA J S N T I D H I C O R C E U S H E C O L F A J P E O R C U S S I A P L E E M E H T Jerusalem Egypt & North Africa Cyprus & the Gulf Iran Pupils at the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf in Salt, Jordan greet two bishops (see page 10) Contents include: U.S. PRESIDING BISHOP VISITS JORDAN – page 10 PRIESTS AND IMAMS IN PARTNERSHIP – pages 12-13 and 19 WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES IN IRAN – page 20 THE JERUSALEM AND Bible Lands Editor Letters, articles, comments are welcomed by the Editor: THE MIDDLE EAST CHURCH Canon Timothy Biles, 36 Hound Street, ASSOCIATION Sherborne DT9 3AA Tel: 01935 816247 Email: [email protected] (JMECA) The next issue will be published in November for Winter 2014/15. Founded in 1887 Views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily ‘To encourage support in prayer, money and those of the Association; therefore only signed articles personal service for the religious and other will be published. charitable work of the Episcopal church in JMECA Website www.jmeca.org.uk Jerusalem and the Middle East’. The site has information for each of the four Dioceses Reg. Charity no. 248799 with links to the websites of each one and regular www.jmeca.org.uk updates of Middle East news. Patron The Most Reverend and Right Honourable THE CENTRAL SYNOD OF THE PROVINCE The Archbishop of Canterbury President The Most Revd Dr Mouneer Anis Chairman Mr. Richard Owens OBE Secretary Mrs. Georgia Katsantonis Administrator [email protected] Mrs. Shirley Eason Treasurer Assistant: Mrs Debbie Taylor The Reverend Canon William Schwartz. 1 Hart House The Hart Jerusalem Farnham GU9 7HJ, Surrey. The Rt Revd Suheil Dawani [email protected] St George’s Cathedral Close, PO Box 1248, Office days: Tuesday to Friday, 9.30am – 2.00pm. Jerusalem Tel/Fax 01252 726994 Tel: +972 2 6272932 The Council of JMECA delegates the administration [email protected] website: www.j-diocese.org of its assets to a Standing Committee which is Iran THE JERUSALEM AND THE EAST MISSION TRUST The Rt Revd Azad Marshall LIMITED (JEMT) PO Box +971 4 62170 Dubai UAE also St Pauls Administrator as above Church, Avanue Hafez (North), Opp, Bazar Val Asr No 749 Tehran 15977 Iran Directors [email protected] Mr. John Clark (Chairman) Egypt Mr. Andrew Hill The Most Revd Dr Mouneer Anis The Venerable Howard Levett All Saints Cathedral, PO Box 87, Distribution Zamalek, Mr. Richard Owens OBE Cairo, Egypt Mr. John G Pringle (Hon Treasurer) Tel: +202 7380829 [email protected] The Reverend Dr. William Taylor website: www.dioceseofegypt.org Sir Harold Walker KCMG Mr. David Wright OBE Cyprus and the Gulf The Reverend Canon Hugh Wybrew The Rt. Revd. Michael Lewis Diocesean Office, PO Box 22075, 1517 Nicosia Tel: +357 22671220 Consultant [email protected] The Reverend Canon Timothy Biles website: www.cypgulf.org 2 Middle East Chaos and Confusion The churches of the Middle East are living in turbulent times. These newspaper extracts show the challenging political background to their work. Readers of this magazine will see that the response of the Anglican churches remains one of service to the whole community, with special care for the traumatised and afflicted. Failed Government When Mr Morsi won the presidency, he promised to govern for all Egyptians. EGYPT But he did not. The Muslim Brotherhood had worked for power for more than Key dates 80 years. It was determined to seize its chance to reshape Egypt into the way it wanted. Mr Morsi, the public face of the Muslim Brotherhood’s top political 25 January 2011: Anti-government leadership, behaved as if it had an overwhelming mandate to transform Egypt protests begin into a much more Islamist state. Many Egyptians are pious Muslims, but that 11 February 2011: President Hosni did not automatically mean they shared the Brotherhood’s austere vision of Mubarak resigns the future. To make matters worse, the Morsi administration was not very competent. It could not keep its promises about reinvigorating the economy. 24 June 2012: Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi wins presidential elections Independent, 27th April 26 December 2012: President Morsi signs a new constitution following a referendum Military Crackdown 3 July 2013: President Morsi In July last year, after the military removed from power the Muslim Brotherhood-backed is deposed by the military head of state, Mohammed Morsi, many thousands of his supporters established protest after street protests camps in Cairo. When the army and security services moved in to clear the protesters, about 1000 people were killed, increasing the hostility between the Brotherhood and the 14 August 2013: Hundreds military, and re-emphasising the polarisation in Egyptian society. of pro-Morsi supporters killed when troops clear sit-in Since last summer, while the interim government has continued to follow its declared protests roadmap to democracy, with a new constitution approved in a referendum in January this year, the authorities have also cracked down on dissent. 28 April 2014: 683 Morsi mission, and many thousands supporters sentenced to death A new law, for example, restricts the rightout to protest trial. without per after an eight minute trial of people have been imprisoned with Gerald Butt, Church Times, 25th April JERUSALEM THE YEMEN Poverty and Insecurity Peace Talks Collapse The Yemeni Republic in the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf is When Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu announced the Arab world’s poorest country. More than 14 million people plans to build further settlements in occupied East need humanitarian aid, hundreds of thousands have been Jerusalem and Palestinian President Abbas announced driven from their homes by waves of violence, malnutrition a reconciliation with Hamas the peace talks, which had levels are the second highest on the planet, more than 4 made little progress, came to an end. The American million people are ‘food insecure’ and Sanaa is the most vice president John Kerry, who had chaired the year water-starved capital city in the world. Yemen has become long talks, warned of the consequences: “Israel a base for a quarter of a million refugees escaping Somalia risks evolving into a de facto ‘apartheid state’ with and Ethiopia, adding to the complexity. The oil supply, which institutionalized discrimination against some of its own has been the main source of income, is dwindling and the citizens if it cannot find a way to finalise a two state pipelines have been subject to sabotage. The humanitarian solution”. He said further delay could cause Palestinian situation is declared to be ‘terrifying’ by the International aggression against Israel and that a unitary state would Rescue Committee while the US considers the Al-Queda end up being a state with second class citizens or presence on the Arab peninsular to be the most prolific and a state that destroyed the capacity of Israel to be a the most dangerous in the whole world. Jewish state. Edited from a report by David Miliband US Secretary of State, John Kerry President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee speaking to the Trilateral Commission, 25th April 3 Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf www.cypgulf.org Cyprus and the Gulf Bishop Michael Lewis explains that the Diocese of Cyprus & the Gulf covers Oman, the Yemen, the seven United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq and the whole of Cyprus. “In every part of the diocese, except in Cyprus and Iraq, the congregations are largely expatriate, made up of Christians from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and the African continent. Many do not come from an Anglican background but find a welcome church home in our Anglican congregations. Through some intricate Bishop Michael Lewis Bishop Michael Lewis and special relationships, the Diocese is often responsible for churches and congregations which are not Anglican, some of which are Iraq still working out their relationships to the Cyprus Bahrain Bishop and Synod. Worship is largely in Qatar English but in some locations we have Kuwait liturgy in Arabic, Syriac-Aramaic, Tamil and Urdu. Bishop Azad Marshall of Iran has a United Arab particular ministry to the Urdu-speaking Emirates congregations within our diocese.” Oman Yemen Staff News The Bishop in Cyprus and the Gulf, the Rt. Revd. Michael Lewis has announced the following staff THE REVD ANDREW SYMONDS has been changes: appointed Assistant Priest, with House for Duty, in the parish and chaplaincy of Paphos. He received THE REVD NIC DENNY-DEMETRIOU was Licensed the bishop’s licence in Paphos on 5 February and and Installed as the new senior priest in Paphos at will work with the Revd Nic Denny-Dimitriou, senior a special service in Agia Kyriaki Church on Saturday priest, and the rest of the ministry team . He comes January 18th, the Feast of the Confession of St Peter. with his wife Rosemary after serving most recently in A packed church greeted and welcomed Nic and his the Diocese of Swaziland and latterly as chaplain to family and Nic’s wife, Revd Julia Denny-Demetriou, the Anglican nuns at Whitby in Yorkshire. who was also given permission to officiate in the diocese at the same service. Bishop Michael presided and the Ven Dr John Holdsworth, Archdeacon in Appointment of Commissary Cyprus, preached the sermon. “We all look forward in the United Kingdom to hearing great things about Paphos in the future,” he said.