The more I read and hear what H.H. Shenouda III is saying these days, the more I feel sorry for the Church

By : William Hanna

Dear ALL:

 

The more I read and hear what HHPS III is saying these days, the more I feel sorry for the Church and its followers. I could not and would not say that 10 years ago, but unfortunately I and many honorable Copts who can read and learn from history and are trying to be true to Christ and the Gospel are compelled, have no choice but conclude that HHPS III today is very far off the mark of preaching the Gospel of Salvation through Christ and have placed himself and the Coptic Orthodox Church in a situation that is far from it. At the expense of being criticized again - HHPS III and his close knit group of leaders are practicing a bad case of Churchianity and not even close to Christianity - Preaching Christ the Lord as God and Savior. Here is some recent events:

 

1. For the last 14 years, since 1992 the Church hierarchy has been on a campaign to discredit any and everyone who speaks an opinion different than HHPS III. For a longtime the department of education in the Coptic Church became a one man show: HHPS III and he only can teach and explain. Any other explanation is called heresy:

 

1.1 The case of a priest who was a trained and licensed attorney (lawyer), a graduate of Egypt Law Schools - Fr. Ibrahim Abdelsayed was a priest in Maadi who started late in the priesthood after practicing law for many years. Fr. Abdelsayed expressed some opinions concerning the subject of divorce that is based on logic, law, and experience as a practicing priest who deals with a large congregation. These views were different than the views and interpretation by HHPS III - what was the result - he was defrocked - removed from the priesthood, treated as a heretic by the Church and we mentioned the story of what happened when he departed (died). HHPS III issued an order not to pray on him. What a cruel punishment. It is not Christian. To the point that the newspapers the following day carried the news that Al-Azhar offered to pray on the corpse of the departed. How cruel, How bad can we get. Again, it is not Christian. A person who is removed from a job like the Coptic priesthood does not deserve to be treated like that. The descolia and the laws of the Church as stated in Awlad Al-Assal first admonish the bishop from using the authority of excommunication and defrocking except when it is absolutely necessary. Also it advises the bishop to care for the person especially because he is like a wounded soul, gradual punishment then full forgiveness.

 

This type of treatment was applied to at least 500 removed clergy over the last 20 years! Lord Have Mercy on the Copts, on all of us from the Pope to the least among us. You cannot hide it, you cannot defend it, you cannot ignore it.

 

I do get E-mails from members of the Church threatening me and telling me How Dare You Speak? That is the result of 40 years of HHPS III leadership - we created a generation of Zealots (Zombies) that are willing to kill for the Pope. Again, Lord Have Mercy on all of us.

 

1.2 The case of the departed Holy Man, Fr. Matta Al-Meskien it started by false accusation by some Zealots that he was scheming with Saddat for the position of the Pope when in reality he was trying everything humanly possible to diffuse the ugly situation that developed between Saddat and HHPS III. He informed HHPS III everytime he met Saddat, but the hateful zealots will not stop - they accused him of everything bad under the son. In 1992, they burned his books while the secretary of the synod watched and was pleased. Then HHPS III wasts his time and the time of generations of divinity school students in accusing Fr. Matta Al-Meskien of heresey. What a shame. Could our Pope accept an opposing opinion - the answer obviously is No. And by the way, many reasonable knowledgable people believe that Fr. Matta Interpretation is closer to the teaching of the Fathers and the spirit of the Bible than His Holiness opposing views that are taught to future priests. I am afraid that those priests are propagating wrong teachings.

 

Then the death of Fr. Matta after more than 70 years of service, 60 as a monk, to God and the Church. What did the world do: They Eulogized him and spoke of his great works as a blessed monastic and a great theologian.

 

What did our Church do: the Church attacked him and accused him of heresey. Again Your Holiness that is not right. What the Zalots do - they repeat and add insults to the injury.

 

1.3 The Lord commanded all Christians at the end of all the gospels to do what: "Go and preach the gospel to the whole world?" what does the Church under HHPS III do? make a friendship with the leaders of Islam so strong that the Church is being suffocated. And anyone who tries to speak to Moslems about Christ is removed again.

 

They moved the Blessed Fr. Zakaria Buttros from Cairo to Sydney to London and finally they removed him from the priesthood. The crime is preaching to non-Christians. Is this not the opposite of Christianity? and he accepted and carried his cross to Canada - was removed from his position, salary suspened, and was evected from the house provided by the Church.

 

This was not sufficient to please the Church masters - the prized friends - No he gets defrocked in July 2006 for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the non-christian language used in a Youth meeting against three blessed fathers gifterd with Preaching and Healing when we are supposed to honor them and respect them and advise the others to be like them; instead of the fear state the clergy is in because they afraid to offend our fellow citizens when we speak the words of salvation through Christ - we are blowing and blowing an old ground that is tired, unhappy,  and not able to produce anymore!

 

1.4 The harsh treatment of clergy and laymen is more rampant when we learn about these removal based on accusations without a true Church trial - Same bishop travels to a city, insults the priest in front of everyone and then holds a fishing expedition that usually starts in the evening and ends around sunrise. Asking people young and old to tell him what else did this abouna do. St. Louis 1987, Chicago 1988, Sacramento, Denver, Florida, etc., Even in Egypt many were removed unfairly, and without a trial 'Maglas eckleriky'.

 

This is not Christian behavior, this is not even Churchianity because the Church has strict rules that govern accusation, trial, finding the truth, Christian forgiveness, guidance, gradual punishment. Removal only when absolutely necessary.

 

None of that is being observed, instead jumping to horrible conclusions that are very harteful to all concerned including the person who is passing judgment!!!!Middle ages Inquisition ('mahakim al-tafteesh').

 

2. We as a Church claim to be seeking Christian Unity when in Reality we have done many things to cause other Churches to avoid and even oppose the Copts. When the Protestants (Egyptian Coptic Christians by the way) proselyte (means take away the Children of the Coptic Orthodox Church) they are wrong but the answer is not to hold angry meeting and issue letters that are offending, but the better answer is to do two things: A) present it to the other or through the proper Church councils in a diplomatic way; B) Find out why our children and even older generation is being attracted to the other's. You will find out more often than not that the non-orthodox are showing more love and care than we do as a Church. I know a lot of young people in Egypt and elsewhere who are attending services other than the Coptic Orthodox Church because they say they learn more and they benefit more than the repitive ritual services that lack imagination.

 

Also, comes to mind the diplomatic effort to diffuse the anger of the Moslems which is good to some extent, but the way our own HHPS III spoke about HH Pope Benedict XVI was the complete opposite which is very surprising and very disappointing knowing the communications ability of our Pope that far exceeds that of most humans alive. We offended 1.1 Billion Christians to please the non-Christians. I just cannot believe it, but it could be a sign of the approaching End!

 

3. The subject of visiting the Holy Land and the Papal ban on the visits is completely political. HHPS III is playing politics that is harmful to the Church. I don't think that HHPS III or any of the Clergy of the Church can put a gun to someone's head to force them to go to Church. A harsh and cruel leader drives the people away. And the Church has no authority to force anyone to follow it's administrative orders. If we behave like people from the Middle Ages (The Inquisition)  in the 21st century, the Church will loose. Some of the people who leave for other Churches are hearing the teachings of Christ, the Gospel but not necessarily the Coptic Orthodox Version! I would rather see and hear leaders who are free to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ than following a path dictated by a perceive view of what Moslems will do to us if we preach Christ. I would rather die as a martyr today than loose the opportunity to be with Christ because I am following a partyline that lost its direction.

 

In this vain also, we also should remember the statements made by HHPS III in support of the Moslems of Bosnia and Herzegovina that were so harsh towards the Orthodox Christian Yugoslavs, it made the Serbian Church refuse to be in the same meeting with any Copt. Could have been less strong and more even handed. After all we are criticizing other Orthodox Christians.

 

5. The refusal of the Church to examine the cases of more than 50,000 people seeking Church divorce is sad. HHPS III in one of the weekly lectures tellse the Coptic Clergy that if any of you does not follow what I am saying he will be defrocked by me! what are the choices we are giving our people? none. they find themselves leaving the Church either by joining other Christian Churches (the better option) or convert to Islam!

 

4. Infallibility is an Old Catholic Teaching that the Orthodox Churches oppopsed and called it wrong. I am shocked when some of our misguided brothers and sisters come up with these threatening messages and one in particular, I here a lot now: "How dare you attack the Pope?"

 

I am not attacking the pope, I am exposing a bad situation HHPS III might not be aware that it is happening. If the Church goes in a direction that is not biblically correct we need to oppose it, so we might be able to bring back our Church to its proper path as prescribed by our Lord through the proper interpretation of the bible and the roles prescribed for the different levels of spiritual and administrative leadership.

 

I am surprised and dismayed that the Synod of the Church is not looking at the things that are not according to the teachings or any compromised teaching based on the  current political situation of the people of Egypt. Do we need remind that some very honorable bsihops do not attend the meetings because they are not happy with the status quo (current situation) of Church administration. Do we know not that it is biblical when one says: "We must obey God more than men." These are the words of St. Peter in the Book of Acts.

 

(... to be continued).

 

There is more to present and discuss. What do I want?

 

Nothing personal. I have no desire to be anything other than what I am now - a layman who is not even allowed to serve in my local Church anymore. I am happy and content. I attend Church. I pray and read more. But my motivation is to see our Church on the right path of salvation. True and Orthodox. Loving and Kind and able to accept criticism and explain honestly the why's and why nots. The hierarchy are parents in the faith. I expect them to treat everyone in the Church as their Children - not followers. We learned as parents to respect our Children, not only feed and cloth them. Can the Church do as much. I hope so.

 

May God help us all, protect us all and guide us all to the True Orthodox Faith that will lead us to be one with Christ our true shepherded. Lord Have Mercy on all of us. God Bless us all.

 

William Hanna