The Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church is one church with two identities.
Located in San Diego, the church is home to both an English- and an Arabic-speaking Middle Eastern congregation. The Rev. Dr. Mofid Wasef serves on the staff of both congregations.
“I call it the holy place,” said Sultan,* a young man from Eritrea who came to St. Andrew’s Refugee Services (StARS) hoping to access education through the Unaccompanied Youth Bridging Program, a specialized initiative designed to assist young refugees in Egypt without a parent or guardian. Since he was here with his family, he was ineligible to enroll. But he was persistent, eventually landing a job as a teaching assistant in the program. Over the years, he has become a leader among the staff at StARS and now works as a program assistant in the Refugee Legal Aid Program, and as a StARS ambassador, meeting with visitors and planning events.
For nearly three decades the Synod of the Covenant (Michigan and Ohio) has continued to participate in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Mission to the USA program. The synod began participating in the effort which links congregations in the synod with mission partners including international church leaders as well as both clergy and lay leaders in 1989.
Terrorists attacked Christians last Friday in Egypt’s western desert, near Minya, initially killing 28 and injuring 23. As of today, the death count has risen to 35. The terrorists, dressed in military fatigues, included 8-10 men who attacked a tourist bus traveling to St. Samuel the Confessor Monastery in Samalout.
The brutal attacks on two churches in Alexandria and Tanta on Palm Sunday with more than 40 victims are not the first attacks on Christians in Egypt. In January, the so-called Islamic State declared threat on Coptic Christians and killed eight. In December 2016, a blast at the Cathedral in Cairo killed 30 people.
Two Orthodox Coptic churches were the subject of suicide bombings on Palm Sunday, April 9, killing 44 and wounding 126. The first attack occurred at St. George’s church in Tanta, about 50 miles north of Cairo. The second occurred at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Alexandria, on the Mediterranean coast.
Like many seekers before him, the Rev. Amir Tawadrous came to American shores on a journey of discovery. Born and raised in Upper Egypt, Tawadrous had also lived with his family in France for two years before returning to Egypt to finish his Bachelor’s degree and later his Master of Divinity degree.
After 18 days of travel, hundreds of miles and dozens of experiences, six Egyptian Presbyterian leaders left the U.S. with a new understanding, appreciation and sense of solidarity with what they refer to as “the mother church.”
In May, Presbyterian World Mission received news of the deaths of two career Presbyterian missionaries in the Middle East, each with more than 40 years of service.
