A Curate in Cairo

This morning was the first of my weekend services of Holy Communion, and it went very well. There was a good attendance, as usual, with many familiar faces among them. Karim played the piano beautifully, and entertained us with some Beatles tunes afterwards! After the service, it was coffee outside with the congregation, and we had a good chat about my sermon and the idea of hope and love as bastions of Christianity. It's nice to know that people are taking in the Sermon and that its giving them pause for thought.  We discussed the problem of evil and in particular, its ramifications from a political point of view.  This of course is something that preoccupies many people here who have had to leave their homes because of conflict and persecution, particularly the Sudanese community, of whom there are quite a few. I also had a lovely compliment from a lady who is a member of the Myanmar congregation here, and I was invited to their service which takes place this Sunday afternoo...

This evening, after a day of preparation, I attended an Ordination service in the Cathedral. There were a total of six deacons ordained, among them Tim, who is the Archbishop's Secretary. I had been talking to one of the other Ordinands, Mark, who had stayed in the guesthouse last week and who was also at breakfast this morning. he asked for any advice I could give him.  Apart from keeping his day off strictly as a day off, I told him about the importance of maintaining a healthy daily prayer time, despite the many demands and crises of daily ministry! It has stood me well! I arrived about ten minutes before the service was due to begin, and settled myself in a pew with a good view.  As the service started, and as the procession made their way to the Sanctuary to be seated, I could see Canon M motioning to the Dean, frantically pointing tohis throat ( obviously his clerical collar) and looking in my direction . And after a minute or two, my suspicions were proved correct and t...

Apologies to W.B Yeats, but this morning as I worked in ' the office ', one of my colleagues came in to make himself a cup of coffee. He is a lovely guy and always has a bright, welcoming smile. I could tell that there was something on his mind, however, and soon enough he asked me what I thought of women's ordinations.  Did we have them in Ireland? Now, this is where cultural sensitivity comes in!  Being a guest here, and respecting local tradition and values, I explained that we had been blessed to have the ordination of women in Ireland for some time.  There then followed an interesting discussion in which I mostly and politely listened, and which occurred in somewhat halting English, and concerned the 'scriptural' basis for the non-ordination of women, leaning heavily on St. Paul and tradition. Now I know that poor old Paul is frequently used to justify this approach, ( I imagine much to his chagrin as he looks down ), but this reliance on one or two verses from...

Today was a busy one from an admin perspective.  I managed to complete my sermon for this weekend, and selected the hymns and sent them to the musical directors(s). We have a separate one for Friday and Sunday, as it happens! But they loved them and so, all is set. I also had to put in place a new system to get service sheets printed, as we can't have the wardens out of funds! I think that's set too. I met Tim, the Archbishop's P.A. for coffee ( and cake ) in Diwan, and we had a great chat about theology and ministry. He is from a Baptist background originally, but found his home in the Anglican church. He is to be ordained as Deacon this Thursday evening and I'm robing for it, so quite honoured! The service will be in Arabic, but I'm sure the liturgy will be familiar! While I was there, I spied a kids book, and I thought I was seeing things. But no! Its a real kids book version of...Jaws!! How can one make a kids book of that?!  I have to buy it! It even has Quint!...

Well today being my official day off, I took a trip to visit St. Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, on the recommendation ( rather insistence ) of Bishop Mouneer. And it didn't disappoint! Being on the coast, Alex benefits from a slight sea breeze. Slight, mind you, as it still got up to 36c by the time we had left. But I opted to join a shared tour, as I figured it would be easier to get to the centre, where the cathedral is, and I would also get to see other things which I may not ordinarily do travelling solo. We were delayed for over an hour on the Alex desert road, as the Police had closed it due to bad visibility. Dust or haze, I guess. So we were running behind all day! Our first stop was the Garden. It's basically a private beach area in one of the large hotels, and was full of noisy Americans from an anchored cruise ship. Oh joy. The neighbouring King's/Presidential palace was impressive though, with a kind of Andalucian flavour. We then made our way to visit the ...

A few weeks ago, as the time was drawing nearer to mid-May and the start line with CMSI in Cairo, it all seemed so very far away. Today, as I celebrate Holy Communion once again in this lovely Cathedral, its hard to believe that I'm nearing the end of week three and that week four of five begins tomorrow! Five weeks seems a long time, and I guess in some ways it is. But it really has flown and as I prepared for this morning's mass, it wasn't without a slight pang. Its lovely to be in control of one's own destiny and steering the ship, as it were. I know the administrative functions aren't perhaps as onerous as parish life, but it does get one thinking. There was quite a big congregation for this morning's 1030am Holy Communion, some of whom I hadn't seen before. I met one lovely man at the door and as he put out his hand, he said ' Are you Father Mike ?' I replied in the affirmative, and he said ' good. I heard all about you .' And I was prom...

Saturday again, and a very quiet day around the Cathedral. It's literally the middle of the weekend here and there is almost nobody around. But its Saturday of week 3, with really two more weeks to go! Wow. So, for me, it was a day of preparation for tomorrow's Holy Communion and a chance to look over the readings for next week's sermon. Everybody has their own way of doing this, and I like to sit with the readings for a couple of days and to see what percolates.  So I took my diary over to Diwan again, that lovely coffee/bookshop. It's become my ' Costa ' office abroad, and the friendly Barista guy, who calls me mister, almost knows my order off by heart!  They make a mean lemon drizzle cake which, dare I say it, would stand up to Mother's Union scrutiny any day of the week! I tend to chat to everyone over here, and have had some lovely comments in broken English, and even translated from Arabic, over the last few days, asking me to stay!  I'm sure my ...

This morning was my first time preaching ( not a word I'm particularly fond of! ) in the Cathedral at the 1030am service.  I have celebrated alone here before, and even alongside the Bishop, but today was my turn to go entirely solo. It was a little daunting I must say, as I didn't know how it would be received. But of course, once I began I had nothing to worry about! It is Trinity Sunday here and even though the readings were different from the lectionary, I managed to produce something suitable, appropriate and, apparently ( from comments afterwards ) engaging! There was a good congregation. Some new faces, and some regular attenders, and I had readers and hymns sorted. Karim, as always, played really well and there was an excellent response. Afterwards, it was coffee as usual, both with the Granita crew and with the Sudanese congregants. When I made my way back to the vestry afterwards, to collect my things, I found the church in relative darkness, which was unusual. There...

It was an early start today as I cross over the hump of week 3 and make my way towards the weekend. I booked a walking tour to get to see some of old Cairo and get a flavour of what the city must have looked like, as Cairo now is huge, sprawling, and full of modern office blocks, banks, and hotels. The guide, Michael, collected me at the Cathedral gate and we drove the twenty minute distance to the old town. The first stop, after meeting the other tour participants, was the large mosque of Al Hakim . It dates to the 11th century and is still in use today. As it is a place of worship, we respectfully removed our shoes before entering the stunning heat of the courtyard.  Thankfully, there is a cloistered area which provided some shade from the 37c sun. There is a large fountain in the centre of the courtyard, for washing one's feet and hands ( I was tempted to sit in it - but I feel that may not have gone down well ), and then a large carpeted area where worship takes place. It is hu...

 Today was a rather different day. I met with Bishop Mouneer this morning, along with Karim, his assistant and Leith, an Episcopal student from the U.S. with Egyptian heritage, who is spending some of his Sophomore year here working with the Diocese. We had a rather interesting discussion about Anglicanism in the developing world and its difficulties in disassociating itself from its colonial past, even with the advent of Independence. Many Anglican churches in the developing world have forged relationships with churches in the Western World, and while these relationships provide much needed financial, training, and pastoral support, often with that support comers an expectation, whether spoken or not.  In other words, the beneficiary church feels an obligation to support its support the financing church dogmatically. Now this is a problem for many reasons. Often there are major cultural differences, and because of the connection, it is almost impossible for that church to dev...

Today was an early start in a rather vain attempt to beat the desert heat; or at least to get there before it became unbearable. I left shortly after 9am and after a 20 minute journey by Uber, arrived at the Giza Plateau a little while later.  It was already 35c and climbing! ( It would get to 39c in Giza before I left at lunchtime ). In my bag, however, I had plenty of cool water and so, the great adventure began! I met my guide, Said, shortly after I arrived and after a brisk 15 minute walk down back alleys in various states of decay, we arrived at the gate to the Giza complex. It's a fair distance from the gates to the first of the pyramids, so the only way to travel is either horse, cart, or camel. I chose cart, on Said's advice, and it was off at a trot. He also drove the buggy! We went first to Cheops, the smaller pyramid, which is faced in granite from Aswan. As granite is harder wearing, it's still relatively intact, even after 7,000 years. It also has the customary...

Today was pretty much an admin day, and I used the time to get some housekeeping done. And then it was down to Moustafa and his laundry with some dry cleaning. 7 items this time, and the usual joke that he delivers with the same enthusiasm each time, ' If I find any money, I keep it ' and then he laughs uproariously!  Funny guy! I know it'll only cost me about €7.  I also sorted the hymns with the Cathedral's musical director. I picked some good old fashioned Anglican belters that they all know. And that's important as they are getting a bit more encouragement and growing bolder with their singing! I also received an invitation by email from the Irish Embassy. It's the 4th annual celebration of the Centre for Irish Studies, at the British University in Egypt no less, so I'm delighted to be able to accept.  After the service on Sunday, of course! ( I'm not sure I have anything green in the clerical line to wear though - I feel that a green stole might be ...