“As an Arab-Christian and an Egyptian (‘Coptic’) Catholic, I’ve always been frustrated about just how little known my faith community is,” expressed Daniel Nour in an SBS two-part documentary ‘Christians Like Us’1.
“I’ve always been aware of this lack of visibility, of just how little known the lived faith experience of Arab Christians is in this country…. Indeed, Arab Christianity is one of the richest and most ancient expressions of the church; its traditions have remained largely unchanged since its conception in the Middle East over 2000 years ago.
What is Arab Christianity? Well, in short, it’s Christianity itself. Jesus was a brown-skinned Hebrew from the Middle Eastern town of Nazareth. The disciples, themselves Middle Easterners, traveled to the Middle East and East Africa after Christ’s ascension. Peter traveled to Turkey; Saint Mark to Egypt, Matthew to Ethiopia, Thomas went as far as India. These historical figures produced the gospels, spread the teachings of Jesus, and established the first churches, giving birth to the largest religion in the history of the world.”
The community life of Arab Christians – Maronites, Catholics, Copts, Jacobites (Syrian Orothodox), Chaldeans, Nestorians – is vibrant and glowing. After mass, the men in our church slap each other on the backs and laugh loudly. The women peck each other’s cheeks and laugh at their husbands. When the priest emerges exhausted from two long masses (the early morning mass in Coptic and Arabic and a second in Coptic as well as English), we kiss his hand and then immediately launch into a barrage of Arab-style requests and complaints:
‘Why haven’t you come to our house to bless it yet?’
‘Pray for my son: he’s old and single!’
‘When is the church picnic and why don’t we buy a barbecue for the congregation?’
Daniel Nour adds, “It’s this sense of community which enables our charity services: country-wide, Arab-Christians run community food trucks, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, and overseas aid programs. Maronites on Mission, Coptic Orthodox Community Outreach Services (COCOS), and the ‘Works of Mercy’ ministry, which is run by an assortment of Arab Christians, are just some which come to mind.
The Islamic Council of Victoria2 attests that “Most Arab Australians are Christian, though this varies by region. In many communities, Muslim and Christian Arabs live side by side with each other and with non-Arab religious communities.”
Hundreds of Australians were moved to reach into their pockets to support the printing of the first full Bible Commentary written by Arabs in Arabic, which was launched in Merrylands, Sydney, on Sunday, March 17, 2019. Leading lights of the Arabic church took ten years to complete the Arabic Contemporary Bible Commentary (ACBC), complete with topical articles, in response to requests from church leaders and believers across the Arab world.3
2 https://www.icv.org.au/about/about-islam-overview/islam-faq/
4 https://www.catholicweekly.com.au/melkites-mark-130-year-milestone-in-australia/
