Egypt (MNN) — Every church standing in Egypt is worth celebrating. Christianity has deep roots in the nation, going back 2,000 years to the missionary work of John Mark, a gospel worker who worked with the apostle Paul.
But today, bureaucratic restrictions and delays challenge Christians hoping to build new churches. It’s just one of many ways they are treated as second-class citizens.
“The Egyptian government for a long time had no place for [new churches],” says Erik Ouimette with Uncharted Ministries. “Then a number of years ago, they changed [their] way in response to some heavy persecution from the Muslim Brotherhood and the presidential administration at the time.”
In 2016, Egypt’s parliament passed the Church Construction Law, which ostensibly created a legal path for church licensing. Critics said it still discriminated against Christians. Even so, thousands of churches have been licensed in the nine years since.
“It’s a big deal to license a church,” Ouimette explains. “That means you can call a pastor, pay a pastor; you can be officially recognized and officially protected by the government. In most churches in Egypt, there are police outside if not 24 hours a day, [then] definitely any time that there are people in the building. There’s government-sponsored security in front of the church to protect them. The government is not wanting there to be Muslim and Christian fighting.”
Getting a church in the first place, however, is still far from simple. Corruption and bribery are common obstacles in the process. One church building project Uncharted Ministries is involved with in central Upper Egypt has come to a standstill.
“This church might be many years away from being a church in licensed legality. Or it’s possible the Lord could show up in a beautiful way and get the glory for doing something that right now looks impossible,” Ouimette says. “I would love that to be the story of this church.”
Ancient Egyptian Christian Bible (Photo courtesy of Ben White via Unsplash)
But one thing is certain: if a church is built, a mosque will soon follow.
“It’s amazing how quickly mosques are not only licensed and approved, but built. They are built like crazy because the money comes in in floods,” Ouimette says. Muslims around the world often sponsor a new mosque construction. “They are leaning into part of the Islamic beliefs, both in the Quran and the Hadiths, that to build a mosque is of highest order.”
He adds, “The very land [in Egypt] where churches are being built, the Muslims in the community view as Islamic land.”
If you live in the West, chances are your church building is spacious and safe. Ouimette reminds us that such freedom is a recent anomaly, virtually unheard of for Christians in many parts of the world today, and across history.
“All throughout the 2,000 years of our faith, the label of being a Christian has been an affront to authoritarian government, an affront to other beliefs that say, ‘No, there’s a multitude of gods.’ Or, ‘Oh no, you’ve missed it. Jesus is not who you believe Him to be.’ Thus, from the very beginning, Christians have humbly met in homes, small groups, home churches,” Ouimette says.
“I think our hearts then go out to those who are trying to build a humble church for thirty, forty, fifty people. I think we need to pray into that more maybe than we do.”
Header photo of Kairo Wan, Ash Shamashargi, Egypt is a representative stock photo courtesy of Sophia Valkova via Unsplash.
