“Tomorrow, the 6th of August, Egyptians will celebrate the opening of the new Suez Canal project,” … writes Archbishop Mouneer Anis from Cairo

SUEZ CANAL NEW PROJECT …A NEW HOPE FOR EGYPT “THE GOD OF HEAVEN WILL GIVE US SUCCESS. WE HIS SERVANTS WILL START REBUILDING” (NEHEMIAH 20: 2)

Dear friends,

Tomorrow, the 6th of August, Egyptians will celebrate the opening of the new Suez Canal project. The original channel has been widened and deepened and an extra parallel canal 34 km long was dug in order to allow two-way traffic between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.

The Old Suez Canal was the idea of the French Engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps, its Construction began April 25, 1859, it was completed and opened at the 17th of November 1869, after 10 years of construction. IT allows ships to travel between Europe and Asia without navigating around Africa thereby reducing the sea voyage distance between Europe and India by about 7,000 kilometers (4,300 mi). One million Egyptian workers dug the desert to create the canal, and 100.000 Egyptians died while digging it manually.

This new project started on August 2014. Using the biggest dredgers in the world, tens of thousands of workers worked around the clock to complete the expansion in record time. The expansion is expected to double the capacity of the Suez Canal from 49 to 97 ships a day. This is considered to be the largest canal project in recent history.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi launched the expansion and said it would help bring prosperity to Egypt. He also invited all Egyptians to invest in this canal. The people responded positively to the challenge and queued in front of banks to help fulfil this National dream. Funding was arranged by issuing interest-bearing investment certificates exclusively to Egyptian entities and individuals, and the target amount was collected over only eight working days. In one week Egyptians were able to pay 66 billion Egyptian pounds, (8.4 billion US Dollars), this tells how much Egyptians trust their leader and how much they are keen to build their country.

Egypt is now ready to receive Presidents, Kings, and Representatives from all over the world. They will come to share the joy and the hope of Egyptians this day.

Please pray for Egypt at this time when they work with one hand and fight terrorism with the other hand.

“Those who built the wall and those who bore burdens loaded themselves so that everyone worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other hand” (Nehemiah 4: 17)

May the Lord Bless you + Mouneer

The Most Rev. Dr. Mouneer Hanna Anis, Bishop of Episcopal / Anglican Diocese of Egyp t with North Africa and the Horn of Africa President Bishop of the Episcopal / Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East