Leaving Anafora

I wrote these posts while in Anafora (December 26-January 2) but since I did not have/want internet access there, I am posting them all at once. To read in the right order, start at the bottom of this thread: "Journey to Anafora."

Today is my last day in Anafora and Egypt. I spent breakfast as I have several mornings now, in conversation with Bishop Thomas, asking him about all sorts of things. He has told me about what happens to the identities of monks when they enter monastaries by relating the story of when he was ordained. When Coptic priests are ordained they symbolically "die." The altar and the full funeral service is performed for them with a sheet over their body and face. The Bishop's description of the feeling of dying, letting go of everything and then being re-born with a new name was very moving. Because he felt it was so personal, he chose to be ordained in a remote church, and not in his home town where it usually occurs, in front of one's family. I can't imagine how that would feel to see one's son or husband die (Coptic priests can marry but they have to before they are ordained; Afterwards it is too late)!

After a moving goodbye with the staff and the Bishop (and his blessing), I went to Cairo with Katja and Anna-Clara and was given a feeling for the noise, pollution, traffic, and "controlled chaos" of one of the world's largest cities (17 million). We went to a beautiful store with handmade cotton and linen clothes in amazing colors. Later, after lunch, I was driven to the airport and had an uneventful (although delayed) trip home. I arrived home at 3 am to a white, chilly Stockholm.

Waking up, I can hardly believe I was in the desert 24 hours before, eating rice pudding and chatting with the Bishop. However, the memories will remain fresh for a long time, and the friendships I made will last forever I am sure.

Anafora is an amazing place for anyone who is interested in experiencing a community of faith, love and peace. I highly recommend it!

Pax

Anafora - January 1, 2010

The first day of the new year! I spent the day visiting two Egyptian sites with very different histories: the shiny, modern Carrefour mall (I had to get some money from the ATM) and the 4th century Coptic monastary of St. Bishoi in Wadi Natrun. I won't waste time writing about the mall since it looked like any mall in the U.S. (including chain stores like the Body Shop and Accessorize) except to say that there must be some people making money to Egypt to sustain a mall like that!

Wadi Natrun (which means 'salt valley' in Arabic), and its monastaries, is considered to be the cradle of all Christian monastic life. Sometime in the 4th century, Egyptian holy people (both men and women) began to wander out into the desert to be able to fully experience God. Some of them became stationary hermits, some wandered around the desert in solitude for their whole lives, and others began to live together in communities. At the height of the monastic period in Egypt, there were said to be 100,000 monks and nuns living in 1,000 monastaries. Today there are 4 left in Wadi Natrun (and a few more scattered around Egypt). The founder of monastic life is considered to be St Anthony but other big names are Macarius (see icon with his image, painted at Anafora) and Bishoi.

St Bishoi Monastary is the oldest and largest surviving monastary, and it is where the Coptic pope (H.G. Shenouda) comes to stay and celebrate mass every weekend. It is also where a Benedectine friend of the family, Father Mark Gruber, spent a year in the late 80's carrying out his doctoral research in anthropology. He later wrote a book about his experiences, called Journey Back to Eden. My Life and Times among the Desert Fathers (Orbis Books, 2002). A quote from that book shows why the desert was responsible for this monastic life: "The desert teaches us how helpless we are, how much we depend on one another for survival. It is with a complete sense of dependence, a complete sense of helplessness that we must approach God, and that we mush approach one another in terms of possessiveness or control." I think this idea might also explain why Anafora is the way it is.

We (a French retreatant and myself) got to St. Bishoi rather late in the day when all the tourists were gone and there was noone around to give us a tour. So we wandered kind of aimlessly around, appreciating the full relics of St. Bishoi himself and the architecture of the old part of the monastary (there is a huge new church - see picture at right below - and living quarters built in the 80's that is less interesting). As we were about to leave we were approached by a couple of laymen who asked if we would like to meet the Bishop of St. Bishoi. Of course, we jumped at the chance

and were ushered into a reception room where we met him, received his blessing, and also a blessed pen with the virgin Mary (made in China)! After this a very talkative monk (named Father Cedrac) gave us a personal tour of all of the interesting bits of the monastary that we had not seen because they were locked. So we were glad that we didn't just rush away, but were open to whatever would happen!

Anafora - December 31

Today is new year's eve and there is a lot of preparation going on at Anafora. This morning we planted seeds in a ceremony to symbolize hope for the new year. As we were standing there, we saw a shepard and a camel "walking" through the orange orchard towards us. Gradually, we saw that they were made of paper maché and being carried! They had been commissioned by the Bishop for the evening's ceremony but serendipitously arrived while we were planting!

After some inspiring hymns (see me at right singing a "duet" with Bishop Thomas), we got to work inscribing 200 bible verses in English and Arabic on to small pieces of paper. The Bishop had personally chosen them as messages of hope for the new year. Tonight each person will get one to take with them. Then Anna Clara (one of the Swedes living here) and I supervised a group of nuns and girls visiting from El Qussira in baking around 200 Lucia buns (Swedish advent buns with saffron; we had to add tumeric because we didn't have enough saffron, which added a somewhat strange taste to the buns...). It was a hilarious sight with all of us up to our elbows in yellow dough and flour flying everywhere. We decorated them with honey when they came out since they are fasting until Epiphany and cannot eat any animal products (we usually spread egg yolks on top to make them shiny).

In the evening there was lots of hymn singing instead of the normal 8 pm service and I was asked to read aloud the translated version of some of the psalms that they were singing in Coptic, which I felt honored to do. I left after a half hour or so of the chanting and came back at 10 pm for the mass, which the Bishop sped up to only 90 minutes instead of 2 hours in order for there to be time for a meditation before midnight. At 11.55 pm we all went forward and threw incense on the embers of a large pit placed in the front of the church, silently making our wishes for the new year, we each took a bible verse out of a basket, and everyone who wanted got a blessed loaf of bread (I saved mine since is has a cool stamp on it with Coptic letters). At midnight everyone lit a candle and wished each other Happy New Year! This was followed by a feast, since they had been fasting since 3 pm (Copts always fast for 9 hours before receiving communion). It was by far the most interesting and peaceful new year's eve I have ever spent!

Anafora - December 30

I learned my first Coptic words: nani gurhh ("good night") from Sister Martha. She is the one who paints all of the Iota crosses. She is 27 but looks about 12. We spend a lot of time communicating in sign language and in my hopeless Arabic. I spoke Chadian Arabic (a dialect about as understandable to other Arabic-speakers as pidgin English is to English speakers) when I lived in Chad from 1988-1990, and later studied Modern Standard Arabic (spoken on news programs like Al Jazeera) at the Univ of Michigan in the early 1990's but I have sadly forgotten almost everything. Anyway, I can pretend that my lack of understanding is due to the dialect spoken here at Anafora which is Upper Egyptian, and different from that spoken in Cairo.

There is a half-hour service at 8 every evening, which the bishop tries to make more accessible by giving some instructions in English, allowing the epistle reading to be given in whatever language is represented by the congregants that evening, and making time for some hymns to be sung in English. I have been doing the readings in English (others did them in Swedish, Norwegian, French and Arabic) and also leading some songs in English. Tonight I was surprised to hear a strong male voice in the back of the church joining in on Amazing Grace. It was Bishop Thomas, who had learned the song in his many travels!

I have learned from a visiting Copt that Anafora is not appreciated by all Copts because it breaks from tradition on several counts: the church is not traditionally built, women participate in the liturgy, and there is an attempt at ecumenism. I think that Bishop Thomas is a visionary who really cares about peace, in the same spirit as Brother Roger of Taizé.

Anafora - December 29

I didn't get much sleep last night since 4 or 5 mosquitos trapped inside my net dive-bombed me all night. Still, I was up at 6 am to attend the full morning mass which is 2 hours long and celebrated every morning here at Anafora, and is open to all. I had borrowed a copy of the liturgy in Swedish with helpful cartoon pictures to indicate where you are in the service. The service involves a lot of incense, which the book helpfully informed me symbolizes the wishes and prayers going up to God. For the most part, though (and I am sure I will be criticized for saying so), the service seemed the same as the Catholic and Anglican masses I have attended, just longer! The church (in the picture to the right and in a link on Facebook here) doesn't have pews, but luckily hand-loomed rugs that are ubiquitous at Anafora, and prayer stools. You take your shoes off before entering. Some wicker chairs are also available for those who cannot kneel. Hanging from the ceiling at the front of the church is an ostrich egg, which can be found in all Coptic churches. The egg represents new life. The eye in this church, which is not found in other Coptic churches, seemes to symbolize the eye of God watching over the egg. It's powerful imagery.

Unlike the all-night advent service, there wasn't too much standing in the mass. Actually, the periodic standing was welcome after kneeling on the rugs. The women generally sit on the right and the men on the left. Thus, it wasn't hard to notice that, apart from Father Ismael and the deacon, there were no men present. I assume they were already out working on the farm.

After the service I was presented with a piece of the blessed (but not consecrated) communion bread, a welcome treat after a 2-hour mass with no breakfast! At breakfast afterwards, Father Ismael (the priest-in-training), who is my age, asked if he could have his picture taken with me (see picture to the right). I thought this was funny - wasn't I the one who was the tourist? But it was pointed out to me, again, that Anafora is a meeting place for people from different worlds. Father Ismael is from a small town that does not see a lot of tourists. Being at Anafora is as big an experience from him as it is for me!

I was also pleasantly suprised to see many young Copts (in their 20's) who came to Anafora to "retreat" just like me (see picture of me and Hannah to the right)! In talking to them, I discovered a big difference between us retreatants, however: instead of waiting until they are exhausted and in need of a full relaxation experience like many of us Westerners, these young people come to retreats periodically to "top up" their spiritual batteries before they are running on empty. They have such a relaxed and open attitude to spirituality, it is positively inspiring.

Anafora - December 28

I don't write much about what I am doing here because I am not doing much! I mostly lie around and read, sleep and meditate (picture of my room and terrace here. Note the icon I purchased on the wall to the right). I feel like one of those patients in the old movies who go to the Alps and lie in the sun to recover from whatever is ailing them. This is okay because this is what Anafora is about, I have been told. You make it into whatever you want (except, I suppose, an amusement park or disco). This is why there are no brochures or web sites about the place. They don't want it put into a box and labeled. Anyway, it is too hard to find a label. It is a home for an order of sisters (Catholics would call them "apostolic religious sisters," but the Copts refer to them as "deaconesses"), a working farm, a guest house, a retreat center, the center of a vigorous parish, and much more. Most of all it is a community.

The sisters all started by coming from the Bishop's home parish of El-Qussia to help serve the visitors and some expressed the wish to stay and form a community of sisters. Today there are about 10 sisters and there are more young women who want to move here than there is room for. Apart from their religious fervour, some explanations for the girls' coming is the lack of gainful employment for them in their hometown and the absence of marriagable men due to many migrating for work to other Arab countries. The sisters cook for the community, paint icons that they sell, make organic soaps and jams (fig, hibiscus, bitter orange) and oils and sewn articles that they also sell to support the community. They also run the farm together with farmworkers who also live on the grounds with their families (about 2.5 km in diameter).

In addition to the sisters and guests, there is a parish priest named Father Cherubim (who looks like a baby angel with a beard!), and a priest-in-training, Father Ismael, who is doing his 40-day practical study before being sent to El-Qussia to serve his parish. This parish chose Father Ismael, who is an engineer by training, as a person who they wanted to be trained as a priest and serve them. The 40 day training should be done in a monastary but Anafora also "counts," again showing the special nature of this place in the Coptic church. A couple of Swedish women also live and work there, one of whom helped to found Anafora, and one of whom has recently converted to the Coptic Orthodox church.

Then there are the guests, who come from all over the world, some to seek peace and rest (like myself), and some to come for a night or two on their way between the pyramids and the monastaries of Wadi Natrum (which is just a few kilometers away).

Anafora - December 27

I slept well, only occasionally woken by the braying donkey - something I haven't heard since I lived in Africa in the early 90's.

At breakfast I met Bishop Thomas (picture to the right) - the founder of Anafora. He is around 50 years old and has a special twinkle in his eyes that have seen much suffering but also much joy. He's one of those people who seem to look straight into your soul. Over tea and a breakfast of rice pudding and homemade jams and bread, we chatted about the difference between the Egyptian and Ethiopian Coptic churches (primarily cultural and linguistic), and the origins of the written Coptic language, which I had seen on the gates when I arrived.

In pharaonic Egypt (from about 3,000 BC to 332 when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt), the written language was hieroglyphic but the people spoke Demotic. When the Greeks came they applied the Greek alphabet but there where 6 letters that did not exist in Greek so these were simply added. The Egyptian language, as represented by Coptic today, is the oldest surviving language in history.

The name 'Egypt' is derived from the word Copt. When the Arabs conquered in the 7th century BC they forced most Egyptians (who were all Christians at the time) to become Muslims, and Arabic became the lingua franca of the country, which is called Misr in Arabic. Today the Christian Copts are a minority (about 10%) and suffer considerable discrimination in Egypt because of their refusal to confirm to Islam (although the government claims to be tolerant, there are numerous examples of blatant discrimination which are never resolved equitably, creating periodically serious ethnic tensions). Very few families speak Coptic today but the language is very much alive in the church services - about half of the psalms I heard in the advent service were sung in Coptic (the rest in Arabic). At Anafora children are taught Coptic in "Sunday school."

Journey to Anafora

I wrote these posts while in Anafora (December 26-January 2) but since I did not have/want internet access there, I am posting them all at once.

I decided at the last minute (December 21) to go to Egypt to stay at a "Coptic retreat farm" for a week starting the day after Christmas. I took a chartered flight down, which I thought would be amusing at best and frightening at worst, since these flights are generally full of Swedes bound for merry-making at one of the beach resorts at Sharm el Sheikh or Hurghada. Indeed, this flight was too, but folks were sedated in the post-Christmas feeding frenzy (the people sitting in front of me only had a couple of gin and tonics and wine with lunch) and not everyone seemed bound for a tourist resort. There were others - such as the Arabic-speaking, Swedish passport-carrying gentlemen who sat next to me - who also seemed to be taking advantage of the cheap, direct flights to Cairo.

After 4.5 hours (plus one hour sitting on the plane in Stockholm while the wings were being de-iced), we landed in Cairo. I was picked up in a nice van and driven for a couple of hours, the first of which seemed to be getting out of Cairo through moonlit cityscapes of colonial buildings, laundry lines and minarets.

Eventually we turned off a smaller freeway into a gate with script above it saying "Anafora," but spelled in what looked like Greek letters. We drove around various domed mud and wattle buildings of different sizes. Finally we came down an alley lit with lamps covered in baskets and stopped in front of a building. We were greetted by some women who had dinner waiting for us (a Swedish guy was also picked up): homemade pasta soup, tahini (sesame paste served with every meal, I've discovered), fresh bread, feta cheese, olives and a lovely green mango paste. One of the Swedish residents - Katja - gave us the history of the place, showed me my room, and then took me to watch some of the advent service in the church that takes place every Saturday night before the Coptic Christmas, celebrated on January 6 (our Epiphany). They had a visiting group from Cairo so there were about 100 people standing, singing biblical psalms until 4 a.m. It was very dark, only lit by candles so it was difficult to notice anything about the church except that the outside form reminds one of a cave (below is a picture taken in the morning). Fell asleep to the sound of mosquitos buzzing outside my net and a donkey braying somewhere in the distance...