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Arab Spring turning into winter: The Church of England Newspaper, March 28, 2014 April 11, 2014

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The Arab Spring was “not a spring or even an autumn, it was a winter,” said the Patriarch of Alexandria, Tawadros II, denouncing the revolutions that had stirred the Middle East and North Africa since 2010. In an interview broadcast on 22 March 2014 on the al-Watan network, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church said Western support for the revolutions had been profoundly misguided as was its support of the former President Muhammad Mursi, who ruled “in the name of religion” while distorting the tenets of Islam.  The Patriarch gave his blessing to General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, leader of the coup that had ousted Mursi calling him “the hero of the June Revolution who had saved Egypt”, adding support for the general’s bid for election as the country’s next president was an act of “patriotism”.

Chaos in Egypt: Anglican Ink, August 22, 2013 August 22, 2013

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The political chaos in Egypt can only be resolved by Egyptians, the country’s Council of Churches has declared, warning foreign governments and jihadists to keep out of Egypt.

The Council, led by Pope Tawadros II, “affirmed the right of its citizens to defend themselves against terrorism.” It follows a weekend of anti-Christian violence and arson by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who have destroyed over four dozen Christian churches and schools this week.

The 17 Aug 2013 statement from the pan-Christian council, which represents the Coptic, Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Anglican and reformed churches comes in the wake of reports that Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis had been detained by police after Muslim Brotherhood demonstrations were dispersed.

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Most Rev. Mouneer Anis, Bishop of Egypt, on 14 Aug 2013 released a statement reporting St. Saviour’s Anglican Church in Suez was “under heavy attack from those who support former President Mursi.”

Read it all in Anglican Ink.

Sectarian clashes outside Cairo Cathedral: Anglican Ink, April 9, 2013 April 9, 2013

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St. Mark’s Coptic Cathedral, Cairo

Egypt remains on edge this week after two men were killed and 89 injured in clashes between Coptic Christians and Islamists outside St. Mark’s Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo.

The Anglican Bishop of Egypt, Dr. Mouneer Anis warned: “Such attacks could lead the country into the abyss of sectarian sedition and deteriorate the social, economic and political conditions of the country. These actions could worsen the image of Egypt in front of the international community.”

A spokesman for the Egyptian Ministry of Health said 66 people had been treated and released from hospital while 23 remained in care after fighting broke out on 7 April 2013  outside the cathedral as mourners left the church following a funeral for four Christians who were killed in sectarian violence in the northern town of Khusus over the weekend.

Read it all Anglican Ink.

Coptic pope selected: The Church of England Newspaper, November 11, 2012 p 7. November 13, 2012

Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Coptic Orthodox.
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A blind folded altar boy choosing by lot has selected Bishop Theodore (Tawadros) of Beheira to be the 118th Pope of Alexandria.

On 4 November 2012 the names of three finalists selected by the synod of bishops and lay council of the Coptic Orthodox Church were presented to the congregation of St Marks’ Cathedral in Cairo by the acting leader of the church, Archbishop Pachomios.  The names were then inscribed on pieces of paper — one slip with the name of Bishop Raphael of Heliopolis, the second with Fr. Raphael Ava Mina of St Mina Monastery near Alexandria, and the third with the name of Bishop Tawadros – and placed in a black box that was sealed with red wax.

At the close of the Sunday morning service of Holy Communion the sealed box was placed on the altar and opened by the archbishop. An altar boy, Bishoy Gerges Mossad, was blindfolded and his hand guided to a box.  In a tradition dating that according to church lore dates to the time of the Book of Acts, the choice of a pope for the Egyptian church was given to the Holy Spirit acting through selection by lot — and the name revealed was that of Bishop Tawadros.

The new pope succeeds Pope Shenouda III who died in March after 40 years on the throne of St Mark.  Bishop Tawadros (59) serves as an auxiliary bishop of Beheira in the Nile Delta and is a suffrgan bishop to Archbishop Pachomios. Born in 1952, Bishop Tawadros was educated in Britain, and has a degree in pharmacy from Alexandria University before he entered the church.

Bishop Tawadros will be installed as Pope and Lord Archbishop of the Great City of Alexandria and Patriarch of all Africa on the Holy Apostolic Holy See of St Mark the Evangelist and Holy Apostle on 18 November 2012 at St Mark’s Cathedral.

 

Egypt’s Christians must stick together, new pope tells Anglicans: Anglican Ink, November 7, 2012 November 7, 2012

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Pope Tawadros II and Dr. Mouneer Anis

Christians in Egypt must put their denominational differences to one side and work together towards transforming Egyptian society, the newly elected Patriarch of Alexandria has told Bishop Mouneer Anis, the Presiding Bishop of Jerusalem and the Middle East.

In a 7 November 2012 letter Dr. Anis told Anglican Ink that he met with the newly elected pope, who will assume the name Pope Tawadros II upon his enthronement on 18 Nov at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo.

The meeting with the new leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church at St Bishoy’s Monastery in Wadi Natroun was a joyful occasion Dr. Anis wrote. Tawadros told the Middle East and North Africa’s Anglican leader “it is important that we have a strong and cordial relationship with each other” and that the Orthodox and Anglicans pray for each other so that they fulfill God’s purposes for their ministry.

Read it all in Anglican Ink.

Coptic Orthodox Church chooses new pope: Anglican Ink, November 4, 2012 November 4, 2012

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Bishop Tawadros of Beheira

A blind folded altar boy choosing by lot has selected Bishop Tawadros of Beheira to be the 118th Pope and Lord Archbishop of the Great City of Alexandria and Patriarch of all Africa on the Holy Apostolic Holy See of St Mark the Evangelist and Holy Apostle.

The 4 Nov 2012 selection took place at Cairo’s St Marks’ Cathedral in Cairo and began with the reading of the names of the three finalists selected last week by the church’s synod of bishop and lay council by acting pope, Archbishop Pachomios.  The names were then written on three pieces of paper and placed in a black box that was sealed with red wax.

Read it all in Anglican Ink.

Coptic Church selects three candidates for Pope of Alexandria: Anglican Ink, October 30, 2012 October 31, 2012

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Brother Raphael

Bishop Tawadros

Bishop Raphael

Delegates to a special electoral synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria have selected a monk and two bishops as candidates to succeed Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria.

On 29 October 2012 the 2,405 members of the Synod of Bishops and the church’s General Lay Council meeting at St. Mark’s Cathedral, in Cairo’s Abbasiya neighborhood cast ballots to select three candidates for the post. Seventeen names had been put forward for consideration by the commission, which narrowed the list to five candidates.

Read it all in Anglican Ink.

Election date set for Coptic Patriarch: The Church of England Newspaper, September 30, 2012 p 6 October 2, 2012

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Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria

The Coptic Orthodox Church has set 2 December 2012 as the date for the election to a successor to Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria.

According to the announcement distributed via the Egyptian State Information Service, the 2,405 members of the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church and the church’s General Lay Council will cast ballots on 24 November to select three finalists drawn from a short list of candidates prepared on 4 Oct.

The names of three nominees will be written on three slips of paper and a blindfolded child will then chose one of the three slips of paper at random and by this action, symbolizing the power of the Holy Spirit, the winner will be named  the 118th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark.

First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.

Anglican encomiums for Pope Shenouda III: The Church of England Newspaper, March 23, 2012 p 7 March 28, 2012

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Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria

The Archbishop of Canterbury has offered his condolences to the Coptic Orthodox Church following the death of Pope Shenouda III on 17 March 2012.

“His Holiness has been an exemplary and outstanding Christian leader both within Egypt and far beyond its boundaries,” Dr. Rowan Williams stated on 19 March.  “His long ministry in the See of St Mark has seen the most extraordinary revival in the Coptic Orthodox Church, not least in its monastic life; and his own personal witness as a man of prayer, a peacemaker, a teacher of the faith and a disciple willing to suffer for the sake of his Lord has been an inspiration.”

Born Nazeer Gayed on 3 August 1923 in Egypt, the future pope was educated at Cairo University and Coptic Orthodox Theological Seminary. On 18 July 1954 he was tonsured and become a monk, known as Fr. Antonious El-Syriani.

He lived in a cave as hermit on the edge of the Egyptian dessert for six years, but on 30 Sept 1962 he was named president of the church’s seminary and consecrated as bishop, taking the name, Shenouda.

On 4 November 1971 following the deliberations of the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church and the General Lay Council of the Church, the names of three nominees were written on three slips of paper.  A blindfolded child then chose one of the three slips of paper at random and by this action, symbolizing the power of the Holy Spirit, Shenounda was named  the 117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark.

The Presiding Bishop of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt told The Church of England Newspaper Pope Shenouda was “well known for defending the rights of Christians, and because of this he was put under house arrest by President Anwar Sadat.  He was released after the death of Sadat.  In spite of this he continued to love Egypt and often said, ‘Egypt is not the country in which we live but the country lives in our hearts’.”

Dr. Anis noted that in the midst of the country’s political turmoil it “is not easy for Egyptian Christians to lose Pope Shenouda, the father of the church in Egypt, at this time of uncertainty about the future.  I was not surprised to see hundreds of thousands of people in the streets of Cairo yesterday, immediately after the announcement of the passing away of the beloved Pope, who was such an important symbol for the nation.”

Dr. Williams and Dr. Anis noted the Coptic pope had been a staunch friend of the Anglican Church.  “Our relationship to the Coptic Orthodox Church is the strongest among the different denominations in Egypt,” Dr. Anis said, adding that “several times he mentioned to me how much he appreciated the fact that he started his career as a teacher of English in our Anglican School in Cairo.”

Dr. Williams said he had first met Pope Shenouda in the late seventies and had “always found in him a depth of Christian love, welcome and wisdom. He has shepherded his flock through very difficult times, always accessible to his people and keenly aware of the pressures they have faced and still face today. He has been a good friend to the Anglican community in Egypt and to the Communion at large.”

In his forty years as leader of the Egyptian church, Shenouda has seen its ecclesiastical expansion to the U.S., Brazil, Australia, and the United Kingdom as well as a revival of the monastic tradition in Egypt. As of 2009 over 20 communities each with over 100 monks are active in Egypt. Since 1971 he has ordained more than eighty Metropolitans and Bishops and over 600 priests.

Dr. Anis stated that “every Wednesday for the last 41 years, he met with his people (between 5000 and 6000 each week) to answer their questions and teach from the Bible.”

“In our churches we have prayed for the Coptic Orthodox Church and we have thanked God for Pope Shenouda, his life and his ministry in the assurance that he now celebrates eternal life with his Lord Christ,” Dr. Anis said.

First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.

Pope Shenouda III dead: Anglican Ink, March 17, 2012 March 17, 2012

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Pope Shenouda III

The leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Shenouda III has died from cancer.  He was 88 years of age.

An aide to the Egyptian Christian leader, Hany Aziz told the Reuters news agency the pope had “died from complications in health and from old age”.

Born Nazeer Gayed on 3 August 1923 in Egypt, the future pope was educated at Cairo University and Coptic Orthodox Theological Seminary. On 18 July 1954 he was tonsured and become a monk, known as Fr. Antonious El-Syriani.

He lived in a cave as hermit on the edge of the Egyptian dessert for six years, but on 30 Sept 1962 he was named president of the church’s seminary and consecrated as bishop, taking the name, Shenouda. On 4 November 1971 he was elected the 117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark.

Read it all in Anglican Ink.

Alexandria church bombing sparks world outrage: The Church of England Newspaper, Jan 7, 2011 p 1. January 12, 2011

Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Coptic Orthodox, Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & the Middle East, Terrorism.
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Pope Shenouda III

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

Church and government leaders around the world have condemned the New Year’s Eve bombing of a Coptic Church in Alexandria that has killed 23 people.

The Egyptian police believe a lone bomber detonated a bomb outside the Coptic Church of the Saints killing himself and 20 others instantly.  Two others have since died from their wounds, while over 100 were injured in the attack.

The attack has prompted strong reactions from Egypt’s Christian minority, with Copts accusing the government of ignoring warnings from al Qaeda linked groups that they planned on targeting Christians.  ‘We cannot prevent people from expressing their sorrow, yet I ask them to express their feelings without violence,’ said Pope Shenouda III, in a Jan 3 interview on state television, after protestors clashed with police for a third day in a row in protest to the attacks.

“I call on our sons for calm, as calm can solve all issues,” Pope Shenouda said, according to a transcript of his address released by the state news agency.

Writing from Cairo on Jan 1, the President Bishop of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt offered the condolences of Anglicans to Pope Shenouda.

Dr. Anis stated that it was “very clear from the nature of this attack that it was planned by Al Qaeda, especially after the threats that were made against Egypt after the attacks on the church in Baghdad on 31 October 2010.”

Anglicans in Egypt were cooperating with the security services to improve church security, he noted, and had installed barriers and security cameras.  “We are not used to such measures, but we have been requested to do this,” the bishop said.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams condemned the attack as “yet another dreadful reminder of the pressure Christian minorities are under in the Middle East, echoing the atrocities we have seen in recent weeks.”

We “know the long and honourable history of co-existence of Christians and Muslims in Egypt and are confident that the overwhelming majority of Egyptian people will join in condemning this and similar acts,” Dr. Williams said.

Speaking to a crowd gathered in St Peter’s square on Jan 2, Pope Benedict XVI said the Alexandria bombing was a “vile and murderous gesture … offends God and all humankind.”

“In the face of these strategies of violence, which aim against Christians but have consequences on the entire population, I pray for the victims and their relatives, and encourage ecclesial communities to persevere in the faith and in the witness of non-violence which comes to us from the Gospel,” the pope said.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Department of External Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion said that there was no “doubt this atrocity is aimed at further fomentation of interreligious enmity. The confrontation that the terrorists mean to enkindle by their actions brings nothing but grief, tears and suffering and threatens the human race with self-destruction.”

The bombing has also sparked reactions from Egypt’s moderate Muslim community.  On Jan 3 the influential Cairo newspaper Al-Ahram in an editorial entitled “J’Accuse!” attacked Egyptian society’s indifference to the growth of militant Islam.

“I am no Zola, but I too can accuse,” editor Hani Shukrallah  wrote, denouncing government corruption and cynicism in dealing with fundamentalists.

“But most of all, I accuse the millions of supposedly moderate Muslims among us; those who’ve been growing more and more prejudiced, inclusive, and narrow-minded with every passing year.”

“I accuse those among us who would rise up in fury over a decision to halt construction of a Muslim Center near ground zero in New York, but applaud the Egyptian police when they halt the construction of a staircase in a Coptic church in the Omranya district of Greater Cairo.”

He also accused “the liberal intellectuals, both Muslim and Christian who, whether complicit, afraid, or simply unwilling to do or say anything that may displease ‘the masses’, have stood aside, finding it sufficient to join in one futile chorus of denunciation… even as the massacres spread wider, and grow more horrifying.”

Unless steps were taken immediately, Al Ahram warned, Egyptian society would collapse in a welter of sectarian madness.

Egyptian court allows Christians to remarry: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 10, 2010. December 10, 2010

Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Coptic Orthodox, Marriage.
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Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

An Egyptian court has tossed out the appeal of the Coptic Church challenging a lower court ruling permitting Orthodox Christians to remarry after divorce.

On Nov 30 the State Council’s Administrative Court” upheld its May decision “permitting the Coptic Orthodox sect to remarry, refusing a legal challenge filed by two lawyers to halt the ruling,” state news agency MENA said.

The decision places the embattled Coptic church at odds with the government of President Hosni Mubarak, giving it the choice of either changing church teaching on marriage, seeing divorced Copts who wish to remarry join another church or convert to Islam, or defying the state.

The court on May 29 held that the Coptic Church must permit remarriage for its members, rejecting an appeal by Pope Shenouda III who argued that church law does not permit remarriage after divorce, except in the limited circumstances.

“The Egyptian constitution guarantees that anyone may remarry and form a new family,” said Judge Mohamed El-Husseini, head of the Supreme Administrative Court. “The appeal made by Pope Shenouda III to prevent Copts from remarrying is accordingly rejected.”

The Coptic Orthodox Church, which is the Middle East’s largest Christian community with over 12 million members, allows remarriage only in cases of proven adultery and after the death of a spouse.

The May ruling was suspended by the Supreme Constitutional Court in July in order to allow the Coptic Church to make a challenge.

The case involved the petition of Hani Wasfi, a Copt who filed suit asking the government to force the church to allow him to remarry after his first marriage was dissolved.

Egypt’s personal status law does not recognize civil marriage, and requires a religious ceremony to give legal status to a nuptial union.  Copts who wish to remarry after a divorce must either obtain a dispensation from the church showing they were the innocent party in a case of adultery or convert.

“Although we respect the judicial system it is not binding on the church. Marriage is one of the church’s seven sacraments. Nothing on earth will oblige us to abide by anything that contradicts with Biblical teaching,” Shenouda told reporters on June 2.

Dr. Mouneer Anis says he won’t attend Gafcon: CEN 5.30.08 p 8 May 29, 2008

Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Coptic Orthodox, Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & the Middle East, GAFCON.
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The Presiding Bishop of Jerusalem and the Middle East will not attend the Global Anglican Futures Conference (Gafcon).

In a May 8 letter posted on his diocesan website, Dr. Mouneer Anis said he supported the aims of the gathering and joined the participants in their disquiet over the recent innovations of doctrine and discipline taken by the North American churches.

However, local and regional issues have weighed against Dr. Anis’ participation in Gafcon. His colleague in Jerusalem, Bishop Dawani had urged the organizers to relocate the conference away from Jerusalem so as not to inflame political tensions in the region.

The stance of the leader of the Coptic Church in Egypt, Pope Shenouda III had also made Dr. Anis’ participation difficult. In 2006 Shenouda issued an anathema, forbidding Copts from visiting the Christian holy places in Jerusalem under pain of excommunication, until the Arab-Israeli question is solved. By publicly attending Gafcon, Dr. Anis would divide the Christian churches in Egypt, during a period of heightening persecution.

In his letter explaining his reasons for declining the Gafcon invitation, Dr. Anis said that he agreed that action must be taken and hoped the Lambeth Conference, the “most important Anglican council” would address the divisions within the Communion. “It is wrong to sweep all these problems under the carpet,” he said.

While sharing the strategic aims of American, British and Australian conservatives, he parted company on the proper tactics to be used in resolving the Anglican crisis. The best “strategy for safeguarding orthodox faith and unhindered mission is to have parallel processes for building unity among those loyal to the biblical historic faith and ethics in both the South and the North,” he argued.

There was a danger of Western orthodox leaders crowding out the voices from the Global South, he said, and the concerns and work of the churches in the developing world should not be “driven by an exclusively Northern agenda or Northern personalities.”

Sources within the Gafcon leadership team said they were not surprised by Dr. Anis’ announcement. The Egyptian Anglican leader has taken the lead in pressing the conservative case within the joint primates-ACC standing committee and has agreed to serve as an Episcopal visitor in the proposed Anglican Communion partners plan for North American conservatives, but has not supported calls to boycott or downgrade the Lambeth Conference.

Pope strip-search row: CEN 4.25.08 p 6. April 24, 2008

Posted by geoconger in British Foreign Policy, Church of England Newspaper, Coptic Orthodox.
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Security staffers at London’s Heathrow airport have sparked a diplomatic row between Britain and Egypt, after they ordered the Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church to undergo a body search before boarding his flight home to Egypt.

Pope Shenouda III was visiting Britain to consecrate St. George’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Stevenage, Hertfordshire and to pay a pastoral call on the country’s Copts. While preparing to board his flight home to Egypt on March 30, British Airport Authority staffers at Heathrow ordered him to submit to a body search when he entered the VIP lounge.

Egypt’s Ambassador to Britain, who had accompanied Shenouda to the airport, protested saying Shenouda held an Egyptian diplomatic passport. Citing a new Home Office policy that permitted snap searches of all travelers, save for heads of state, the BAA staffers insisted on frisking the 84-year head of Egypt’s 7.5 million Copts.

Following a standoff, a supervisor agreed to forgo the search, provided Shenouda passed through a metal detector.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry responded to the incident by issuing a diplomatic note to British Ambassador Dominic Asquith, saying it would order body searches of the Archbishop of Canterbury and all British diplomats entering Egypt, if the incident were repeated.

“We will apply the principle of reciprocity and treat British representatives the same way,” Deputy Foreign Minister Wafaa Bassim told the upper house of Egypt’s parliament last week, which passed a resolution demanding an official explanation from Britain for the diplomatic “affront.”

Foreign Minister Ahmad Aboul Ghait has also instructed Egyptian diplomats to boycott Heathrow airport and transit through Paris when en route to Washington or New York.

On April 15, Mr. Asquith met with Shenouda and offered his government’s apology, saying Britain had the “highest respect, esteem and affection” for him. There had been “no intention at all to offend His Holiness” Mr. Asquith said. “We regret any other impressions that might have been deduced.”

However, Egypt’s tabloid press has taken up the Coptic Pope’s case, speculating there was a “conspiracy” to “insult” Shenouda in retaliation to his harsh anti-Israel statements and opposition to the war in Iraq.

Egypt rules men can re-convert to Christianity: CEN 2.12.08 February 12, 2008

Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Coptic Orthodox, Islam, Persecution.
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EGYPT’S highest court has affirmed the legal right of Muslims to ‘re-convert’ to Christianity, ruling that Egyptian Human Rights law, not Sharia law, should guide the government’s treatment of religious minorities.

On Feb 9, the Supreme Administrative Court handed down a ruling permitting 12 Coptic Christians, who had converted to Islam, to re-convert to Christianity.

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper’s Religious Intelligence section.

Egypt rules men can re-convert to Christianity

Row over Coptic Leaders Anti-Semitic Call: CEN 5.18.07 p 6. May 20, 2007

Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Coptic Orthodox, Interfaith, Judaism.
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The leader of the Coptic Church, Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria told Egyptian television last month the Western Churches were wrong to exonerate Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and criticized recent statements apologizing for Christian anti-Semitism.

In an interview with Dream 2 TV broadcast on April 8, Shenouda was asked if the Coptic Church would modify follow the lead of the Western Christian churches. Shenouda responded that the Christian Churches had “done nothing that warrants an apology,” adding he believed the apologies were being “done for appearance’s sake.”

Asked whether Jews were “Christ-killers”, responsible for the crucifixion, Shenouda stated, “The New Testament says that they are,” and asked rhetorically whether the Vatican was “against the teachings of the New Testament?”

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.