UniCouncil_1938-40_085

gsagas-aa^t?tjgfll» ofga p« aw &o« At*. Finally the University feels that its critics, who arc loaders in certain sections of the organised Church of Egypt, £cf fall to recognize functional dlffor oncer, between a University organization and a Church organisation* Each has its own field of service and its own methods of work* What is appropriate for the one my not he appropriate for the other* Spheres occupied by the omo may not he appropriate for the other; nay not he" the legitimate spheres for the other* Each is responsible to its own constituted authorities s the congregations to their supremo ecclesiastical body; the University to its Trustees* Friendly and fraternal representations from one to the other are appropriate, but at that point the responsibility of the on© for the other ceases* Public denunciations easily assume the character of persecution and attempts to dominate* jr xx 9 w yj, iii. i | ouwuMt in , <_ ^ v« ,— _ ^ 1 ad moat careful consideration because we all, on our side, are reluctant that any differences should exist between our group and other Christian leaders even in respect to judgment, and of course not in respect to spirit or purpose* You Should also know that the previous visit of some of your representatives was also taken most seriously by us and it led to our Checking up carefully a number of mattore about which there might have been doubt and to our safe-guarding more fully principles which we regarded as vital. We are .grateful to you therefore for both approaches, that of your representatives and that of your recent letter* for these have made us study our problem the more carefully and test our position the more fully* Taking up now the various points of your letter, we wish to set before you in a fraternal spirit the aims we have in view and our resulting* policy* (1) First, we appreciate your characterisation of our institution as Christian in its origin and development. The Christian character of the University has been fully recognised by both friends and critics. We could most easily have avoided much odt this opposition and criticism In the early years of the launching of the university if we had been willing to forego our Christian otaaractor stand as a purely secular institution • (2) However, to say that we are Christian in our spirit and character does not imply that we are an ecclesiastical institution, doing the particular work of a Church organization or commissioned to fulfill its distinctly© functions* Ours is a Christian University whose field its the life of the Egyptian nation.-"-We are here to serve the entire circle of its national nc&ds* We are iner s ed in its physical welfare, its public health, its economic and poverty problems, the uplift of its childhood and womanhood, its , educational life, its public morals, whether relating to temperance or to narcotics or to vice, its rising generation of youth, its > culture, whether In art or music or drama, as well us its spiritual »nd religious needs* If there be anything of value in Christianity > or in the Christian lands of the West for any sphere of Egypt*s National life* it is our duty to bring it and plw: it unselfishly* with no corporate or political self interest, at the dlposal of this country and its people* There are Idlings which we can do t