Coptic Support

It is good to read of coptic presence and support at the Anglican Global South conference in Singapore, especially on St Mark's Day.

Remarks and Observations from the Coptic Orthodox Church by Bishop Anba Suriel, 23rd April 2010

First of all I wish to thank you very much for the warm hospitality that I have received from you all. You made me truly feel comfortable and at home amongst brethren. I wish to thank our host His Grace Archbishop John Chew and all the support he has given to the small Coptic community in Singapore over the years. To all the organizers, the ladies who cooked the delicious food for us, the photographers, those who looked after the transport and indeed everyone that made our stay enjoyable and comfortable.

First of all I wish to thank you very much for the warm hospitality that I have received from you all. You made me truly feel comfortable and at home amongst brethren. I wish to thank our host His Grace Archbishop John Chew and all the support he has given to the small Coptic community in Singapore over the years. To all the organizers, the ladies who cooked the delicious food for us, the photographers, those who looked after the transport and indeed everyone that made our stay enjoyable and comfortable.

I want to thank all the speakers for their well prepared and thought provoking presentations that gave us so much to ponder upon throughout the week.

I must say that this week has been a great learning experience for me to understand the struggles and pain of the orthodox Anglicans of the Global South. Every morning as I prayed alongside with you, I asked the Lord to give you wisdom, to unite you and strengthen you that you may uphold the truth of the Scriptures and witness to it with great boldness, without fear and at the same time with the love that our Lord has taught us. A love that does not fear to speak the truth to power.

As Bishop Rennis Ponniah (and I wish to thank His Grace for a very inspirational and spiritual Bible study expounded with great passion) mentioned yesterday that “An army of sheep led by a lion is more powerful than an army of lions led by a sheep.” I really pray that you lions here, the primates of each of the provinces of the Global South will stand united with one accord and say, “no to ordination of homosexuals, no to gay marriage, no to such immorality, and that it is time to purify the sanctuary of the Lord from this abomination that causes our God to suffer, bleed and be crucified again everyday!” You are martyrs without the shedding of blood because you are upholding the teaching of the Gospel handed down once and for all to the apostles.

I want to share with you a saying of Saint Anthony the Great, the father of monasticism. This great Egyptian saint said, “There will come a day when the mad people will look at the normal people and say, ‘Look at these mad people because they are not like us.’” I think this prophecy has been fulfilled in our day and age. Abnormality has become the new normality. Certain factions of the Christian Church are becoming desensitized to the truth of the Gospel. I call it the frog in the kettle syndrome. If you place a frog in a kettle at room temperature the frog will be comfortable, if you raise the temperature slightly, the frog will quickly adapt. If you continue to raise the temperature very gradually the frog will continue to adapt to its new environment until finally the water is boiling and the frog is fried inside the kettle and loses its life. This is what today’s Post Modern society is doing; it is pushing the limit of immorality further and further till it tries to make some lose their spiritual life and die.

Some of you may have read the article that was left in the foyer titled, “What if Elijah came to Synod?” It concerns my encounter with the Anglican Synod of Australia in 2001, I will not read it out but at that Synod I was hissed and booed at by the majority of the Houses of bishops, priests and laity. Why? Because I was not politically correct, and I will continue not to be politically correct till my last breath defending this Gospel of the Good News that our Lord was crucified for to bring us salvation. My brethren, I believe it is time for the Anglican Global South to make a strong stand; there is no room here for political correctness and niceties. Your young people and indeed many ecumenical partners are watching closely the outcome of this Encounter. Will a strong message go out to the rest of the Anglican Communion to repent and return to God and to return to His Holy commandments to be holy and perfect? How can anyone live a holy and perfect life whilst living an abominable lifestyle such as homosexuality and be ordained to serve God???

For example, someone like Gene Robinson who was a married man and had a daughter. He divorced his wife and left his daughter to live this unthinkable life of abomination! Is this the holiness and perfection and the image and likeness of God??? How then can such a person be ordained to the highest level of authority in a Church, the episcopate? What example does he give to young people, what long term effects will such a decision by The Episcopal Church USA (TEC) have on the North American Episcopalians in generations to come?

I want to give you one example of how abnormality is becoming the new normality:

While homosexual activity is strong in Hollywood, the education system is being overrun by radical homosexual activists who want to begin indoctrination in the elementary school system, middle schools and high schools. In Massachusetts, where a Court recently found that the homosexuals have a constitutional right to get married, teachers and counselors receive special state-funded training for dealing with gay and lesbian students, and libraries are stocked with book and films on homosexual issues.

For example, in Framingham, Massachusetts, students were forced to answer a questionnaire that openly challenged the validity of their heterosexuality. Here are some questions:

1. What do you think caused your heterosexuality?
2. When did you first decide you were heterosexual?
3. Is it possible heterosexuality is a phase you will grow out of? [Of course, the flip-side of the question is not asked: Is it possible that homosexuality is phase you will grow out of.]
4. Is it possible you are heterosexual because you fear the same sex?
5. If you have never slept with anyone of the same sex, how do you know you wouldn’t prefer it?
6. To whom have you disclosed your heterosexuality? How did they react?
7. Why are heterosexuals so blatant, always making a spectacle of their heterosexuality? Why can’t they just be who they are, not flaunt their sexuality by kissing in public, wearing wedding rings, etc?

Notice how heterosexuality is portrayed as the abnormal behavior? If you substituted the words “homosexuality” and “opposite sex” into many of the questions, there would be a howl of protests from radical homosexual activists and their allies.

And they keep spouting these evil doctrines because they want to corrupt the world. One professor said: “Today’s heresy often becomes tomorrow’s orthodoxy.” Well, let me say that: the orthodoxy of God will never allow for these heresies.

That is why TEC allows a heretic like Bishop Spong to promulgate his poison all over the world and publish books advocating a cocktail of heresies ranging from denying the divinity of Christ to a complete and shocking attack on the inspired Word of God. And yet at the same time they depose an orthodox Episcopal bishop for upholding the true faith of the Scriptures that marriage is between one man and one woman!!! I cannot even begin to get comprehend that.

I was listening carefully to the debate on the communiqué yesterday and I think it is important for you to perhaps in your future encounter to not only speak more about covenant but also about conciliarity. What does it mean for a Church to be conciliar in nature. You have the structure of a hierarchical Church, laity, priests, bishops and archbishops, but is it actually practiced? Perhaps if some studies can be made, historical studies on the conciliar nature of the church and to see it from the Orthodox perspective may be helpful to you in setting up a viable structure for the Anglican Global South. It is just a suggestion for your consideration. Conciliarity of the Church as understood by the Orthodox has no room for the Gene Robinsons and Spongs of this world!

• I would like to suggest that multimedia and television/satellite channels should play an important role for the Anglican Global South. In the Coptic Orthodox Church we have found that our worldwide satellite TV channels have had a great impact on promulgating Orthodox Christian teachings. Through such channels you can teach the upcoming generations of children and youth about the proper understanding on marriage according to Biblical teachings for example.

• You may put in place special curriculums in your schools and Sunday Schools and youth programs to counter act the erroneous teachings of TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada.

• Youth – His Holiness Pope Shenouda III said, “A Church without youth is a Church without a future.” And the flipside is true also, “Youth without a Church are youth without a future.” Through National/International Festivals for children and youth having Spiritual themes the proper teachings of the Scriptures can be taught and promoted.

His Holiness Pope Shenouda III in his address to Anglican clergy in 1990 on the issue of homosexuality begins by saying, “The first matter is the holiness of the Church. In the holy Creed we say, ‘We believe in one holy Church.’ This holy Church is Apostolic and Universal. In the Apostolic age, all the believers were called saints. A believer in the language of the Bible means a saint, because we are sanctified with faith, sanctified by baptism, sanctified in the holy Chrism, sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We are not merely human beings – we are temples of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is abiding in us…”

I really pray that the Anglican Global South will continue to uphold this holiness of the Church. Please do not lose hope, be strong and be united together through prayer and faith. Let no one shake you or rattle you and know that your brothers and sisters in the Coptic Orthodox Church are praying for you and your provinces and we stand firmly beside you in this upward battle that you are fighting. Darkness cannot overcome the light of the Gospel, be of good cheer the Lord tells us because in the world we will find tribulation but, He has overcome the world!

May God strengthen you all in your mission and ministry and I also ask you to pray for my Church and for the persecution she suffers on a daily basis. Thanks very much and glory be to God forever. Amen.

St Mary of Egypt

Yesterday's gospel in catholic liturgy is usually the woman taken in adultery:

On Saint Mary of Egypt

"O Lord, open Thou my lips. and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise"

Today, the Fifth Sunday in Lent, is for the Orthodox Church the Sunday of Saint Mary of Egypt - she whose story has been called "an icon in words of the theological truth of repentancc" (Sr. Bcnedicta Ward). We have heard this story many times. It is a simple one: the sinful woman becomes the penitent, and the least worthy is revealed as God's chosen treasure. It offers us familiar words about the power of faith, and familiar inspiration in the heroic actions of St. Mary herself. But it is, above all, a disturbing story. In the end. it haunts me far more often than it comforts me. Today. I would like to explore where the heart of this story lies, and why it is given to us especially to remember it on the Fifth Sunday of Lent each year.

Copts and St Mark

Saint Mark the Evangelist

Saint Mark is credited with writing the oldest of the four canonical gospels. According to theLife of the Apostle and Evangelist Mark written by Severus, Bishop of Al-Ushmunain, in the late tenth century, Mark was one of the servants who poured out the water that Jesus turned into wine at the marriage at Cana, and that it was his house in which Jesus appeared to the disciples in hiding after His resurrection from the dead. After that time, Saint Peter and Saint Mark went out to evangelize, and one night, Peter had a dream in which he was told to go, along with Mark, to Rome and to Alexandria. After preaching in Rome for a time, Mark went to Egypt and converted many to the Christian faith in the countryside; then leaving a small community of Christians there, he went to Alexandria. As soon as he entered the gates of the city, so the story goes, his sandal strap broke. He took it to a nearby shoemaker by the name of Anianus, who became his first convert in Alexandria. Mark soon discovered that he was being sought by his enemies, and so he appointed Anianus bishop, ordained three priests and seven deacons, and leaving them with orders to "serve and comfort the faithful brethren," he left the city. He returned years later to find the community he had left growing and thriving, but his enemies soon discovered him and threw him in prison. The next day, they threw a rope around his neck and dragged him over the ground until he died. But when they tried to burn the body, they found that it could not be harmed and scattered in fear. The Christians claimed the body from the pyre and buried it with reverence in the church they had built. Saint Mark is revered as the founder and first martyr of the Christian Church in Egypt.

The Coptic Church

opulation Egypt 6,500,000 10% Israel 700 <0.1% Jordan 2,000 <0.1% Libya 50,000 1% Syria 65,000 0.4% TOTAL *) 6,700,000 1.7% Other countries 3,500,000 *) Calculated for the total population of North Africa and the Middle East, approx. 460,000,000.

The Coptic church is the by far largest Christian group in both Egypt as well as in North Africa/Middle East. According to government figures there are about 2 million Copts in Egypt, but this is not correct. 6.5 million is a realistic estimate.
One of the main reasons for the discrepancy between official governmental figures and actual church adherence is that many Copts do not register their religious affiliation in official papers in order to avoid future discrimination.
The name — from Greek (Aigyptos), throughArabic (qubt) — points in a direction of the Egyptian national origins.
The term, Coptic Church, is sometimes used for the Ethiopian church, too, but this bodym now the Ethiopian Orthodox, declared itself independent from its Egyptian heritage in 1959, and does not accept the term 'Coptic' for itself.
The church is headed by the Pope and Patriarchof Alexandria, Pentapolis and Ethiopia, but he now resides in Cairo. The election of the pope is carried out by both clergy and laity who select from 3 nominees.
There are presently 12 monasteries in Egypt, with around 600 monks. In 6 convents, there are around 300 nuns. The largest monasteries, and most famous, are at Wadi Natrun.
In its early history, the Egyptian church was of great importance to the development of early Christianity. Clement of 2nd century and Origen of the 3rd century were some of the most central Christian personalities in their time. The first Christian monastery, was formed inside the Egyptian church.
The Coptic liturgy is based on the Greek rite of Alexandria, but after the 4th century, it developed its own distinct characteristics. This development happened mainly in the monasteries. Today, it is performed in both Coptic and Arabic.
The Coptic church's relationship with the governments of Egypt has sometimes been difficult, but today the Copts and the Muslims are not treated very differently in comparison with earlier decades. The Copts have, however, recently faced attacks from militant Islamists in Egypt, and there has been some emigration of the Copts.
The Coptic church is active in talks with other smaller churches, and has also found a basis for solving theological differences with the Eastern Orthodox church, recognizing that political and verbal distinctions throughout history sometimes formed the basis for disunity.

Tutankhamun at O2

Tutankhamun show opens in London

The last exhibition in 1972 attracted 1.7m visitors.

An exhibition of 3,000-year-old artefacts excavated from the tomb of Egyptian boy King Tutankhamun has opened in London.

More than 130 items are on display at the Tutankhamun and The Golden Age of The Pharaohs show.

Organisers said 325,000 tickets have already been snapped up for what is the first such display of the treasures to be held in the UK for 35 years.

The exhibition at the O2 in Greenwich runs until 30 August 2008.

Among the treasures are the royal crown that was found on the mummified head of Tutankhamun and one of the gold and precious stone caskets that contained his embalmed internal organs.

The last time such an exhibition was displayed in London, in 1972, it attracted more than 1.7 million visitors, and set a new record for travelling shows.

An event in aid of the Prince's Trust helped launch the exhibition at the O2 on Wednesday night.
On Tuesday, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall made a tour of the artefacts, which the prince described as "fascinating".

One gallery in the exhibition is dedicated to the life of British archaeologist Howard Carter, who unearthed the treasures in 1922.

Earlier this month, Tutankhamun's mummy was put on public display for the first time inside his tomb complex in Luxor's Valley of the Kings.

Review: Tutankhamun's treasures are glorious
By Christopher Howse

The absence of the golden mask of Tutankhamun from this show at the Dome is a blessing in disguise, even though it was the main draw of the blockbuster exhibition at the British Museum in 1972.

There is a miniature version, 16 inches high - the coffinette used on the publicity posters - which depicts the boy king in gold and obsidian, rock-crystal and blue glass. It housed his mummified entrails.

But the lack of large-scale treasures focuses attention on 50 beautifully made objects from Tutankhamun's tomb, with 80 more from other pharaohs.

Take the child's chair of ebony and ivory. Perhaps Tutankhamun sat in it about 1340BC.
The back is slightly rounded, the armrests bowed and the slatted seat doubly curved. All is smooth and exact, held firm by bronze-gilt rivets. Panels each side show an ibex feeding from a bough.

This we can understand. It is not alien, as the bird-headed gods or sacred dung beetle are.

Like the silver trumpet, the ivory games box, the gilt hand-mirror case and a dozen other items it is a perfectly preserved part of Egyptian life 3,000 years ago.

Each is a work of art. Nothing made today demonstrates any advance on these.

Mystical links with another world do feature in the exhibition too.

A pair of gilded wood statuettes show Tutankhamun as king of Upper and of Lower Egypt.
In the days of the heretic Akhenaten, probably Tutankhamun's father (who worshipped one god alone), men were sculpted with swelling breasts and pot bellies.

The statuettes of Tutankhamun soften these conventions, and they stand serene, one foot forward, a kingly flail in one hand and a long crook in the other.

One wears the bottle-shaped crown of Upper Egypt, tinted reddish by the gilders; the other a flat crown with a cocked tail, symbolic of Lower Egypt, the twin kingdom of the life-bearing Nile. At the brow of each is poised a uraeus or cobra ready to strike.

The figures' eyes and eyebrows are of inlaid glass, bringing them alive. But as exhibits, visible from every side in clear plastic boxes under strong light, they have lost the sacral aura they bore in 1926 when Howard Carter found them in one of the last parts of Tutankhamun's tomb opened.

Then they wore tasselled linen shawls. They seemed to stride from the next world to meet the archeologists.

I bumped into Lord Carnarvon in the souvenir shop and he said the presentation of the objects was more striking and informative than in the Cairo museum. Certainly an hour or two at the Dome, now the O2, should leave a strong impression.

A little homework beforehand would pay off, even though there's a helpful audio tour.

Having seen pictures of all the exhibits, I wondered if it would be worth a £20 visit. It is and more.