Learning to Listen in Cairo

Interfaith Team 2026

2 hours ago

3 min read

Ten people of various faiths, all living in Ireland, spend a week in Cairo. Here, one of the team leaders reports from the opening day of the 'Learning Journey' at The Centre for Christian Muslim Understanding and Partnership (CCMUP).

Many of you will be aware of this visit, which has been worked towards and anticipated for approximately a year. For those who are curious, here is a little information and some insights on the journey to date. A week-long Inter Faith Learning Pilgrimage, organised by the Church of Ireland's Inter Faith Working Group with Church Mission Society Ireland, is underway in Cairo. The team consists of ten people — Christians and Muslims — all living in Ireland.

The packed programme includes a 'Learning Journey' organised and overseen by the CCMUP. The pilgrimage is making time to take in the main tourist sites, including the Pyramids and Sphinx, the Grand Museum (designed by an Irish architect), plus to visit Alexandria and a Coptic church and monastery, and to meet with several senior religious leaders.

The team is staying in All Saints Garden Conference Centre, opposite All Saints Cathedral in Zamalek. On our second evening a dinner was kindly hosted by the Archbishop of the Episcopal Province of Alexandria, Rt Rev Samy Fawzy, and his wife Madline in their family home.

The first day of this Journey of Learning included four lectures: on the Unity of God as understood in Islam; on God as Trinity and Unity as understood in Christianity; on Mercy and Forgiveness as understood in Islam; and on Mercy and Forgiveness as understood in Christianity. The first was given by Dr Amr Abdel-Hamid Ragheb El-Shaal, Religious Researcher and Fatwa Emissary at Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, whose PhD in Islamic Dawah is from Al-Azhar University. The second was given by Dr. Shady Anis, Dean of the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Egypt, whose PhD in Systematic and Historical Theology is from the University of Cambridge, and who is Ecumenical Representative at the Council of Churches of Egypt and the Middle East. The third was by Prof Dr Ismail Abdullah, Head of the Department of Islamic Studies in Foreign Languages, Al-Azhar University, and Programme Coordinator for the Learning Journey at CCMUP. The fourth was by Archbishop Mouneer H. Anis, Archbishop Emeritus of Alexandria and Director of CCMUP.

During the first day, Mr Adrian Cristea, Executive Officer of the Dublin City Interfaith Forum, presented copies of the Dublin City Inter Faith Charter to Dr Amr Abdel-Hamid Ragheb El-Shaal and Archbishop Mouneer H. Anis. The Charter is soon to celebrate the milestone of the ten-year anniversary since its launch in December 2026.

Please pray for us:

For safety in travel and throughout our week in Cairo, and for good health and energy for a full programme.
For listening hearts — that we would be quick to listen and slow to speak.
For the relationships being built: with Archbishop Samy and his family, with the lecturers at CCMUP, with the religious leaders we are meeting, and with one another as a team of ten.
For Archbishop Mouneer and all at CCMUP, that their work of Christian-Muslim understanding would continue to bear fruit in Egypt and beyond.
For those we meet who are carrying heavy burdens, especially displaced and refugee families, that they would know they are not forgotten.
And for ourselves as we return home — that what we learn here would not stay in a notebook, but shape how we love and reach out to our neighbours in Ireland.

"The Episcopal-Anglican Diocese of Egypt has played a pivotal role in advancing interfaith dialogue and peace… In 2022, this longstanding cooperation was institutionalized with the founding of the Centre of Christian-Muslim Understanding and Partnership (CCMUP)."

https://ccmup.org/en/home-page/The Learning Journey programme.