ETSC was founded in 1863 on the houseboat Ibis, which was used as a floating seminary for theological studies and practical training. This houseboat used to sail upriver from Aswan in the South to Cairo in the North, where students received lessons from their teachers in the morning and were then trained to do practical ministry in various villages in the evening.
has a physical library of some 73,000 books in English and Arabic and provides its students with access to digital libraries (books and journals) in English.