Fearing persecution, the Coptic Church was reluctant to accept Muslims who converted as a result of Anglican witness. Copts who were attracted by the message of Gairdner and others were also treated with suspicion. By 1921 he realised that an indigenous Anglican Church with its own pastors was necessary. Evangelical churches founded by American and Scottish missionaries had already sprung into being. In 1923, a policy statement was drafted by Gairdner and approved by the Archbishop of Canterbury: The primary aim of the Anglican Church in Egypt is the evangelisation of the non-Christian population, and it does not desire to draw adherents from either the Coptic or the Evangelical Churches. Those who, in sincerity, find the Anglican Church their spiritual home are welcome to join it, but the Church does not set out to gain their allegiance. Instead, it seeks to extend the right hand of fellowship to the Coptic Church so as to render it every possible form of service, and at the same time it strives for closer co-operation and greater unity between all the churches in Egypt. Gairdner built up an Arabic congregation at the Church of the Savior, in the poor district of the Boulac. The first Egyptian to become an Anglican priest, Girgis Bishai, was ordained deacon in 1924, and priest the following year. Sadly, Gairdner died soon afterwards in 1928. In 1934, the Church of Jesus the light of the World was built in his memory in Old Cairo. Another opportunity for witness lay in the provision of schools. By 1910, a teacher training class, a small boarding school and two day schools for girls in Cairo, a boys’ day school in Old Cairo and a school for the daughters of the well-to-do in Helwan had been established. Financial pressures after WWI and political pressures after the 1936 Treaty of Independence meant that the number of schools had shrunk to four, one for either sex in Old Cairo and Menouf in the Delta. A large number of single female missionaries worked tirelessly to educate the steady stream of students that they produced. Others helped provide evening classes and acted as social workers. Miss Elsie Anna Wood established an embroidery industry in the Boulac in 1930 that continues to this day. The two parts of the church in Egypt, indigenous and expatriate, were united in the office of the bishop. In 1920, a new and independent Diocese of Egypt and the Sudan was created with Bishop Llewelyn Gwynne as its Bishop. He was mainly responsible for the building of All Saints Cathedral on the banks of the Nile (the predecessor of the present cathedral) which was consecrated in 1938. He was instrumental in founding the ecumenical Fellowship of Unity in 1921. He also ordained the first four Egyptian pastors of the Episcopal Church. As well as Girgis Bishai, these included Adeeb Shammas who was to bear the burden of running the Episcopal Church after the Suez Crisis in 1956. This was the nadir of a long and often troubled relationship between Egypt and Britain that inevitably had an impact on the Church in Egypt that owed its origins to Britain. Nationalist aspirations in Egypt led to the 1936 to the Treaty of Independence. This would ordinarily have led to the gradual withdrawal of British forces but the Treaty provided for Egypt’s reoccupation in the event of war. The outbreak of the Second World War led to large numbers of British and Commonwealth troops being stationed in Egypt. The Cathedral became an important centre for many of them, attracted by the inspiring sermons of Bishop Gwynne, who had been Deputy Chaplain General to the British forces in WWI.
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