Episcopal/Anglican Province of Alexandria
The Episcopal/Anglican Province of Alexandria is the province of the Anglican Communion for Egypt, North Africa and the Horn of Africa. It was formed in 2020 from the former Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa, until then a diocese of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East. Its archbishop, Samy Fawzy Shehata, is also Bishop of Egypt. Its cathedral is All Saints' Cathedral in Zamalek, Cairo, where he was installed in 2021.
Key facts
- Samy Fawzy Shehata, installed in 2021
- Egypt, North Africa, the Horn of Africa and Gambella
- All Saints' Cathedral, Zamalek, Cairo
- 10
- Its 41st province
The four dioceses
The province's website lists four dioceses: Egypt; North Africa, covering Algeria, Chad, Libya, Mauritania and Tunisia; the Horn of Africa, covering Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia; and Gambella, a region of western Ethiopia. It takes its name from the city of Alexandria, and its office is at 5 Michel Lutfallah Street in Zamalek, Cairo.
How the province was formed
According to the Anglican Communion News Service, the General Synod of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East approved the diocese's request to leave that province, the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council consented, and the Primates of the Anglican Communion approved the move in Jordan in January 2020. The Archbishop of Canterbury, holding temporary authority over the diocese, then signed a deed of relinquishment inaugurating the new province. The news service reported on 29 June 2020 that the transition was complete and called the province the Communion's 41st; the province's own history page gives May 2020 as the month of its elevation. Mouneer Anis, Bishop of Egypt since 2000, became its first archbishop.
The history page calls 2020 to 2025 a transitional period, ended in May 2025 by the election of John Ashley Null as the first elected Bishop of North Africa.
Before 2020
The history page traces the Anglican presence in Egypt to a first Church Missionary Society missionary in 1819; St Mark's Church in Alexandria was consecrated in 1839 and All Saints' Church in Cairo in 1876. The Diocese of Egypt and Sudan was established in 1920. Isaac Messad was consecrated in 1976 as the first Egyptian bishop. The present All Saints' Cathedral, the third on its site, was consecrated on 25 April 1988. Under Mouneer Anis, bishop from 2000, the diocese gained area bishops for the Horn of Africa in 2007 and for North Africa in 2009.
The Diocese of Egypt and Sudan is established.
Isaac Messad is consecrated as the first Egyptian bishop.
The present All Saints' Cathedral in Cairo is consecrated.
The Anglican Communion News Service reports the province inaugurated.
Samy Fawzy Shehata is installed as archbishop at All Saints' Cathedral.
John Ashley Null is elected Bishop of North Africa.
The archbishop
A page of the province's website, as archived in 2023, records that Samy Fawzy Shehata was born in Cairo in 1963, graduated in engineering in 1985, took a diploma in theology from the University of Wales in 1991 and a master's degree in 1998 and a doctorate in 2002 from the University of Birmingham, was ordained deacon at All Saints' Cathedral in Zamalek in 1990 and priest in 1991, and was Dean of St Mark's Pro-Cathedral in Alexandria from 2009, director of the Alexandria School of Theology from 2012 and bishop of North Africa from 2017. The history page records his election in 2021 as the fourth Egyptian Bishop of Egypt and the second Archbishop of Alexandria; the Anglican Communion News Service reported in June 2021 that he had been installed at All Saints' Cathedral in Cairo, and Wikipedia gives the date as 8 June 2021.
Institutions
The Alexandria School of Theology, which the province's website traces to a decision by Mouneer Anis in 2000, has branches in Cairo and Alexandria and sites in Minya, Gambella and Tunisia. It offers a certificate, a diploma, a BTh and a ThM, and in 2024 received accreditation from the Middle East and North Africa Association for Theological Education.
EpiscoCare, the church's social-service foundation, was established in 2003 and is recognised by Egypt's Ministry of Social Solidarity. Its sectors are development, education and Refuge Egypt.