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Dr.. Hossam Badrawi writes: On the “Dreamers of Tomorrow” café: an interview with Bishop Mounir Hanna (1)
After the end of a round table to discuss citizenship and freedom of belief at the headquarters of the “Episcopal Church” in the presence of the envoy of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Lord “Ahmed of Wimbledon”, the minister in charge of the matter, the Kingdom’s ambassador to Egypt, the representative of the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, and many respected Egyptian public figures, representatives of churches and ambassadors, approached Mona Mounir Hanna, Metropolitan of the Episcopal Church in Egypt and North Africa, and he said to me: I read your last article on culture and religion, and I want to tell you: Hand over your pen, your most correct thought, and your gentle diplomatic style.
The article was talking about the necessity of addressing religious discourse by purifying the heritage of the like, over the years of additions and interpretations, and not to impart halos of sanctification to any human act, for God alone is sacred, and so is His book.
And because I know Dr. Munir Hanna as an enlightened and open-minded bishop, I was not surprised, but I felt a desire to catch up with him to discuss the content, so I said to him: Do you agree with me in his opinion?
He said: I agree with you and with the statement of the strategy announced by the Islamic countries in Dakar in 1991, which I referred to in the article that there is no holiness except for God.
He added, “Indeed, in my opinion, religious discourse is a product of thought. Therefore, thought must be renewed and reformed first. As a church, we went through all of this until the era of reform came in which we got rid of traditional matters that contradict the teachings of Christ. We had violence and burning for reformers, but In the end, reform won, and it is also time for another review in light of the renewed human changes.
His words as a clergyman warmed my heart and made me feel comfortable to hear more, so I said to him: I heard that there was a celebration in the church last year about intellectual reforms in the church, so what was the matter?
He said: Many churches celebrated the five hundredth anniversary of the reform movement, which was started by the Catholic monk Martin Luther, who hoped that the church would reform some of the wrong ideas and practices that occurred in the church at that time, but the culture of self-criticism was not acceptable at that time, and also the change of The prevailing thought is a very difficult matter. Therefore, the Catholic Church rejected the ideas of Martin Luther and did not try to start a constructive dialogue with him in favor of the unity of the Church. This in turn led to the division of the Church, and even led to the religious wars in Europe, which lasted from 1524 until 1648 AD.
I said: More than a century of religious wars took place before the agreement! Was the consensus real, or was it superficial under the fire of division? And what is the situation now?
He said: The wonderful and surprising thing that deserves respect and appreciation is that Pope Francis, who is the Pope of the Catholic Church in the world, went to Sweden to celebrate with the Lutheran Church the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. This is a wonderful civilized position from the Catholic Church that shows the transformation
There is no doubt that this reform led to a radical change in Europe in terms of thought and culture, and this led to the renaissance of modern Europe.
I told him while I was in my mind comparing myself and myself between the state of Europe and ours: What are the lessons that Europe learned from this?
He said: The lessons we learned can be summed up in two things, first: to welcome self-criticism and not view it as a threat to our faith and beliefs, and to engage in dialogue with those who criticize in a civilized way. Second: We are in constant need to review the inherited practices to which we are accustomed (heritage) without compromising the constants of faith and belief, which means “reformation and the word reform in English is formation.” We always need to correct our course if there is a deviation in our ideas and culture or If changes and developments take place in our world that require us to adapt and adapt, without compromising the constants of our faith and belief that achieve God’s goal of creating man.
On the “Dreamers of Tomorrow” café, an interview with Bishop Mounir Hanna (2)
We need to humble ourselves and examine ourselves, whether at the personal level or at the level of society as a whole, that is, we need continuous reform
I told him, happy with what I hear from him, sad about some of our conditions: We need to accept reformers and innovators in our society, but we need to welcome them and give them the space through which they present their opinions, so that we listen to them and engage in dialogue with them until we reach what benefits society.
He said: My friend, the history of the Reformation in the Church of England, or as it is called today, the Anglican Episcopal Church, teaches us that the resistance of reformers inevitably leads to an increase in the number of believers with their reformist ideas.
We know that Queen Mary, who rose to the throne of England, was opposed to the reform carried out by the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer and other bishops, so she burned them with fire in the city of Oxford. That the thought of these reformers must be correct, because they were ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of this thought, so the people adhered to this new thought, and thus the reform spread, in England, despite the burning of the reformers, I told him emphasizing his words: I agree with you, and the same applies On all religions, religion has often been used to control minds away from its essence, and all religions have one essence, affection, love and tolerance among humans. And its application to reality, and there may be a dispute about whether this whole heritage is sacred that must be adhered to, or texts and jurisprudence related to its ancient times and places, we treat it as a history that conveys to us a human experience that is subject to criticism, denial, modification and development in proportion to the The time, place, and circumstances specific to each era, so the renewal of religious discourse does not include religion itself, but all religions. I do not see a difference between the extremists of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Sometimes I think they speak the same language and they might be A
Closeness to some of those who are close to the moderate religion that calls for good, peace and respect for the human soul.
Bishop Munir said: I see that we are dealing with the issue of renewing religious discourse in general in an illogical way, for religious discourse is nothing but the product or fruit of the prevailing thought. He will be tolerant and prudent.
History says this clearly. History says that the need for intellectual reform will inevitably lead to a renewal of religious discourse, in a manner appropriate to the era in which we live, without this reducing the constants and the essence of faith or disregarding the principles and ethics of our society. I said: I agree with you, and renewal of thought expands to renewal Social and political discourse, which should not use the vocabulary of what it wants to change in religious discourse when it serves its purposes in government, said smiling as if warning me: I warn you, my friend, that history says that reformers and innovators were not welcomed by the Church in the dark ages of Europe, I said: So are the reformers And the renovators in Islamic history, Ibn Rushd burned his books even though his ideas were the cause of the renaissance of Europe, and in the recent era I remember what Imam Muhammad Abdo, Dr. Taha Hussein and others who used the mind to purify the inherited heritage to be a support for civilization and not an obstacle to renewal.
He said: I repeat to you what we need is to welcome and encourage reformers and innovators, because it will lead to intellectual and societal reform without causing those divisions that occurred in Europe five hundred years ago, and this is what we need today.
I said: Discussing with you opens the mind and makes the heart happy, and I thank you for inviting me to a symposium in which there is a lot of thought, sophistication and knowledge.
