WCC Demands 'Protection' for St. Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai

JOHANNESBURG — On June 24, 2025, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee, meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, passed a minute expressing grave concern over Egypt’s actions threatening St. Catherine’s Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Built between 548 and 565 by Emperor Justinian I, the monastery, located at Mount Sinai, Egypt, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monasteries.

A May 28, 2025, Egyptian court ruling declared the state as the owner of the monastery’s lands, reducing its monks to tenants with precarious annual permits. Despite negotiations since 2012, the decision jeopardizes the site’s future.

The WCC's Central Committee urged the General Secretary to:

• "Write a formal letter to the President of Egypt expressing the World Council of Churches’ concern about this matter, and calling for a clear and binding agreement recognizing the Holy Monastery’s right and title to the site in perpetuity, and guaranteeing protection of the religious life and duties of the monastic community."
• "Engage with UNESCO for its intervention for the protection of the Holy Monastery as a World Heritage Site, and of its Christian monastic character."

The Committee passed another "Statement on Guarding Against Atrocity Crimes" concerning the Turkish genocide of Armenians, Syriac-Aramaic-Assyrian Christians, and Pontic Greeks.

The participants also passed a "Minute on Bomb Attack on Mar Elias Church, Damascus."

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