Summary of the Ph.D. thesis of Revd. Dr. Wolfram Reiss about the Sunday School movement in the Coptic Orthodox Church with a focus on the role of Pope Shenouda III and Father Matta el-Meskeen and the place of the church in a Muslim society. Reiss´ study provides an excellent insight into the contemporary history of the church and explains differences between church leaders in the past decades. The study also shows the interaction between the church and society, and how good relations with government authorities can result in receiving permits and favors for the church and how bad relations, as in the 1970´s, can produce the opposite results. Many developments in the church can be understood only in their proper context in Egyptian society.