The congregation of the church of al-Amir Tadros (St Theodore) in Gardenia City Compound in the east Cairo suburb of Nasr City are in a bitter land dispute with the owners of the residential compound, the Defence Ministry.
The story of the church goes back a few years when the first phase of the residential development was officially opened by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi. The President asked the owner and developers: “Where is the church?” Upon the reply that there was no church, the President said it was not acceptable that any new development would include no church, and demanded that land should be allocated for one in Gardenia City compound.
Land was indeed allocated for a church in Gardenia, but it was only an area of 250sq.m located at the lower tip of a hillside plateau. According to building regulations, the church was built on a mere 144sq.m, and could accommodate no more than some 250 worshippers. As future phases of the development were built, the number of Copts swelled to 2,200 families, that is a congregation of some 9,000 members.
Seeing that the Gardenia church had become severely overcrowded, the Church officials wrote in May 2021 to the Defence Ministry, the owner of the land, then again in September 2023 to the presidential aide in charge of urban planning, requesting the allocation of another 5,500sq.m to the Church. The Church explained it needed to expand because of the great rise in the number of the congregation, detailing its building plans. The area requested represented the full area of the plateau which included no buildings; the church was built at its lowest tip and the extension of the land was on much higher ground. The road going around the plateau was lower than the higher ground, so the plateau could only be accessed at its lowest end through the church gate. Again, there was no official reply, despite oral pledges to approve the allocation of the plateau land to the Church. The Church saw this pledge as credible, given the well-established legal principle that prevails in property dealings or disputes that “the direct neighbour is entitled to priority status in resolving property right issues”.
On Sunday 12 May 2024, right after Mass, a number of strangers visited the church priest, claiming they needed to access the plateau land since they had had it allocated for them to build a recreational project that included coffee shops, restaurants, and playgrounds. The priests, Fr Marcos and Fr Mina, informed the Bishop, Anba Eclimondes of Eastern Nasr City and Almaza, who directly called the relevant authorities to discuss the matter. The strangers were denied access to the land, and left.
On Thursday 16 May, and despite continued talks between the Bishop and the authorities, and despite there being no resolution reached regarding the land or the two official requests the Church had made to have the land allocated for church expansion while paying all necessary allocation dues; the congregation was stunned to discover that a bulldozer sent by the alleged investors was attempting to access the disputed land through the church gate. Scores of congregation members swiftly gathered to confront the bulldozer, blocking its way, many repeatedly praying “Kyrie Eleison” (Lord, have mercy). Others parked their cars on the road surrounding the plateau, to hinder any attempted entry by the bulldozer into the land from any other point. Bishop Eclimondes and the priests contacted the relevant authorities who then ordered the bulldozer off.
The Bishop submitted to the authorities copies of the two official requests by the Church for land allocation. Together with the priests and the congregation, they gathered signatures to a SOS petition which they sent to President Sisi, explaining their predicament and their dire need for a larger church, the applications they had submitted for the land adjacent to the church to be allocated to them, the oral promises they had been given to this effect, and citing the events that had taken place since 12 May.
They reminded President Sisi that the church was built in Gardenia City compound first and foremost in response to his own demand that the compound should include a place of worship for Christians just as it included places of worship for Muslims.
The following day, Friday 17 May, Anba Eclimondes celebrated Mass at the church in Gardenia. He told the congregation that he was untiringly striving for the right of their church to the adjacent land, citing their legal priority to it as the only adjacent neighbour. He said he had presented a new memorandum to that effect to the authorities, insisting that the Church would pay all dues required for land allocation. He said he had a meeting scheduled the following day with the officials responsible in the Defence Ministry.
The Bishop affirmed his confidence that the matter would be resolved in favour of the Church.
Watani International
17 May 2024
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