For the Sake of Marguirguis

Abstract

Abstract This contribution endeavors to show that building and administrating Coptic charitable associations according to the laws of the Egyptian Ministry of Social Affairs (mosa) does not mean allying with or challenging one of the two institutions that claim control over the Coptic Christian ethics of giving in Egypt: the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate and the Egyptian government. Especially since my interlocutors are simultaneously integral subjects of the waqf properties (endowments, i.e. the parishes) administered by the institutional Church, they are less interested in negotiating a true definition of such a practice. Beyond the power dynamics that have played out over the orthodoxy of religious practices and that are intensively analyzed in existing literature, I argue that maintaining relations with the two official entities that govern Christian charity in Egypt invites thinking about interactions developed within the context of a heavenly community. Instead of focusing on the competition of who holds and authorizes the better form of the Coptic Christian tradition of khidma (service), I suggest that the interactions with this divine community are sometimes intertwined with overlooked invisible and inaudible meanings of dissent and activism among members of the largest Christian minority in the Middle East.