What impact will the formation of the Church of True Orthodox Christians have on the Coptic Orthodox Church, asks Rehab Saad The ordination, on 2 July, of Max Michel as Archbishop Mar Maximus Youhanna of the St Athanasius Orthodox Eparchy of Egypt and the Middle East by the Most Reverend Melchizedek, head of the metropolitans of the American Diaspora of True Orthodox Christians, raises a number of questions for the Coptic Orthodox Church. The roots of Max Michel's new church were laid in 1992, when he established the St Athanasius Foundation, headquartered in Muqattam, Cairo. Five years ago he set up the St Athanasius Society, also based in Muqattam. Maximus has a turbulent history with the Coptic Orthodox Church. He graduated from the Clerical College of the Coptic Orthodox Church in 1973, but in May 1976 -- while serving as a deacon at St Mina Church in Shubra, Cairo -- he was dismissed following a conflict with Kamal Habib (later to become Anba Beimen). Maximus then started to hold private services outside the church, and got married. He travelled to the US where he studied orthodox theology at St Elias School in Nebraska, and was ordained a bishop in 1996. So what prompted the timing of Michel's announcement that he was now the archbishop of the True Orthodox Christian Church? Was it the absence from Egypt of , who was in Germany and the US for medical treatment? Did the government give him a green light to announce his church in an attempt to distract Egypt's Copts from domestic problems? And does the new church constitute a threat to the Coptic Orthodox Church? In his first public appearance since returning to Egypt, said in a press conference that the Coptic Church has faced many problems in its 20 centuries of history, far more complicated than that posed by Michel. "For 20 years he has been preaching in Muqattam," said the pope, "and this did not harm the church." Amr Elchoubaki, a political expert at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, says the Coptic Church is unlikely to face any threats as long as Pope Shenouda is at helm. "However," he stressed, "like any institution, religious or civil, that has remained unchanged for a long time and is ruled in a centralised way, the absence of a charismatic leader like Pope Shenouda opens the door for a dissent." While Elchoubaki was not surprised that the announcement came in the absence of the pope, he also believes that it reflects underlying tensions within the church. Copts, he says, face many social problems, and the church has shown itself unwilling to move on issues like divorce. This lack of movement, he argues, over troubled conditions, is bound to lead to the occasional surfacing of dissent. Political researcher Samir Morcos is less sanguine about the threats facing the Coptic Orthodox Church. "The point is that this entity [the new church] was announced in the US where laws are relatively easy and any number of people, few or many, can establish a sect. But the church to which Maximus belongs can expand its activities outside the borders of the US. When that church, with its American religious authority, begins to be active in Egypt then the whole project develops missionary overtones." He also said that in 1998 a new law was passed in the US, "religious freedom in the world", which essentially gave the US the right to investigate and examine religious freedoms throughout the world. The law was designed to be applied outside the US. "Thus, if a sect is governed by an American legal authority but its activity extends to Egypt, it will undoubtedly make use of that law," Morcos said. "If anybody or any religious sect is exposed to that entity in Egypt, it [the entity] has the full right to resort to the US Embassy in Cairo," he added, stressing that such an entity -- its legal authority and US legitimacy on one side and the US law on religious freedom on the other -- would constitute a real problem. "We shouldn't just deal with the issue as a religious problem. The Coptic Church is more than just a religious entity. It is a national church; it is like Al-Azhar and other big institutions, that has a role to play facing imperialism and missionaries," says Morcos. Elchoubaki is not convinced by recent press speculation that the government somehow played a role in the creation of the new church, though he does not discount the possibility that the state might benefit from the situation. "There might be a kind of ebb and flow in the relationship between Copts and the government but at the end of the day both sides know they can meet and resolve conflicts. The government finds it more comfortable to deal with Pope Shenouda and a unified church, to deal with Copts as a single block than as a fragmented entity," says Elchoubaki. According to , the Ministry of Interior had adopted a neutral attitude to Maximus. Elchoubaki believes the government will deal with the new church in the same way it deals with most things. It will not confront him, nor will it support him: "The government will not stop him but will not allow the church to expand. They will not approve the building of churches or the creation of parishes. They will keep him as he is, in Muqattam."
