The World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee, in a minute, expressed concern for the right and title to St Catherine’s Monastery, an autonomous monastic community spiritually connected with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, located at the foot of Mount Sinai in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt.
Built between 548 and 565 by order of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, it was recognized as a World Heritage site in 2002.
“Following a history since 2012 of actual or threatened litigation by Egyptian government authorities claiming ownership of sites belonging to the monastery, and despite constructive negotiations subsequently undertaken between the parties, on 28 May 2025 a court decision was issued recognizing the Egyptian state as the owner of all parts of the site, including the Holy Monastery itself,” reads the minute. “Consequently, the monks are now tenants in their monastery, which has been operating without interruption for 1,500 years.”
The presence of the monks in the monastery is precarious since they remain in the monastery on the basis of an annual residence permit, which the Egyptian authorities may decide not to renew at any time, notes the minute.
In view of the forthcoming meetings of the 6th World Conference on Faith and Order in Egypt, the WCC central committee minute asks the WCC general secretary to write a formal letter to the president of Egypt expressing the WCC’s concern about this matter, and to call for a clear and binding agreement recognizing the Holy Monastery’s right and title to the site in perpetuity.
The minute also calls on the WCC general secretary to engage with UNESCO for its intervention for the protection of the Holy Monastery—and its Christian monastic character—as a World Heritage Site.
The WCC central committee is convening 18-24 June in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Source: oikoumene.org
