CHURCHNEWS an electronic magazine for Immigrant Egyptian Churches in the world _________________________________________________________________________ 'ChurchNews' is a selected translation of the News section in the Arabic Church magazine El-Keraza. _________________________________________________________________________ Keraza No.: 13, 14 I | X Date: Friday Apr 10th 1998 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< -- + -- >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Y | O Index: ----- Spirituality of the remaining days of Lent Miscelaneous News With Priests Here there and everywhere Book Review Appendix =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= S P I R I T U A L I T Y O F T H E R E M A I N I N G D A Y S O F L E N T =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Lent days are the most sacred of all year. The last part of it is the sacred of sacred, specialy the Holy Week or the Holy Pasha. During the final days of Lent, the church prepares its children with special effective and symbolic rites bearing deep spiritual concepts. Before Easter, the church celebrates four important masses to the faithful: Lent Conclusion Friday Mass, Palm Sunday Mass, Holy Thursday Mass and the Light Saturday Mass. It is expected that everyone prepares himself for Eucharist in those masses with suitable spiritual life. - Lent Conclusion Friday Mass, conclusion of the holy 40 days of Lent. A general oil office is celebrated, that is the sacrament of the annointment of the sick, whether with physical or spiritual illnesses. Priests annoint them with holy oil (sacred in the 7 prayers of oil). Some people like to keep some oil in their houses. - Palm Sunday Mass: there we celebrate Christ entering Jerusalem and received as a king. Palm Sunday is one of Christ feasts. We celebrate Christ king of our hearts. Some people by mistake, pray the Pascha (Holy Week) passion chants with sad tunes directly after mass, which deprives Palm Sunday from it's happiness. Those people confuse the Holy week with the general funeral which follows the Palm Sunday Mass directly, in which the church prays funeral for those of the congregation who may depart during the holy week. We hope to get sure on Palm Sunday that Christ becomes king over our whole life, our hearts thoughts and senses. King on the church and the congregation. The third mass is the Holy Thursday mass, it is the origin and the first of all masses. It is preceeded by the prayers on water, when the archpriest (the oldest one), following Christ who washed the feet of His disciples on this day, washes the feet of all the congregation. All people like to receive comunion on the Holy Thursday which is also called Great Thursday or Testament Thursday. It needs spiritual preparation which should begin now. The fourth mass should be on the Holy Saturday. After the long night of the Holy Friday spent in prayers and where the book of Apocalypse (Revelation) is entirely read, the faithful receive comunion. Prayers of the whole night are made on oil which the congregation receive as blessing. All what was mentioned above preceeds the Easter Feast. So that he who receives comunion on Easter would have prepared himself by receiving the Holy sacraments on four chances. Those days are the most holy of the whole year and the most influencing of christians' spirituality. During these days, black curtons cover the churches from inside and we pray outside the sanctuary remembering the pains of our Lord which He endured for us. For you, we did publish four books that you can put with your own meditations. Indeed, the pains of Christ were ours, He endured them on our sake, we do deserve them because of our sins. The prophet Isaih said: "But He endured the suffering that should have been ours, the pain that we should have borne, But because of our sins He was wounded, beaten because of the evil we did" (Isaiah 53:4,5) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Miscelaneous News =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Over the past couple of weeks, HH received Mr Mazen Youssef El-Sabbagh, Syrian Mass Media Ministry Deputy. In a press interview, he is in the process of compiling a book about HH to be printed in Damascus. Meetings took place over many days and were attended by Their Graces Abba Moussa, Joannes and Gabriel. During their presence in Australia, HH delegated Their Graces Abba Paul and Abba Theophilos to put the foundation stone of St Mark College Sydney. They did put as well the foundation stone of Virgin Mary and St Mina new church in Sydney. [Picture] They appear in the picture in some priests of Sydney before the foundation stone and the memorial. On Monday March 30th morning, HH received Her Excellency the Australian Embassador in Egypt. It was an introductory meeting which was attended by Their Graces Abba Joannes and Abba Gabriel. On Wednesday Apr 1st evening , HH received His Excellency the Eritrean Embassador for Egypt. The Embassador relayed to HH a message from the Mr Asaiat Afurky the President of Eritrea concerning the ordination of a Patriarch for Eritrea. On Thursday Apr 2nd evening, the church celebrated 30 years for Our Lady's Apparition on Zeitoun domes which took place for the first time on Apr 2nd 1968. The celebration included a full schedule of nice words and hymns and concluded by a word given by HH Bishop Joannes. On Tuesday March 25th, HH received two Dutch development specialists who were guests of BLESS: Mr Jan Hardman & Mr Hans Griffioen. Attended the meeting, HG Abba Joannes, Mr Adel Raphael and Dr Cecile Naguib. On Monday March 23rd morning, accompanied by Abba Joannes, Abba Gabriel and Mr Adel Raphael, HH visited the different clinics of Virgin Mary Zeitoun Hospital, watched the modern equipments and met physicians and directors. HH visited as well the Church Students Hostel. On Tuesday March 3rd, our son Deacon Rushdy Wassef Behman defended his Doctorat Thesis in Rites at Thessaloniki University, Greece. Our best greetings to him. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= With priests =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= HH received Heg Tadros Yacob Malaty and his wife Tasoni Mary before their departure to Canada. And received Fr Boules Fouad of (Madinet El-Sadat) who reported about his service of prisoners. And received Fr Moussa El-Soriany priest of St Mark church (Sydney) and asked him to serve at the Papal Residence. Came to visit the mother church in Egypt, Heg Mikhail El-Baramosy responsible of our Coptic Center in Kroeffelbach, Germany. HH received him in the monastery and arranged with HG Abba Isodorus (Baramos Monastery) to delegate Fr Suriel for St Antonios Coptic Center in Kroeffelbach. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Here there and every where =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= On March 27th, HG Abba Anthony, Coptic bishop of Scotland, Ireland and suroundings visited the mother church. HG accompanied the Pope to St Bishoy monastery, Alexandria, St Mina monastery (Mariut) and many nunneries. HG attended as well HH lectures in Alexandria and Cairo and many meetings with the poor committee. Abba Anthony reported about his trip to Finland, Sweden and Denmark and his suggestions for the service there. Following the request of HG Abba Anthony, HH delegated Fr Arsenios Anba-Bishoy to serve both Norwich and York in North East England. We knew from HG Abba Anthony that a church was bought in Kent (East England) and the price was paid. The church is currently served by Fr Isaiah El-Baramosy. HH aproved prolonging his service there for one more year. Congratulations on buying the church. In 1997, HG Abba Anthony bought St Antony church Rother Ham suburb in Doncaster (North East England) The church is currently served by Fr Demetrius Anba-Bshoy and needs to be consecrated. To provide the service needs there, HG Abba Anthony bought three houses in Scotland, Ireland and Doncaster. In Sweden: --------- Copts in Sweden are centralised in two main cities: Goetteborg and Stockholm. In Stockholm, they have a church which the Pope consecrated several years ago and was served by Fr Bishoy Farid and Fr Guirguis Boules. Now they need a full time priest (not only for feasts). In Goetteborg, beside the Coptic congregation living there, there exists a big number of our Syrian Orthodox brethren. They have a church that needs to be consecrated and a full time priest. Abba Anthony suggests to have a general bishop serving Scandinavian Countries: Sweden, Norwege, Finland and Denmark. "Maran Atha" is a serious informative and comprehensive Newsletter published by the Diocese of Ireland, Scotland and North East England. The word Maran Atha stands for The Lord shall come. In Vladimir Institute, HG Abba Suriel met with representatives of our Orientlal Orthodox churches. They hold a meeting twice a year. It was decided that their coming meeting shall take place next August when HH shall be in the States. HG Abba Suriel is still making visits to New York and New Jersey and holding youth meetings there. On March 31st, HG presided the regional priests' meeting and celebrated mass in Cedar Grove, then he traveled to Boston, held a youth spiritual meeting there and celebrated the mass at Virgin Mary Vineyard. Our new church in Frankfurt Germany: ----------------------------------- We thank the Lord for receiving our new church, while we used to pray for all the past years since 1975 in a church rent from the Evangelical church. The new church lies on 3820 square meters in two parts: The first part is the main building where the church and many facilities which might be used for several activities lie. On the second part of the land exists a building which may be used as Kindergarten (rent to the Educational Departement of the Frankfurt Rathaus). We congratulate our congregation for the new church and we thank Bethlehem Evangelical church who rent us the church over the past years. Our church in Rodelheim, Frankfurt is served by Heg Pigol Bassily. It lies in a wonderful central place easily accessible by many transport means. On Sunday Apr 4th morning, accompanied by Their Graces Abba Antonios-Morcos, Moussa, Joannes, Anthony, Fr Jeremiah Ava-Mina and Dr Tharwat Bassily, HH Pope Shenouda went to Al-Azhar mosque to congratulate Dr Mohamed Sayed Tantawy Grand Cheikh of Al-Azhar for the Bayram Feast. On the same day, Abba Moussa, Abba Joannes, Fr Jeremiah Ava-Mina and Dr Tharwat Bassili went to congratulate the Egyptian Grand Mufty for the Bayram. Our best congratulations for our moslem brethren. On Tuesday March 31st, HH visited Virgin Mary and St George Convents (Haret Zweila) he gave the new Kolonsowa (Head Cover) for the nuns there and he ordained three nuns for St George Convent in the names: Aghape, Catherine and Othoxia. Participated in the visit and the prayers: Their graces Abba Picenty, Abba Joannes, Abba Raphael and Abba Gabriel. Attended the prayers also two of the abbesses of the convents: Tamav Iriny (Abess of St Mercurius Abu-Sefein Convent) and Tamav Mariam (Abess of Virgin Mary Convent Haret Zweila). =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Book Review =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Two books of Pope Shenouda were translated to Greek: i phissy tou Christou: Nature of Christ i Theoteta tou Christou: Divinity of Christ Fr Paula Anba-Bishoy presented a copy to HH Pope Shenouda. Ikthos Organisation in Alexandria translated the article "Atheism" of HH Pope Shenouda. The organisation was directed by Mr Antoun Fahmy (actually Fr Athanasios in England) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Appendix: -------- HH : His Holiness, for Popes and Patriarchs. HE : His Eminence, for Metropolitans. HG : His Grace, for Bishops. Heg. or Hg. : Hegumen, prior priest. Dcn. : Deacon, for full deacons. BLESS : Bishopric of Public Ecumenical and Social services. Abba : Old Coptic word meaning father, used for Coptic metropolitans, bishops and the Pope. Servant: Volunteer steward in the Coptic church activities, sometimes used to designate Sunday school teachers. Mayamer: in singular (Meimar) Syrianic word designating biography of a saint. Tamav : Coptic word meaning "my mother" used as title for abbesses and any mother superior of a Coptic convent. Tasoni : Coptic word meaning "my sister" used as title for Coptic deaconness or priest wife. NY : New York NJ : New Jersey DC : District of Columbia, Capital of the United States of America. Kolonsowa: Traditional Head tissue cover decorated with 13 cross and a line in it's middle, usually worn by monks and nuns. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + COPTIC ORTHODOX PATRIARCHATE + + + Translated and maintained Computer Departement + Shenouda Mamdouh Abdou cop@idsc.gov.eg + shenouda@bitsmart.com + + + =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=