The Egyptian Coptic Church sticks to ancient traditions in spiritual and material service to its congregation and the community, writes Osita Nwajah ‘In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” That is Father Hedra Eshak Bisada’s simple answer to the question on where the Coptic Church stands on homosexuality. That position will definitely be comforting to the Catholic Church, the Coptic Church’s close historical cousin, which holds bend-and-break opinions on some critical issues confronting religion and society today. But less so will be Bisada’s view on condoms and abortion. Originally trained as a medical doctor at Cairo University, Bisada says the church makes allowances for certain social and health imperatives: “A couple may use condoms for birth control, only if they are married. The church frowns on abortion, but on occasions when it is proven that the health of the mother or the baby is endangered by the pregnancy, it gives approval for a qualified medical doctor to carry it out.” The Bishop of African Affairs, Antonius Markos, who is also a medi-cal doctor, underscores: “At that stage when it seems to have gone beyond the church, we still insist that at least three medical doctors endorse the decision to abort.”
These are not the only issues over which the Coptic and Catholic churches differ slightly. For instance, celibacy is not a must for the priesthood in the Coptic Church, although it is not discouraged either. Markos and Bisada are exponents of the extremes. While the bishop is celibate, the priest has a wife and two children. Markos believes “the married priest is more suitable to pastor the married families of his congregation”. The married and celibate priests of the Coptic Church, he explains, both find equal favour before God. “Of the 12 disciples, only John, Luke and Mark were celibate. All the others were married. And during the transfiguration before the trial and crucifixion, two prophets appeared to our Lord Jesus – Moses was married when he lived, Elijah was celibate.” But the non-celibate priests of the Coptic Church may have that choice weighted against them in the selection of those to be appointed to higher offices. The church, Markos said, presently ordains only celibate monks as bishops and only they can aspire to become patriarchs. Priests of the church are under obligation to wear luxuriant beards. The Coptic Church shares some remarkable similarities in beliefs, organisation and modes of worship with the Catholic Church. While the Catholic Pontiff, Pope John Paul II, reigns in the Vatican, Pope Shenouda III is the 117th pope of Alexandria and patriarch of the 1 900-year-old Coptic Church. To celebrate Mass, the priest wears a long white robe with golden embroidery of the peculiar Coptic cross, which in some representations resembles flower petals and in others a key. The congregation is not restricted to dress codes, but there are small headscarves at the entrance for women who did not bring theirs. Care has been taken in the design of the interior of the small church at 11 Selkirk Road, Johannesburg, into which Mariam, the lively five-year-old daughter of the priest, led this reporter. The congregation of five worshippers sit in the largest of the three parts into which the church is divided. Where worshippers come singly during the weekday services, the church normally holds whole families for the Sunday Mass. Apart from the traditional Sunday and days when a saint is celebrated, services are held on Wednesdays and Fridays. Markos confirmed that the strength of the church in South Africa is not in the city centres but in the suburbs. “Only a few Coptic Egyptians are in the country and they are mostly in Johannesburg. The greater number of our congregation is to be found deep inside South Africa. We have nine ordained South African priests and a few thousand deacons.” The nature of the church’s membership has also meant that most of its humanitarian activities are located outside of its Johannesburg headquarters. Recently 20 members graduated from the church’s vocational training centres in Cape Town and Tembisa. The tailors got sewing machines and the carpenters were given work tools to start them off. “We don’t just train professionals,” Markos said, “we make sure they are employed professionals.” During Mass in the Johannesburg church the priest and deacons officiate in front of the congregation, just before the innermost sanctum of the altar. Two small doors flank the archway entry into the “holy of holies”. On them hang blood-red velvet curtains and above one are the words: “My flesh is food indeed.” Above the other is: “My blood is drink indeed.” And written above the archway: “This is the house of God and the gate of heaven.” Over these are frescos of the Last Supper and, flanking the large crucifix, the 12 disciples – without Judas Iscariot. Why? “It is there in the Holy Bible: ‘… and his office, let another take’ and Mathias took it,” the priest explains. After the betrayal of Jesus to those who eventually crucified him, Judas lost his place and, hence, post-crucifixion recognition among the disciples. “It’s all there in the Bible, which is the manual of life. All teachings of the church and lives of every Coptic person are according to the stipulations of the Holy Bible. We do not recognise anything outside of that.”
But then the “manual” says nothing of the Virgin Mary’s life after her son Jesus’s crucifixion, whereas, in his sermon earlier, Bisada had stated that the Virgin Mary lived exactly 60 years on earth – 12 of these she spent in the Jewish temple, 30 as the wife of (Saint) Joseph and 14 after the crucifixion in the house of St John. The four years remaining are accounted for in the flight to Egypt, when Jesus was two, to escape King Herod’s killer. Where did he get that? “From the history of the church. Her departure was not recorded in the Bible,” Bisada says. So, on occasions the church goes outside the strict confines of the Bible? “No,” he explains. “If you look through the Bible, you will notice the Acts of the Apostles does not end with ‘amen’ like other books. That’s because it’s a continuous process. This means that the church will continue until the end of the world.” The acts of the divine followers of Christ thus form part of church history and practices without necessarily adding to the Bible.
Back at the service in honour of Saint Mary (there are several hundred saints celebrated every single day of the year), the church was enveloped in a cloud of incense smoke. Suddenly 2 820W of light from 47 bulbs stabbed into the gloom. The light bulbs, distributed over doors, crosses and lecterns, are switched on only for the lessons to be read. There are English and Arabic versions of the same lessons. But, even in the flood of light, two deacons stood on each side of the readers with pencil-thin candles. As with every Mass, after the sermon and intermittent sessions of kneeling, praying and hymn-singing, men and women enter through different doors into the inner sanctum to receive Holy Communion. The feast of St Mary ends with the priest splashing all present with holy water. A special communion bread with five holes – indicating the wounds Jesus suffered from the nails that held him to the cross and the soldier’s spear stab – are given to all present. The Coptic Church does not limit itself to the sharing of bread or spiritual largesse. During celebrations, members of the church – from its branches in Cape Town, the Free State, Nongoma, Mvuyanil, Vosloorus, Tembisa, Soshanguvi, Makabansteate and Johannesburg – move into the community to give food and clothing to the needy. For the estimated 10 000 members who engage in this act of charity, however, there is an injunction, again derived from the Bible: be as discreet as possible. This is one church that would touch publicity only with a 10- foot pole. Bisada says: “Jesus commanded us to give only in secret. And we do not tie it to membership. Everyone is free to pursue his or her own path to God. All the Bible says is ‘do good to everyone’.”