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Nearly every Wednesday evening, Anba Shenouda III, the one-hundred-seventeenthpope of Alexandria and patriarch of the See of Saint Mark of Egypt, the NearEast, and All Africa, conducts one of the Middle East's largest ChristianBible studies for about 5,000 Orthodox followers who crowd into Saint Mark's,the ornate Coptic cathedral near the center of Cairo.

During one session on a cool spring evening, Shenouda, whose 5 million CopticOrthodox believers make up the largest group of Christians in the MiddleEast, sat at a large table near the cathedral's altar and taught from Psalm119:11, "I have hidden your Word in my heart." He explained: "God loves thatwe store good things in our hearts. Store in your heart and mind and spiritwhat will be good for you. We forget our promises to God. Store them in yourheart. Write them down." Later, during a question-and-answer session, Shenoudadispensed fatherly advice, telling one wife-seeking young Egyptian, "Notevery girl you love you propose to."

After the two-hour session, the 74-year-old patriarch, who began his ministryin 1939 as a Sunday-school teacher, gathered his flowing black robes andprocessed out a side door with more than a dozen bishops in his wake. Thecrowd surged forward, expressing their deep affection for Shenouda by touchinganything he had touched and then kissing their own hands.

MONASTIC REVIVAL: Egypt's Copts, representing at best 8 to 10 percentof the country's 64.8 million people, are gaining a higher visibilityinternationally as an endangered religious group. But far less attentionhas been focused on the revival, renewal, and new growth under way not onlyin the Orthodox church, but also among Coptic Catholics and Coptic evangelicals.

Although Christians in the Middle East have been hard hit by emigration ofbelievers and intermarriage with Muslims, growth does occur. Among Christiansin Egypt, Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, and Orthodox are attractingsignificantly more members and starting new churches.

Speaking of ministry opportunities in Egypt, Menes Abdul Noor, a leadingPresbyterian pastor, said, "I think God always defeats our lack of faith.God wants to do something great, and we're not as fast as he's planning forus."

The most visible evidence of the Coptic church's emergent vitality is foundin its most ancient setting, the desert monasteries, especially in Wadi Natrun,a large oasis 60 miles northwest of Cairo.

Birthed in the harsh deserts, Egyptian monasticism reached its zenith inthe seventh century when monks numbered about 5,000. The monasteries begana slow decline largely due to Arab-Islamic rule, starting with the conquestin 642. By the 1970s, only about 200 monks and 150 nuns remained. Yet underShenouda's leadership, the decline has been reversed.

In September 1981, then President Anwar Sadat launched a crackdown on religiousfanaticism, arresting radical Muslims and deposing Pope Shenouda, who wasbanished under house arrest to the monastery of Saint Bishoy for three anda half years. During confinement, he set about restoring the monasteriesand advancing a revival of monastic vocations, which began under Coptic PopeKyrillos.

Today, about 1,110 monks and 800 nuns populate the monasteries. Other monasterieshave been planted in Australia, and one also exists in California's MojaveDesert. An overflow of initiates is causing church leaders to be more selective.Monks today are taking their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, leavingbehind prosperous careers. But they then use their skills in accounting,engineering, finance, or medicine to help the monasteries become self-supporting.

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August 11 1997, Vol. 41, No. 9