A new image of the Coptic Martyrs of Libya

From New Liturgical Movement:
 

I recently stumbled across this interesting new piece of work by Mr Nikola Sarić, a Serbian artist currently living in Hannover, Germany. It represents the martyrdom of the Coptic Martyrs of Libya, a group of Egyptian Copts who, as I am sure most of our readers will remember, were working in Libya when they were captured by Islamic fanatics, and had their throats cut on the seashore this past February. With them was a man named Matthew Ayariga, from the Subsaharan nation of Ghana, who was not himself a Copt, but on witnessing the martyrs’ courage in choosing death over denial of their Christian faith, joined them in confessing Christ, and professing their faith as his own, saying “Their God is my God. ” The Coptic Pope, His Holiness Tawadros II, officially recognized them as martyrs, and ordered that their commemoration be inserted into the Synaxarium; their feast is kept on February 15th.

Notice how the waves of the sea stained with the martyrs’ blood are shown around the edge of the image; Matthew Arayiga is distinct among the group on the top right. The men were killed wearing orange prisoners’ jumpsuits; all them are looking at Christ except for the one at the bottom, who is looking out at us.The original 100x70 cm watercolor is currently displayed at the Brenkhausen Monastery in Höxter, a town in the Westphalia region of Germany; this is a former Cistercian house which since 1994 has been a Coptic Orthodox monastery and the seat of the Coptic bishop of Germany. Mr Sarić plans to sell the work and donate the money to the families of the martyrs.You can read more about Mr Sarić and his various works at his website (in both German and English.)
http://www.nikolasaric.de/?lang=enhttp://www.nikolasaric.de/?department=works&lang=en

 
 
Work on church honouring murdered Egyptian Copts to begin in days

Work will begin in the coming days in Minya on a church that was planned to honour the deaths of 20 Egyptian Coptic Christians who died in a brutal sectarian attack by militants in Libya earlier this year.

Plans and licences for the ‘Church of the Martyrs’ have been finalised to begin the work, head of the Samalout municipality in Minya said, as reported by MENA state news. Major General Gamal Mubaral Qinawy confirmed that the church will be built in the village of Al-Awar, in the district of Samalout.

Qinawy said that work on the construction of the church will begin in the coming days, with the project having secured EGP 5m so far, out of a total required cost of EGP 10m. The rest of the money will be collected while construction is underway. He noted that the work was initially stalled due to a required licence from the Ministry of Agriculture.

 Continue reading here.

The People of the Cross

The icon here depicts the Coptic martyrs of Libya and was created by Egyptian American artist Tony Rezk. It appears on the website for the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles. 

A sermon preached on Ash Wednesday at Caravita, Rome 
by the Revd Marcus Walker, Associate Director of the Anglican Centre, Rome


The people of the cross.

Twenty-one young men, kneeling in the sand, facing the Mediterranean Sea.

Twenty-one young men, wearing orange jump-suits, each with a black-clad butcher behind him.

Twenty-one young men, all about to have their heads sawn off.

And, superimposed over this footage – professionally produced, it seems – are the words “The people of the cross – the followers of the hostile Egyptian church.”

I have not seen this footage. Those who have, talk of the terrible moment when all twenty-one start to be killed, simultaneously. There are hideous screams. This is not a clean death. This is not a quick death. But rising over the screams of pain are the cries of “Ya rabbi Yasou”, “My Lord Jesus.”

The people of the cross.

How true. How sickeningly, gruesomely, true.

Meant as an insult, like the inscription above the cross of Christ, it revealed a truth well beyond the meaning, and the understanding, of the murderers.

The people of the cross.

Not for them a cross of ash on their forehead, but the Way of the Cross itself.

Not for them the solemn reminder that they are dust and to dust they shall return; that reminder was dealt to them by a sword on a beach.

The reality of death; the reality of the cross: that is what today is about.

Remember O Adam, dust you were and to dust you shall return.

Those words will be used on us as we go up to be marked with our ashen cross. As we get marked as People of the Cross. As we thank God that we live this side of the Mediterranean Sea, where the greatest threat we face, today, is that someone might tell us later that we have a mark on our forehead.

We stand here today, possibly hungry after a bit of a fast, or gearing ourselves up for forty days without chocolates or cigarettes or being rude to the mother-in-law. Or maybe we’ve decided to “take something up” for Lent, being nice or going to the gym.

And we call this a season of fasting, and mark ourselves with an ashen cross, and remember that we are but dust, and… go on with our lives almost unchanged from last week.

We are people of the cross, but the cross is a more distant cross for us.

And yet, however weakly, we are indeed people of the cross.

But the cross, of course, is not just a symbol of death, but also the tree of life. When we’re marked with the sign of death and the dust of the grave, we are also being marked with the cross of the resurrection and the cross of our transformation.

This is the remarkable thing about today, and, indeed, the remarkable thing about our faith. We stand, on Ash Wednesday, at the foot of the grave, peering in and seeing our mortality, but from the very dust of that grave we have inscribed on our heads the hope of our immortality.

And the irony is, on this day of fasting and ashing, our readings very clearly flash up the warning signs that this is not enough. Not by any stretch. Rend your hearts and not your garments. Don’t prance about with ash on your heads looking miserable because you’re hungry.

No.

Repent.

That’s the message of today. Turn around.

Because the message of the cross, which seems foolishness to the Jihadists, is not one of death but one of transformed life. To turn, and be turned, slowly into the person God has called us to be; to turn and be turned, slowly, into the nature of God himself – into the nature of Love.

To forgive, and in forgiving, find forgiveness.

Because that is what we are, my friends: forgiving, forgiven, sinners.

And that is where the pain comes for us: to know the times we have wounded others, and to forgive, from the bottom of our hearts, the wounds we have received.

To turn ourselves to face Christ and to turn our hearts to forgive each other. This is the martyr’s crown that we seek to win, as Saint Augustine said to his flock when they expressed disappointment that the age of martyrdom was over. “Your feast day is not indeed in the calendar, but your crown is ready waiting for you”.

This might seem a little weak in the face of the real crowns won by real martyrs in Nigeria and Iraq and Libya and Syria and all across the world.

But this is what they have died for.

When those men cried our “Ya rabbi Yasou”, they were calling to the God of Love; the god of Forgiveness. Calling out because their journey of forgiving and being forgiven, of turning back to their Lord, was transcended by their terrible but heroic end.

Those men on that beach in Libya were not there for war or to convert others, but for jobs. Ordinary economic migrants hoping for a slightly better life, sending money back to their families at home. On that beach, however, they revealed themselves to be extraordinary for not being willing to renounce the God whom they love.

We are asked to open our hearts and let them be torn, but so often that is the harder task.

As we approach the ash today, let us lay in the grave our anger and resentments and feuds and jealousies, and raise from the grave a transformed nature: forgiven, forgiving, and facing Christ.

Amen.

Holy Martyrs of Egypt, pray for us and for your ISIS killers

“The blood of our Christian brothers and sisters is a testimony which cries out to be heard,” said Pope [Francis] . It makes no difference whether they be Catholics, Orthodox, Copts or Protestants. They are Christians! Their blood is one and the same. Their blood confesses Christ.''

 As the world struggles to once more comprehend the savagery being inflicted on people through out the Middle East by people with a very warped understanding of the Islamic faith, Pope Francis reminds us all once more of the ecumenism of blood. No matter what our denomination those who die in odium fidei are witnesses for Christ - martyrs in the oldest understanding of the term.
 
Over at Patheos, Elizabeth Scalia names the martyrs who have been killed in the most recent tragedy. The naming and recollection of our martyrs goes right back to the beginning of the church with the account of the martyrdom of St Stephen in the Acts of the Apostles. The recollection of names ensures their memory and that their sacrifice and witness is not forgotten.  
 
Let us ask these new martyrs for their prayers:

+Holy Martyr Milad Makeen Zaky, pray for us, and for the whole world,
+Holy Martyr Abanub Ayad Atiya, pray for your ISIS murderers,
+Holy Martyr Maged Solaimain Shehata, pray for their salvation,
+Holy Martyr Yusuf Shukry Yunan, pray for the release of their all their captives,
+Holy Martyr Kirollos Shokry Fawzy, pray for all in the path of ISIS,
+Holy Martyr Bishoy Astafanus Kamel, pray for the displaced, for those made refugees by ISIS,
+Holy Martyr Somaily Astafanus Kamel, pray for the protection of our Holy Lands and our history,
+Holy Martyr Malak Ibrahim Sinweet, pray for those who act now in resistance against ISIS,
+Holy Martyr Tawadros Yusuf Tawadros, pray for those in immediate danger from forces of evil,
+Holy Martyr Girgis Milad Sinweet, pray for those infected with the virus of hatred and extremism,
+Holy Martyr Mina Fayez Aziz, pray for families being challenged, throughtout the world, by ISIS,
+Holy Martyr Hany Abdelmesih Salib, pray aid workers may draw together, unmolested, to give assistance,
+Holy Martyr Bishoy Adel Khalaf, pray for the targeted clergy and religious of the Near East churches,
+Holy Martyr Samuel Alham Wilson, pray for all people of good will, in every religion, every nation,
+Holy Martyr Whose name we do not know — you “Worker from Awr village” — pray for those in leadership, whose names we know all too well, that their motives may be purified of political intrigue, and for their salvation,
+Holy Martyr Ezat Bishri Naseef, pray for Jews, throughout the world, chosen of God and so despised,
+Holy Martyr Loqa Nagaty, pray for the “two lungs” of Christianity, East and West, to breath together,
+Holy Martyr Gaber Munir Adly, pray for the illumination of that which is All-Good,
+Holy Martyr Esam Badir Samir, pray that in beholding it, we will wish to serve it,
+Holy Martyr Malak Farag Abram, pray for the generation in power, that their egos may be put aside and their hearts might be opened to the Way, the Truth and the Life,
+Holy Martyr Sameh Salah Faruq, pray for the generations to come. 

O New Martyrs, through a malevolent force as old as Eden you now number among the ancient holy ones; keep us particularly in your prayers, as once again we are focused on the mysterious lands where humanity first came into being, and into knowing, and where all will finally be revealed. Pray that we may put aside all that is irrelevant to the moment and, looking forever to the East, prepare our spirits for the engagements into which we may be called, whether we live amid these places of ancient roads and portals, or in the most modern of dwellings. 

Mary, the God-bearer, pray for us,
Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us,
Saint John the Forerunner, pray for us,
All Holy Men and Women, pray for us.
Amen, Amen.

But it is not just these 21, we should remember all those both Christian and non-Christian who have died in this conflict.

ICN - Pope offers Mass for martyred Coptic Christians, condemns arms trade
Vatican Radio - Pope at Santa Marta: Slain because they were Christian
Vatican Radio - Egypt mourns Coptic Christians beheaded in Libya
Vatican Radio - Bishop Martinelli vows to stay in Libya with his flock
The Catholic Herald - After beheading Coptic Christians, Islamists say they will ‘conquer Rome’ next
The Daily Telegraph - The Middle East is red with the blood of Christians
Washington Post - Pope Francis denounces ISIS beheadings: ‘Their blood confesses Christ’
Aleteia - "Their Blood Cries Out To The Lord," Says Pope Francis of Beheaded Copts
The Independent - Egypt's Coptic Christians: Who are they – and why have then been targeted by Isis in beheading video?

Celebrating Orthodox Christmas - UPDATED

The countries that still follow the Julian calendar celebrated Christmas on 7th January. Millions of Orthodox faithful are celebrate the feast of Jesus’ birth. Orthodox Churches celebrate Christmas on 7 January instead of 25 December because they follow the Julian calendar not the Gregorian one. So 7th January is a day of celebration for those countries and canonical territories that stuck to the Julian calendar: Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Georgia, Jerusalem and Mount Athos.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartolomaios I Christmas message highlighted the church's support and concerns for family life as well as the threats against Christians in the Middle East and North Africa.

"Beloved brothers and sisters, children in Christ, 2013 years have passed since the birth of Christ in the flesh.  

2013 years have passed and, like then, Christ continues to be persecuted in the person of the weak by Herod and all kinds of contemporary Herods  

2013 years have passed and Jesus is persecuted in the person of Christians in Syria and elsewhere  

2013 years have passed and Christ still flees like a refugee not only in Egypt, but also in Lebanon, Europe, America and elsewhere, seeking security in an insecure world  

2013 years have passed and the child Jesus remains imprisoned with the two hierarchs in Syria, Paul (Yazigi) and Youhanna (Ibrahim), as well as the Orthodox nuns and many other known and unknown Christians  

2013 years have passed and Christ is crucified with those who are tortured and killed in order not to betray their faith in Him  

2013 years have passed and Jesus is daily put to death in the person of thousands of embryos, whose parents prevent from being born  

2013 years have passed and Christ is mocked and ridiculed in the person of unfortunate children, who experience the crisis of the family, destitution and poverty.  

It is this human pain, sorrow and affliction that our Lord came and once more comes to assume during this Christmas season. After all, He said: “As you have done to one of these, the least of my brothers and sisters,” you have done to me.” (Matt. 25.40-41) It is for these that He was born of a Virgin, for these that He became human, for these that He suffered, was crucified and arose from the dead. That is to say: for all of us. Thus, let each of us lift up our personal cross in order to find grace and mercy when we seek His assistance. Then, the born Emmanuel, our Savior and Lord, will “be with us.” Amen. 

You can read the full message HERE. 

Patriarch Bartolomaios I is due to meet with Pope Francis during the pontiff's planned visit to the Holy Land at the end of May 2014. The pastoral trip to Amman, Jerusalem and Bethlehem marks the 50th anniversary of the meeting of Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras on 5th January 1964. Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartolomaios are due to meet at an ecumenical gathering at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem during the pontiff's trip. This visit will follow on from Bartolomaios attendance at the Mass inaugurating the pontificate of Pope Francis I in April 2013.

 

The meeting in 1964 was historic as the first meeting between Pope and Patriarch since the Council of Florence in 1439 (and came during the first visit of a pope to the Holy Land since St Peter). It was followed on by a joint Catholic-Orthodox declaration, approved by Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople, read simultaneously (Dec. 7 1965) at a public meeting of the second Vatican Council in Rome and at a special ceremony in Istanbul which lifted the mutual  Catholic-Orthodox exchanges of excommunications in 1054.  

Given the turbulent relationships between Rome and Moscow and Constantinople and Moscow it is unlikely that Patriarch Kirill may be in attendance but given that the Ecumenical Patriarch has summoned a surprise preparatory meeting of the patriarchs and archbishops of all the Orthodox Churches at the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul this coming March you can never tell. (The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the guidelines and timeframe for the Preparatory Commission of the Pan-Orthodox Synod which is scheduled to take place in 2015). Patriarch Kirill last visited Jerusalem in Novemeber 2012.]

 

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Vatican Insider: Coptic Church suspended between fear and hope this Christmas

Pope Tawadros

An Egyptian army soldier guards St. Mark Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt, Monday

Coptic Christians in Egypt celebrated Christmas after a summer that was clouded by the violence of Islamist attacks. Tawadros prays that the New Year will bring goodness and peace to the whole of Egypt. Last year was Tawadros’ Christmas: he had just been elected Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Twelve months have passed since then and it has been a tough time for Egypt. The country’s armed forces are back at the helm, many have died during the demonstrations staged by the Muslim Brotherhood and churches across the country have been left scarred by the wave of Islamist attacks last August. So as the Coptic community prepares to celebrate Christmas tomorrow (7 January) it finds itself suspended between the fear of fresh violence and the hope of beginning a new chapter.

Continue reading HERE.

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Vatican Insider reports:

Patriarch Kirill

Patriarch Kirill celebrated Midnight Mass in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, which was attended by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. President Putin attended mass at the new Cathedral in Sotchi, where the winter Olympics will be held next month.

“And today we celebrate an event which at its root has changed the entire course of human history. God enters the very depths of human life, he becomes one of us, he takes upon himself the weight of our sins, human infirmities and weaknesses – he brings them to Golgotha in order to free people from this unbearable burden. God henceforth is no longer to be found somewhere in the unattainable heavens, but is here, with us, among us,” Patriarch Kirill said in his Christmas message.

You can read Patriarch Kirill's full Christmas message HERE. 
 

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UPDATED:

A few interesting videos on Rome/Constantinople relationships starting with Pope Benedicts visit to Phanar and some insight into Pope Francis relationship with Orthodox as he was the bishop with responsibility for Eastern Orthodox in communion with Rome in Argentina as archbishop of Argentina.

60 Minutes - The Coptic Christians of Egypt

The turmoil in Egypt has led to one of the worse persecutions of the country's Coptic Christians in the nearly 2,000-year history of the sect. Bob Simon reports from Egypt for 60 Minutes.

Pope Francis welcomes Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros

From Vatican Radio:

Pope Francis met on Friday with the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros II, telling him the future of Egypt and the role of its Christian communities finds a deep echo in the heart of the entire Catholic world.
 
Pope Tawadros of Alexandria, who heads the largest Christian Church in the Middle East, is currently making a five day visit to Rome, his first outside Egypt since his enthronement last November. He’s due to hold talks with Vatican and Italian officials, as well as celebrating together with the various Coptic communities here in Italy.

The visit “strengthens the bonds of friendship and brotherhood that already exist between the See of Peter and the See of Mark, heir to an inestimable heritage of martyrs, theologians, holy monks, and faithful disciples of Christ, who have borne witness to the Gospel from generation to generation, often in situations of great adversity,” said Pope Francis on receiving the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt this morning.......The Bishop of Rome expressed his joy at being able to recognize one another as “united by one Baptism, of which our common prayer is a special expression that looks forward to the day when, in fulfilment of the Lord’s desire, we will be able to drink together from the one cup.”

Aware that the path to be traversed is still long, the Holy Father noted some of its milestones, such as Pope Shenouda's meeting in Cairo with Blessed John Paul II in February of 2000. John Paul II, who was on pilgrimage to the places where our faith originated, expressed his conviction that “—with the guidance of the Holy Spirit—our persevering prayer, our dialogue and the will to build communion day by day in mutual love will allow us to take important further steps towards full unity.”

The Pope also thanked the Patriarch for his care toward the Coptic Catholic Church that has been expressed, among other things, in the establishment of a “National Council of Christian Churches”. This undertaking “represents an important sign of the will of all believers in Christ to develop relations in daily life that are increasingly fraternal and to put themselves at the service of the whole of Egyptian society, of which they form an integral part. Let me assure Your Holiness,” Pope Francis added, “that your efforts to build communion among believers in Christ, and your lively interest in the future of your country and the role of the Christian communities within Egyptian society find a deep echo in the heart of the Successor of Peter and of the entire Catholic community.”

“'If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together'. This is a law of Christian life, and in this sense we can say that there is also an ecumenism of suffering: just as the blood of the martyrs was a seed of strength and fertility for the Church, so too the sharing of daily sufferings can become an effective instrument of unity. This also applies, in a certain sense, to the broader context of society and relations between Christians and non-Christians: from shared suffering can blossom forth—with God’s help—forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace.”

Friday’s meeting between the Catholic and Oriental Orthodox popes comes 40 years to the day after the first historic encounter between Pope Paul VI and Tawadros’ predecessor, Shenouda III, who signed a joint statement pledging the two Churches to the search for reconciliation and unity.
In his speech to Pope Francis, Tawadros proposed that May 10^th each year should be marked as a day of celebration between the two communities. He also invited the successor of St Peter to visit his Church, founded by St Mark the Evangelist around the middle of the 1^st century.

You can listen to the full report from Vatican Radio HERE and read the text of Pope Francis address HERE.
Associated Press coverage available here

Huffington Post has a series of photos at the bottom of their story here.

Habemus papum! (We have a Pope)!

Well sort of......

Habemus papum is the latin announcement made from the loggia of St Peter's Basilica to announce the election of a new Bishop of Rome and Pope. However from Egypt this morning comes the news of the election of Bishop Tawadros as Egypt’s 118^th Coptic Pope after his name was picked from a box by a blindfolded child during Sunday's altar lottery at St Mark's Cathedral in Abbasiya, Cairo.

The new Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa in the Holy See of St Mark the Apostle succeeds Pope Shenouda III who passed away last March. Pope Shenouda led the church for forty years and was chosen in a similar lottery in 1971.

You can read more about the election/selection here.

Coverage including a video showing the selection available from the BBC

Ad multos annos to our christian brothers and sisters in Egypt.