More than 50 people gathered in the chapel at Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Friday to pray for those in need in Egypt during the annual World Day of Prayer.
There are about 86 million people living in Egypt, and Christian churches are flourishing in the country, according to Jean Belke, the introductory speaker for the Shawano prayer observance. Besides Christianity, there is also a healthy population of Muslims, mostly Sunnis and a few thousand Jews, she said.
Egyptian women prior to 1970 primarily worked at home in agricultural pursuits. Today, many have to serve as the head of household in the absence of their husbands, who emigrate to neighboring countries to pursue work, Belke said.
The perception of women as just homemakers has shifted in recent years, Belke said, with a woman being elected earlier this week as the first female head of a political party, and another in 2013 being the first woman elected to the Doctors Syndicate, Egypt’s version of the American Medical Association.
“Unfortunately, it was reported in November of last year that Egypt is actually the worst place for women in the 22 Arab countries,” Belke said. “It appears that children face the greatest challenges in Egypt.”
Millions of children are born into poverty in Egypt, Belke said, especially in large urban areas. The girls are actively discouraged from finishing their education, she said.
“It turns out that they face lives of broken marriage, illiteracy and sometimes domestic abuse,” Belke said.
The program at Sacred Heart focused on Bible stories that showed different faiths, nationalities and genders coming together as one. Speakers encouraged those in attendance to do so during the World Day of Prayer observance and to continue after through their cell phones and access to social media.
The Rev. Luke Ferris, pastor of Sacred Heart, stressed the importance of prayer, especially as the Christian faiths have just entered the season of Lent, a period leading to Easter.
“We can pray with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ,” Ferris said. “We want to join with all of those who believe in God.”
The 2015 local observance of the World Day of Prayer will take place at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Cecil and will focus on the Bahamas.
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