Coptic Orthodox Sunday School Movement
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The Sunday School Movement (Arabic: مدارس الاحد) is a catechetical movement within the Coptic Orthodox Church. It was founded in the early 20th century, in an effort to spread Oriental Orthodox theological education among the laity of the Coptic Orthodox Church, combating foreign missionary efforts orchestrated in 19th century Egypt by the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England, and numerous American-protestant movements.
Early Catechetical Education
The early Church of Alexandria, the fore-barer of the Coptic Church, was well renowned for its catechetical education. The Catechetical School of Alexandria was originally founded as a tool for educating new Christian converts. As adult conversions became scarce and more children were born into the faith the school evolved into a Theological Seminary, with catechism being performed on a more personal level over the childhood and lifetime of the believer. In the late middle ages the Islamic system of Kuttabs was unofficially adopted by the Church. Much like mosques did, churches began operating small educational institutions which taught both secular and religious matters.[1][2] This system was ineffective as it relied mostly on the rote memorization of stories, verses, and praises, and paid no attention to actual comprehension of theological concepts. The low quality of Christian education coupled with harsh waves of persecution under Mamluk and Ottoman rule, resulted in centuries of darkness for the Coptic Church. Thus, at the start of the 19th century the majority of the clergy and congregation of the Coptic Church were theologically illiterate.[3]
Western Missions
The first European missionaries to show up in Egypt were Roman Catholics. During the Fifth Crusade, Saint Francis of Assisi had visited Egypt in hopes of converting its Sultan. Later, in the 1600s, Capuchins and Franciscans began establishing missions in Ottoman Egypt, under a special Austrian-Hungarian treaty of religious protection. Although the success of these missions was limited, the Coptic Church proved ineffective in combating them, and the population of Coptic Catholics continued to increase slowly. By the reign of Pope John XVIII (1769-1796) the presence of these Catholics finally began putting pressure on the Coptic Church with regards to issues of conversion and mixed-marriages.[4]
Events at the start of the 19th century, such as the French Expedition to Egypt, and the rise of Muhammad Ali, lead to a further increase in European influence and presence in Egypt. Muhammad Ali sought to establish an independent nation state in Egypt, similar to those of Western Europe. To achieve this mission he opened the country up to foreign interests in hopes of benefiting from their expertise in modernizing the Egyptian economy, military, bureaucracy, and education system.[5] With the establishment of foreign schools, came foreign missionaries who at first attempted to proselytize to the general population. However, finding resistance from the government and Islamic institutions, they decided to focus only on the Coptic Christians. One of the earliest groups, the Church Missionary Society (CMS), a British Protestant Evangelistic Society arrived in Egypt in the 1820s. Unlike the Catholics who had established their own Church in Egypt parallel to the Coptic Church, the CMS aimed to change the Coptic Church from within. In addition to distributing Arabic Bibles and tracts, the society also founded a Coptic Seminary in 1843, aimed to educate the Coptic clergy and spread the missionaries' beliefs to them. Although the mission was tolerated by Pope Peter VII, the clergy were suspicious of the mission and did not enroll in its seminary, which ended up shutting down by 1848.[4][5]
In 1854 American missionaries began arriving in Egypt. Rather than focusing on the clergy, they chose to center their focus on the younger generations. They began on building schools and publishing new Arabic translations of the Bible. By 1878, they had established more than 35 schools, and by 1899 they had formed the American Presbyterian Synod of the Nile.[4] The American Presbyterian Mission also had begun running "Sabbath (Sunday) Schools" in order to target and proselytize to children using illustrated books, pictures, and the question and answer method of catechism. Following suite, many of the other missions began running their own Sunday Schools. By the year 1878, there were around 4,378 children attending the various denomination Sunday School programs; the majority of these children were Copts.[6]