Category Archives: News

Online Church

+ Holy Week Livestream Schedule 2020 HERE

+ Video message from His Eminence Archbishop Angaelos below:

To be notified when Diocesan-wide services are livestreamed please subscribe to the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of London YouTube Channel here: https://tinyurl.com/CopticDiocese

Parish Schedules and Livestream links:

For updated Diocesan Coronavirus Guidance please visit www.CopticOrthodox.London/Coronavirus

 

Coronavirus Diocesan Guidance

9 April 2020: Coronavirus Diocesan Guidance

20 March 2020:  Official – Pastoral Message from HE Archbishop Angaelos 

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Coronavirus Diocesan Guidance is constantly being updated, please check this page regularly.

For information regarding church services online and livestreaming please regularly visit www.CopticOrthodox.London/OnlineChurch

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For a video message regarding Holy Week – Easter Monday Services, from His Eminence Archbishop Angaelos, Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London, please click below: 

 

Remembering the late Metropolitan Bishoy

 

***View the official release via www.CopticMediaUK.com***

Reflection from His Eminence Archbishop Angaelos,
Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London, following the departure of
His Eminence Metropolitan Bishoy of Damietta, of blessed memory

Today we mourn the loss, while celebrating the life, of a father, shepherd and teacher of the Coptic Orthodox Church. His Eminence Metropolitan Bishoy of Damietta, of blessed memory, faithfully served the Church internally, through his diocese, as General Secretary of the Holy Synod and as Convenor of the Clerical Council. I have personally seen his engagement with the clergy and laity of his diocese, and so I know that today, they will be mourning the loss of a gentle, loving and beloved father.

Externally, Metropolitan Bishoy has also served through his chairing, membership of, and contribution to, a variety of theological dialogues and consultations over the past forty five years.

His Eminence has also served the wider Church of God by being a pivotal point of engagement at so many levels, through the World Council of Churches, the Middle East Council of Churches, and numerous ecumenical bodies and initiatives.

Having had the blessing and honour of serving alongside the late Metropolitan Bishoy, both as a member of the Holy Synod and in numerous ecumenical dialogues and bodies, I have come to learn from and respect the commitment, passion, dedication, and attention to detail that many will know him for.

My most recent encounter with Metropolitan Bishoy was only a few days ago in Holy Etchmiadzin, as he signed, on behalf of the Family of Oriental Orthodox Churches, a historic Memorandum of Understanding between the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches and the United Bible Societies. As his last official act only forty-eight hours before his passing, this demonstrated the fruits of tireless work that has spanned over a decade. Having spent much time in conversation with him during that trip, partly in preparation for the upcoming annual meeting of the Anglican Oriental-Orthodox International Commission, I know they he will be greatly missed by the Commission, as a founder member and co-Chair, and as a friend and colleague to all who have served on it since its inception.

Within just hours of the news of his passing, I have received countless messages of condolence, which is indicative of the breadth and depth of his engagement with ecumenical partners over decades around the world.

We pray repose for his soul, and comfort for his diocese and the many thousands of his ecumenical friends and colleagues around the world who will dearly miss him.

 

 

Remembering the late Bishop Epiphanius

Remembering the late Bishop Epiphanius, Abbot of St Makarios Monastery, Wadi-el-Natrun, Egypt

 

View the official version via http://www.CopticMediaUK.com

31 July 2018

Today the Coptic Orthodox Church farewells a member of its Holy Synod, a faithful monk, a respected scholar and theologian, and above all a beloved father figure and friend to many around the world.

The late Bishop Epiphanius was found dead outside his cell at St Makarius monastery on 29 July 2018, and while the cause of death is unknown, this tragic loss of life will bring sadness to the hearts of countless members of not only the Coptic community, but to ecumenical friends and acquaintances around the world.

Bishop Epiphanius was born on 27 June 1954 in the Tanta Governorate in Egypt. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, and joined St Makarius monastery on 17 February 1984, becoming a monk on the 21 April of that same year. He became a priest on 17 October 2002 and was ordained a Bishop on 10 March 2013. As Abbot of the monastery, Bishop Epiphanius was well-respected by his peers and was known for his forward thinking and spiritual aspirations. He specialised in Church history, patristics and the translation of Arabic texts into English in order to promote Christian education worldwide.

Speaking of his friendship with Bishop Epiphanius, Archbishop Angaelos, Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London said:

“Bishop Epiphanius will be missed not only as a respected leader and thinker, but as a dear friend and brother. His humble spirit was an inspiration to all, and I have been personally touched by his life and ministry. It is deeply saddening that he will no longer be with us, and it is important at times like this that we focus some of our attention to remembering and celebrating the wonderful witness that Bishop Epiphanius presented, and leaves with us, through his life and ministry. Having been an influential member of our Holy Synod, and Church at large, his ministry will continue to live on in the hearts of those who knew, respected and loved him. Praying repose for his soul and God’s peace and comfort to his monastic community and all those who mourn his death, I am thankful that his life is one that can be remembered with joy and thanksgiving.”

The funeral for Bishop Epiphanius was held in the Monastery of St Makarios on 31 July 2018, officiated and attended by His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, 118th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of Saint Mark, members of the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church and clergy from the monastery.

View the official version via http://www.CopticMediaUK.com

Diocesan Update March 2018

“A city set on a hill cannot be hidden”
(Matthew 5:14)

My dear Fathers, sisters, brothers and children in the Lord.

Grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ during this blessed Lenten period, in which we prepare ourselves to celebrate His glorious and victorious Resurrection.

I give thanks to God for this exciting new journey on which we have embarked together over the past three months since the establishment of our Coptic Orthodox Diocese of London, and ask His blessing upon our road ahead. It is good for us to have milestones at which we prayerfully and thankfully reflect on our service, and this one is as good as any for us to look deeper at how God has already begun to shape His ministry, and bless the foundations of what we hope and pray is still to come.

I have been blessed to be able to celebrate the Divine Liturgy with you at all our parishes across the diocese, and plan to pray at each parish at least twice more this year, as well as celebrating at least one Feast and a Liturgy on the Feast of its patron saint. I am hoping that we can celebrate each parish’s patron saint’s feast together as a community, so that we are able to visit and share more frequently with one another. A parish liturgy schedule has been agreed to the end of June, as well as my Holy Week schedule and Feasts to the end of the year. These will all be made available on our diocesan website www.CopticOrthodox.London in the coming weeks. This is a wonderful opportunity for me to be available to you and meet with you on a regular basis, and above all for us to pray and gather together in the spirit of the early Church, coming together “with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1).

So far, our Clergy Council, comprising of myself and the reverend fathers, has met monthly to discuss current and future parish and diocesan ministry, and we have an ongoing agenda, especially focussed on Christian Education and Formation, and creating a greater sense of community across the diocese. It has been a pleasure working towards a shared vision for the future of our collective ministry, and God is already blessing this work greatly. Each of the Fathers now has a designated diocese-wide responsibility which will also be published on our website. Fr Antonious Thabet has been appointed as Diocesan Vicar-General, as have Fr Isaak Ibrahim as Vicar for Christian Education and Fr Shenouda Asham as Vicar for administrative matters and secretary of the Clergy Council. I give thanks for the commitment I see in our Clergy for you, one-another, and for the diocese as a whole.

One of our major objectives is to establish renewed Sunday School, Youth, Young Adult and Servants’ Preparation curricula, as well as to reinvigorate our Theological College. Priests have been tasked with each of these areas, and a meeting will be held later this year with Christian Education and Youth servants to create working groups to take this initiative forward.

A very exciting day that is coming up is our first Diocesan Spiritual Day for all the family on Saturday 2 June 2018 at our Coptic Orthodox Church Centre in Stevenage. I do hope everyone can join us for this day, which, God willing, will lead to an Annual Diocesan Weekend Retreat commencing in 2019. This will allow us to live in the spirit of those who followed our Lord so faithfully as they “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42).

Youth ministry has always formed a core part of my personal passion, vision and ministry for our Church here in the United Kingdom, and with the new diocese, youth ministry can flourish with extra cooperation and coordination between all the parishes. We have held monthly Joint Youth Committee (JYC) meetings, and have finalised the Coptic Youth Mission (CYM) schedule for the remainder of the year. This is available via www.CopticYouthMission.com and www.CopticOrthodox.London.

We have just completed a wonderful weekend conference which was attended by 175 10-13 year-old children from across our parishes, who were in turn served by a team of more than 50 servants. After our Diocesan Enthronement service, this was the first time for collaboration and cooperation across the parishes, which was joyful, uplifting and seamlessly unified.

It is imperative and core to the vision of our diocese that everyone feels a true sense of belonging and ownership within its family, and I do hope, as time goes on, that there will be more ways to engage with and serve each individual through the variety of ministries already available, as well as others to be established in the future. My hope and prayer is that every member of our diocese feels valued and catered for, and for this reason, I am now tasking a group to lead a new initiative called MyChurch, which will aim to map our current situation, as well as detect potential gaps and facilitate the implementation of ministry strands that will hopefully serve as many of us as humanly possible. In this we endeavour to ensure that there is a place for every member of the Body of Christ, “joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, [bringing about the] growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:16).

Our new communications systems for the diocese are being established, with our new website being www.CopticOrthodox.London. This is still a work in progress. Our Twitter account @CopticDiocese is also now active. We hope to establish a periodical diocesan newsletter shortly that will be potentially disseminated both online and in print form. We are also working towards establishing a database system that will facilitate greater communication across the diocese, as well as effective distribution of information.

I have been able to meet with, and hear from, each parish council independently, and a joint  meeting of all our parish secretaries and treasurers will be held in March to enable them to be better acquainted with, as well as share experiences with and learn from, one another. We also now have a joint diocesan account for shared activities and are working on a unified constitution for our parishes, as well as an overarching constitution for the diocese.

With regards to our broader engagement, we are continuing to build on the ecumenical, interreligious and official relations that have been developing over the past decades, and will now have teams to ensure that we remain present and effective in the wider community that surrounds us. In order to maintain the breadth of this engagement, and parity at every level, His Holiness Pope Tawadros II has also formally conferred the ecclesial title of Archbishop of London, and this is why you will sometimes see my title as Archbishop.

A matter that requires your prayers is our search for a new Central London base that will act as a diocesan hub for our London-based ministries. We are in the process of actively searching, and hope to secure something by the end of this year, God willing.

As you see, it has been a busy and blessed three months. Above all, I am so incredibly thankful for the gracious acceptance, love and support I have felt and experienced from every one of you. To reiterate, this is our diocese, which can only work at its very best if we are all actively involved. In this spirit, please accept this as an open invitation for any suggestions you may have regarding any aspect of the ministry and life of our diocese.

Beside our diocesan motto “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14), I have always been inspired by Nehemiah 2:20 in which we read “the God of Heaven Himself will prosper us, therefore we His servants will arise and build”. Placing these two side by side, we are inspired to work together under God’s guidance, knowing that if we do, His light can, and indeed will, shine in our Church, and through us into His world.

Finally, I ask you to keep me, each other, and our Diocese in your prayers during these blessed Lenten days, as I assure you that you are all in mine.

Your servant,

+Angaelos
Archbishop of London

Statement by Archbishop Angaelos on Helwan Church Attack

Coptic Orthodox Church UK
Media and Communications Office 

Coptic Orthodox Church (Europe)
                           Media and Communications Office

***View Official Releases via www.CopticMediaUK.com***

Comment by Archbishop Angaelos of London after the attack on the Church of St Mina in Helwan, Egypt

30 December 2017

This should be a time at which individuals and families are preparing to receive a New Year, and in the case of Coptic Orthodox Christians, to celebrate the Feast of the Nativity (Christmas) on the 7 January according to the ancient Julian Calendar. I am saddened however that we find ourselves once again mourning the loss of the precious lives of innocent children, women and men who did no more than attend their local parish to pray as millions do around the world.

Yesterday’s attack on the Church of St Mina in Helwan, on the outskirts of Cairo, indeed directly targeted the indigenous Christian community of Egypt, but alongside the Christians who lost their lives, there was at least one Muslim member of the security services who paid the ultimate price to protect his fellow Egyptian citizens exercising their right to worship.

Even at this painful time, the Christians of Egypt, who have mourned over 100 members in the past year as a result of targeted attacks on Churches and individuals, continue to do what they have done for centuries; they are resilient, forgiving, hopeful, and praying for Egypt, and its leadership, during this trying time of its contemporary history.

I hope that the extraordinary reaction of this faithful community that I am honoured to call my own might transform the hearts of those who continue to seek its destruction.

*Ends*

BBC Radio 4 Today Programme on Coptic Church

Frank Gardner reports from Egypt on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, covering the plight of Coptic Orthodox Christians in Egypt, including an interview with Archbishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of London, and the grandfather of Maggie who was killed in a terrorist attack.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09drjpr Video footage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-42020135/coptic-christian-i-forgive-the-people-who-killed-my-granddaughter-maggie