Coptic Church in Amman

An account while I was in Jordan in October 2012

                The other night a group of me and a few other BYU students decided to go to a Coptic church. There was a rumor that they were having a service on Thursday night. Fridays are the day for Sabbath day worship so I thought this was a bit odd but I decided to go either way.

I had ever been to a Coptic church before but I have heard much and studied very little about them. As one of my bosses is Coptic, I hear things periodically but she is not a strong Coptic in the sense of actual practice. I also had read much about them in the news regarding Egypt. Often times it is about the Coptic’s events dealing with Muslims in Egypt; most of the time they are not good events. The Coptic religion originates and is mostly found in Egypt.  Regarding the Arab Spring, Christians and Muslims united together to overthrow the Mubarak Regime. There was peace and alliance but just a few weeks prior to the beginning of the Arab Spring there were bombings in Coptic churches to probably incite revolts and a battle for a sense of control. Now, almost 2 years after the fall of Mubarak, Christians and Muslims are back at it with each other. The Coptic Church has many similarities with other churches. It has its own pope, the Coptic language is used during services and they can claim origin to the early apostles of the New Testament.

As we arrived to the Coptic church building I noticed that it was near the brand new, almost multiplex style, mosque. The mosque was beautiful, across the street from it was a large but simple church. The church building stood about 40-50 feet tall with a Christmas light lit up cross on the top of its highest point. We walked around the street trying to find a gate to get into the church grounds. I thought it was odd the church had walls around it but then I realized the mosque across the street had walls and that most of my own church buildings in the in the States had walls. It took a few Muslims who were crossing the street from the mosque to tell us where the gate was to get in. Turned out there was a little slot you can put your hand in to pull the lever to open the door but we didn’t realize this until after we had to call over for a person to open the door for us. This individual that opened the door was fully robed in priest clothes and had salt and pepper colored beard. The beard probably was a foot long and a half foot cap topped his head. He didn’t seem to want to say much to us at this time because he pointed us in the direction where we should go and then went back to sit on his chair. On our way out, we saw him sitting next to a younger male member and seemed to be speaking Coptic to him, almost like bestowing a blessing upon the young man.

As we walked closer to the main door, you could look inside and see lights and even candles lit inside. We were pretty nervous at first, we weren’t sure if we should knock or just open the door. Out of our group I decided to just open the door and walk in. As soon as I opened the door you could feel like you stepped back about 1000 years. The church, though had modern paintings, it was filled with cascade windows and arches. The doors were of the finest large wood carvings I have ever seen. The pews of the church were more modern, you could see scriptures written in Arabic from the New Testament written on the back side. Each pew had its own scripture.  There was about a group of 20 people listening to a man sit in the front dressed in business casual. It seemed all of the others there were dressed in business casual attire, including the women. The women were not veiled and even spoke more openly than I’ve seen Muslim women in social settings. The person giving the sermon we later found out was a visitor from Egypt, we could tell he was from Egypt because of his Egyptian Arabic dialect. It was kind of refreshing to hear it because that was the dialect I was taught in school. I sat down behind the others listening in and I found myself not paying too much attention to the sermon being given but more rather to the art work. It seemed that there were pictures of many of the notable prophets in the bible everywhere they could find a place to paint. Each prophet seemed to look about the same, white beards, old looking (some young), and carrying a scroll (probably scripture). A few had certain key symbols with them, for example, Moses was carrying a staff and two tablets. In the front, there was a pew and a wood wall that didn’t reach the top (the vaulted ceilings were about 40-50 feet high). On this wood wall was a spot for each of the twelve apostles and in the center top was a large wooden statue of Jesus Christ. There also was a miniature statue of Jesus Christ in the center of the priest’s area and then on the left side of the wood wall. Overall, the church was very beautiful with amazing artwork all around.

We were obviously late to the sermon but we weren’t the only ones. Two young Arabs came walking in down one of the aisles between the pews. They walked up where the priest’s area begins and took their sandals off where the step begins. They stepped up and began to cross themselves which I thought was the normal but then they knelt and began to pray similar to how a Muslims prays in the mosque. I was really confused because I thought for a moment that these were Muslims coming to pray in the church, almost to make a point against the Christians but this was not the case at all. After kneeling and putting their heads to ground for a few seconds, they got back up and crossed themselves again. Then they went and kissed both of the smaller statues of Jesus Christ and then each chose a picture of an apostle and kissed that. I think one kissed Paul and the other kissed Thomas. They then went near the entrance and each lit a candle and placed it in the appropriate spot of sand located at just below eye level in a circular tub.

Another member who was observing the sermon then handed us envelopes with the church’s name on the envelope. We of course took them but then after it was handed to us, we noticed that this was for the sake of paying offerings. One of the military guys with us paid five dinar but the rest of us did not.

The sermon was done (finally), it seemed to have lasted a total of two hours, an hour before and after we arrived. After the sermon, each of the members there were so anxious to speak to us! They wanted to ask us where we were from, why we’re in Jordan, and most importantly, to have us over for coffee and tea for next week’s sermon. The fellowship they were lending us reminded me of the type of fellowship we as Latter-day Saints had done. It was quite interesting to see how much they similar to us in this aspect. Coptics are primarily from Egypt so most of the people there were from Egypt but a small hand few were from Armenia. Most Armenians will say they go to the Armenian Church and never anything else so it makes me wonder if these Armenians were going for another reason.

This was my first experience with a Christian church in the Middle East. It was interesting to see another Christian church in a different culture where Christianity isn’t the most practiced religion. The Christians seemed to mix a lot of their practices with the Muslims. The act of prayer that the two young Arab men did at the beginning seemed too similar to what a Muslim would do when he first enters a mosque and begins to pray. Christianity was fairly established in the Holy Land when Islam came around and I wonder if maybe Islam took similar practices from Christianity. The idea of respect for the sacred area seems to be universal between the two religions. It also seemed that being a Christian, no matter what sect you were, was just as good as any other sect.

Offence and Middle East Current Events

The atrocities of today’s assaults on the US embassies in Egypt and Libya are sad, scary and wrong.  Being currently in the Middle East, things are now not just an act on television that I will later talk about in a class the following day, but very real. Set aside political reactions and slanders, what can we learn from this event?

Libya's Embassy Attack
Egypt's Embassy Attack

Muslims at the US Embassy in Cairo

 

A film made by an Israeli-American in California was made known to the Islamic world in the last 48 hours. The film depicts the Islamic prophet Muhammad in offensive ways such as his multiple wives being taken in acts of adultery, the lies of the Qur’an and his ways of receiving revelation revolving around sex. This was not well received by the Muslims in Egypt and Libya.

The writer and director of this film obviously has an agenda to express his disagreements and hatred towards Islam. And there was no problem for him to post this online for the world to see. I believe he was wrong in doing so. But I also believe the Muslims that responded, responded because they chose to be offended.

Elder Bednar, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the LDS church during a talk regarding him meeting with inactive members of the church stated:

 “Let me make sure I understand what has happened to you. Because someone at church offended you, you have not been blessed by the ordinance of the sacrament. You have withdrawn yourself from the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. Because someone at church offended you, you have cut yourself off from priesthood ordinances and the holy temple. You have discontinued your opportunity to serve others and to learn and grow. And you are leaving barriers that will impede the spiritual progress of your children, your children’s children, and the generations that will follow.” Many times people would think for a moment and then respond: “I have never thought about it that way.”

 Regarding the Book of Mormon Broadway play:

“All hands on deck! There is an offensive play on Broadway about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon! Let’s go tear down their advertisement and block the doors so no one can get in to see it! In fact, let’s take down the stage manager that had nothing to do with writing the play!”

That is not a response that most, if not all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had.  In an article regarding the church’s new ad campaign with the musical, it quoted one of the play writers:

"The official church response was something along the lines of, 'The Book of Mormon' the musical might entertain you for a night, but the Book of Mormon — the book as scripture — will change your life through Jesus," Stone said. "Which we actually completely agree with That's a cool, American response to a ribbing."Stone said that "before the church responded, a lot of people would ask us, 'Are you afraid of what the church would say?' And Trey and I were like, 'They're going to be cool.' And they were like, 'No, they're not. There are going to be protests.' And we were like, 'Nope, they're going to be cool.' We weren't surprised by the church's response. We had faith in them."

I wish more of our Muslim brothers and sisters would do something similar. And to point out the pros, this does in fact happen. CAIR, Council on American-Islamic Relations, quotes Nihad Awad, the national executive director, just a few hours ago:

"We urge that this ignorant attempt to provoke the religious feelings of Muslims in the Arabic-speaking world be ignored and that its extremist producers not be given the cheap publicity they so desperately seek. Those who created this trashy film do not represent the people of America or the Christian faith. The only proper response to intentional provocations such as this film is to redouble efforts to promote mutual understanding between faiths and to marginalize extremists of all stripes.
"We condemn the attack on the American embassy, which had nothing to do with the production of this intentionally inflammatory film."

The point is, we can’t stop all people that may offend us but we can stop ourselves from being offended. I am grateful for the culture that I have been raised with to not be offended by what they do. These Muslims today chose to be offended. I admire the rest of the Muslim world that was not offended and acted in similar manners. I, too, had a bishop that once could have offended but I chose not to be. I’ve had close friends attack my own faith but we remained friends, working out the differences, and are now deeper in our matters with of faith and friendship. It is sad that such acts happen.  We must do our best as not to arrogantly offend people, and if we do so ignorantly or on purpose, we should apologize and stand corrected.

Do I feel safe in Jordan, yes. Could it happen here, absolutely. Will I be careful and smart about where I go, yes.

I will end with another quote from Elder Bednar’s talk: 

"One of the greatest indicators of our own spiritual maturity is revealed in how we respond to the weaknesses, the inexperience, and the potentially offensive actions of others. A thing, an event, or an expression may be offensive, but you and I can choose not to be offended—and to say with Pahoran, “it mattereth not.”

Can We Really Make A Difference?

What difference can I make? What difference can you make? Well, I guess that all begins with what and why you are trying to make a difference in. For me I am constantly thinking of what I can do for the Middle East and trying to make a difference sure seems impossible. Sometimes it is so incredibly frustrating that I think why do I even think I can do anything. But then I had my first day of class in Political Science of the Middle East class with Professor Donna Lee Bowen. She started off in her dignified way that she does, probably 5' 2'' in mid 50's and striking confidence, saying,

"Today in the Middle East there is great turmoil all over the place. And after 9/11 I thought what can I do to help my students and the people of the Middle East? I realized there was nothing I could do more than pray. So I'd like to start class with prayer and do the thing I know that works."

It hit right then that I may be just one individual but I pray for that peace. Professor Bowen prayed for our enemies, our loved ones, for understanding of each other, for peace, for protection, and for our service men and women. The next class session, she asked me to pray and then asked me to make sure I included the servicemen and women in the Middle East and their families.

Here is a extremely well educated woman in the politics of the Middle East and she says the only thing she can really do to help solve the problems in the Middle East is through prayer struck me hard. She spoke of peace being possible over there. She spoke of the great calamities that can be overcome and I took from that class period that I have forgotten the possibility through faith and prayer.

I had a dream the other night I was Lawrence of Arabia, a British soldier that helped gained unity with the Arab tribes to help form tribes. He did a great work to help the current problems at the time. But I don't know if I will ever be in situation to help them like he did. So why not pray when you want to make a difference in this world?