September 26, is the due date of deadline set by the Law of Construction and Restoration of Churches to submit churches legal papers to the formed Ministerial Committee to legalize the unlicensed churches. The churches are working on presenting papers that prove holding liturgies in the churches and services buildings for at least three years.
HH Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the see of St. Mark, revealed in a television interview yesterday, the existence of two thousand churches and a service building awaiting for legalization based on the new church law, and its’ papers will be submitted to the ministerial committee formed for this purpose.
The head of the crisis committee at the Holy Synod, Anba Beyman, said that HH Pope Tawadros assigned Anba Elaryoun, Bishop of Western Alexandria, to head the committee responsible for the legalization of the churches, as he worked as a lawyer before monasticism, which enables the church to benefit from his experience in this regard. Explaining that their is about 19 churches in the Diocese of Qus and Naqada, including only three licensed churches. The 16 other churches do not have official papers, including six ancient churches officially registered in the Ministry of Antiquities.
His Grace stressed that unlicensed churches are not built secretly or by force but some of these churches are ancient and built before the law issuance and before the establishment of the Egyptian state in its current form, and the non-compliance of the legal papers occurred because of the strict bureaucracy, and the absence of a law to build churches. Throughout the last period, the whole file was in the hands of Police, which intervened in churches building permit and process.
