Orthodox Holy Week Begins/DAB Quarterly Newsletter
Dear Friends,
With the arrival of Palm Sunday yesterday (April 28), Holy Week has begun in Egypt. As many of our readers will be aware, the Western (March 31st) and Eastern (May 5th) celebrations for Easter were further apart than usual this year. At this time of year, many politicians, including Muslim politicians, sponsor banners expressing their good wishes for Christians during the Easter holidays.
(A banner in Cairo offers Easter greetings to Christians.)
During the past week, international and Egyptian media have reported on several Christian homes being set on fire in the village of Fawākhir in the governorate of Minya in Upper (i.e. southern) Egypt. Bishop Makarios, the Coptic Orthodox Bishop of Minya, expressed concern through his official Facebook account and confirmed that those responsible have been arrested. According to the Coptic newspaper Watani, extremists were motivated by rumors that a church was being built or planned for the village. Thankfully, security has been restored and it appears that no one was physically injured. To be sure, incidents like these are tragic and should not be minimized. At the same time, our position at Dialogue Across Borders is that these incidents should not not obscure or overshadow the positive relationship that exists between the vast majority of Christians and Muslims in Egypt.We will continue to follow this story.
Despite this difficult news, we wish all of our Orthodox readers a blessed Holy Week and Easter.
Finally, please see below for a selection of recent newsletters and events related to Egypt and interfaith relations.
With best wishes,
Matthew Anderson
Director - Center for Arab-West Understanding
Executive Editor - Dialogue Across Borders (Brill)
January 28, 2024
On December 20th, 2023, the Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies (IDEO) in Cairo hosted an inaugural ceremony for the Anawati Chair which is dedicated to interreligious dialogue and the deconstruction of extremist and exclusivist discourses. We congratulate the IDEO community on this important initiative and wish them every success.
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February 06, 2024
On Tuesday, January 30th, the Centre for Christian-Muslim Understanding and Partnership in the Anglican/Episcopal Church in Egypt inaugurated an interfaith award in honor of Dr. ʿAlī El-Sammān (1929-2017), a prominent journalist, political advisor, and interfaith pioneer.
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February 13, 2024
The 2024 Cairo International Book Fair was held from January 25th to February 6th at the Egyptian Center for International Exhibitions on the outskirts of Cairo. The event featured over 1,200 publishers from the Middle East and beyond and is believed to be the largest exhibition of its kind in the Middle East.
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4) Former Dutch Prime Minister Andreas van Agt (1931-2024) fought his entire life for justice, mercy, and humanity
February 17, 2024
With the death of Prof. Andreas van Agt, founding editor, Cornelis Hulsman, shares Van Agt’s achievements and his role in supporting our aspirations for a dialogue center in Egypt.
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February 27, 2024
In February Dialogue Across Borders participated in couple of events related to Coptic and Middle Eastern Christianity. These events provide useful windows on the academic and dialogue activities that routinely take place in Cairo and are attended by both Christians and Muslims.
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March 14, 2024
In a rare occurrence, both the month of Ramaḍān and the Great Fast of the Coptic Orthodox Church began this week on Monday, March 11th. a blessed Ramaḍān and Great Fast. For Muslims, Ramaḍān is the month during which the Holy Qurʾān was first revealed to the Prophet Muḥammad. For Coptic Orthodox Christians, the Great Fast is the 55-day period before the celebration of Christ’s resurrection at Easter.
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7) Western Christians celebrate Easter
March 21, 2024
We would like to wish all our readers who are celebrating Easter according to the Western/Gregorian calendar a blessed Easter Sunday. Following the Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant churches, most Christians celebrate Easter today.
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April 9, 2024
With the end of the Ramaḍān fast in Egypt and the begining of the ʿEīd al-Fiṭr holiday, Dialogue Across Borders would like to wish Muslims a blessed ʿEīd al-Fiṭr wherever they are celebrating.
As a public holiday, ʿEīd al-Fiṭr, which means the “feast of breaking the fast.”
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9) New Interns at the Center for Arab-West Understanding
April 15, 2024
We are very pleased that several talented interns have recently joined us at the Center for Arab-West Understanding/Dialogue Across Borders. Besides offering rich and diverse perspectives on intercultural and interreligious dynamics, our interns could also pursue their own independent research projects. If you are working in an academic institution, we hope you will inform your students about the opportunities for education and dialogue available through our center.
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Emerging Perspectives on Intercultural and Interreligious Relations
Dialogue Across Borders is a database of summary translations of Arabic newspaper articles with references to their sources about intercultural and interreligious relations, focusing primarily but not exclusively on Muslim-Christian relations. The database also contains articles with editorial analysis and interviews on the subject.