The new Australian Christian Family Association (ACFA) is a not-for-profit organisation formed to address the growing need of Coptic Christians in Australia for counselling. Its launch last month comes after 39 years of Coptic presence in Australia, a delay that its chairman, Gigi George, puts down to the reluctance of the Coptic community to open up.
“We’ve tried it so many times in the past, but it always failed,” she says.
ACFA’s 44 counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers have two goals: first to make members of the Coptic community aware of issues they either may not know about or shy away from, and second to provide family and individual counselling as well as treatment for psychological issues.
The launch was held at St Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church in Sydney under the auspices of the Brighter Future Family Association (BFFA). BFFA is another not-for-profit Coptic organisation in Australia that aims at increasing of awareness Copts of their rights in the country and encouraging them to take part in decision making in various societal and political fields.
Seeking help
Living in a multicultural society such as Australia which hosts a wide variety of sects, cultures, and religions, members of the Coptic community face challenges in keeping their church beliefs and values down the generations. With everyday encounters, youth become more involved with different cultures and are challenged in putting their faith to practise in important life decisions.
“Our community is a closed kind of community in that they don’t take their secrets or issues outside the family or the father [priest] concerned,” George says. “In the beginning a case is always dealt with as a family or an individual. They will try to deal with it on their own, and only when it becomes greater and more problematic incidents do they take it to the Reverend Fathers. The Reverend Fathers actually try to resolve the issue but unfortunately they aren’t always able to because they are inundated with information and a whole host of people running to them thinking that they will put matters straight.”
Protecting confidentiality
Father Jonathan Ishak of St Mark’s agrees that the organisation will help lift some of the counselling pressure off Coptic priests. He stresses the importance of protecting the confidentiality of clients, and George explains that ACFA aims to provide counselling techniques that assure confidentiality. In addition to live counselling that guarantees to protect the identity of the client, there is also Internet counselling and telephone counselling where the client can remain anonymous.
Young people in Australia are not the only surfers in the sea of multiculturalism, since their parents have also had their share of battling waves of opposing values and cultural beliefs that have almost and sometimes actually overturned their ships through life and shattered their families.
“When a Christian family comes to Australia there is a little bit of a transition period of transforming their life to be Egyptian and Australian at that same time, and in that there is somewhat a crisis. I think that lately the church has experienced a lot of divorces and a lot of separations and a lot of children unfortunately ceasing to attend church and not put their Christian values before cultural value. So I think ACFA will help tell people that the community has all sorts of exiles,” says Christine Silwanis, a member of the congregation of St Mark’s.
Outside factors
Awareness and dealing with drugs, alcohol, gambling, self esteem, anxiety, depression, self harm, phobias anorexia, panic attacks, anger, stress and conflict resolution are only some of the issues addressed by ACFA. According to David Clarke a member of the Legislative Council and guest of honour at the opening, there are external factors affecting the unity of Christian families in Australia.
These factors include secularists who refute God’s presence and attack the Christian foundations of Australia by trying to remove Christian symbols from the community and from schools, as well as groups aimed at defeating Christian beliefs and Church foundations by promoting gay marriages and homosexuality to the extent of allowing drawings in children’s books that show two mothers or two fathers. Third, Mr Clarke said, Islamic fundamentalists also posed a danger to the Church with their violent threats and agenda of domination.
Such not-for-profit organisations as BFFA and ACFA help Copts in Australia protect their rights and fight such overwhelming and opposing forces.
Fighting their cause
“The Brighter Family Future Association was formed to bring Middle Eastern Christians together to network among each other and to learn and grow from each other so as to increase the influence and their power in Australia to fight their cause both in Australia and in the Middle East.” Said Naji Najjar, a counsellor on Bankstown city council. ACFA, on the other hand, will help the community cope with social struggles that families and individuals face on a daily basis.
“I think it is a great initiative by the Coptic community because the family is the centre of Australian life.” Clarke said. “Family life is what our nation is built upon. We have strong family, then we have a strong and healthy nation, and any organisation such as ACFA that is going to devote itself to assisting people in family life then I think it is something to be applauded and to be strongly supported.”
ACFA has eight board members and more and more people are beginning to join as volunteers. Monda Joseph, who is among the youngest of the ACFA members and is currently studying for a Master’s Degree in psychology, thinks ACFA will play an important role in addressing the needs of teenagers and young people facing major life problems.
Great change
In his speech BFFA chairman Nasser Sidrak said Copts did not need large numbers to bring about effective changes, and small groups had made great changes in history. He encouraged Copts to act even if they were small in number and not to accept any laws imposed on them that could challenge their beliefs and have a negative effect on them.
He gave an example of the humanist group in the United States that managed to change the system although they numbered only seven per cent of the population. “They believed that man didn’t need God and so this small, minority group decided to change the whole system by challenging the Creation. They made their challenge in court and went on to challenge everything. They had an agenda and they had a plan, and in just a few years they managed to change the school system, the law system, the education system and the political system—the whole system.” Sidrak said.