Visiting CMS this morning was the Bishop of Egypt the Most Rev Dr Mouneer Hanna Anis.
This is a man with far-reaching responsibilities – literally: the full title of his diocese is Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa and Bishop Mouneer is also President Bishop of the Anglican Province of Jerusalem & the Middle East.
However, instead of presenting us with his agenda and needs, he generously chose to reflect on two CMS people in mission who had made a big impact on life and faith in Egypt – but by choosing the way of humility.
The first was a medical missionary, with whom Bishop Mouneer has fellow feeling – he is himself a medical doctor.
From Ireland, CMS sent Frank Harpur to Egypt in 1889. Instructed to set up his clinic in a port on the Suez canal, Harpur refused – he would only end up treating Brits on their way to India. Instead he chose Menouf – at that time a key north/south meeting point on the main transport corridor in Egypt – the Nile.
It was, says Bishop Mouneer, a very wise choice, and “an example of holistic mission that we continue to this day.” Indeed, the hospital is soon to celebrate its centenary.
Bishop Mouneer also called to mind a personal mentor of his – Dr John Coleman, the CMS medic who spent 30 years in Iran before being imprisoned (with his wife Audrey and fellow CMS missionary Jean Waddell) at the 1979 Revolution. After being released through negotiations by Terry Waite, Dr Coleman was sent to Egypt.
Here was the second wise choice: an ordained surgeon, Dr Coleman was asked to choose between purely priestly duties in Port Said or to work at what was by then Harpur Memorial Hospital in Menouf. He chose Port Said.
“He recognised that many Egyptians would want to be treated by a British doctor and he didn’t want to take the light away from the Egyptian doctors,” says Bp Mouneer.
Dr Coleman did, however, commit to supporting the doctors at Menouf – among their number at that time was one Dr Mouneer Hanna Anis.
“In those days, before email and good communications, he would call me almost every day long distance – which was very expensive – to listen and give advice.” Bishop Mouneer was clearly warmly appreciative of this relationship, and of the wisdom and humility of Dr Coleman in choosing to support in the background instead of hog the limelight.
Though he had been fluent in Persian in Iran, Dr Coleman, by then in his 60s, never learnt Arabic. Nevertheless, says Bishop Mouneer, “Everyone understood him because he spoke a very special language – the language of love. Everyone who knew John Coleman loved him.” He appealed for more CMS missionaries who came in the same spirit – “to learn and not to teach, to receive and to listen”.
There was a warm, no – passionate, encouragement too, for us as Christians in the West, to engage deeply with the Bible – “a living, life-giving Word” with real relevance and power for today – “We find it so in Egypt.”
Comments