Our Beloved Pope Shenouda III departed at 5:15 p.m. on Saturday evening March 17, 2012

From The Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate

In complete submission to the will of the Lord,

the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate

                 informs the people of Egypt, the whole world,

and the Coptic Orthodox Church worldwide,

Of the departure of His Holiness, Our Beloved Pope Shenouda III.

The 117 Pope of Alexandria, the Archbishop and Patriarch of the Sea of St. Mark,

who departed on the hope of resurrection

and joined the  church of the saints

at 5:15 p.m. on Saturday evening March 17, 2012.

We pray for the repose of his pure soul,

and consolation for everyone.

Details will be provided respectively after the meeting of the Holy Synod.

Source:  St. Mark's Church of Cleveland, Ohio.

From the land of the great ancient Egyptian civilization, the land visited by Our Lord and the Holy Family, and from the line of renowned predecessors such as St. Mark the Apostle, St. Athanasius the Apostolic, and St. Cyril the Great, comes the author of the renaissance of the Coptic Orthodox Church: H. H. Pope Shenouda III.
A distinguished and prominent religious leader, a profound theologian, a gifted preacher, a talented author, a spiritual father, a man of God his entire life.
His Holiness was born Nazeer Gayed on August 3, 1923, to a pious Christian family in Egypt. By the age of 16, H. H. was active in the Sunday School movement, which wrought to enrich Christian Education in the Coptic Orthodox Church.
When H. H. graduated from Cairo University, he joined the Coptic Orthodox Seminary, and upon graduation, joined the faculty of the seminary.
On July 18, 1954, H. H. chose the solitude of the Egyptian desert and the angelic life of monasticism over everything else, taking the example of St. Anthony the Great. As a monk, and later a monk priest, H. H. carried the name of the Christian monk and was know as Fr. Antonious El-Syriani.
Wishing to live in complete solitude and devotion to our Lord, he became a hermit and lived in a cave that he had carved out himself for a period of six years. On September 30, 1962, he was called by the late Pope Cyril VI to be consecrated Bishop of Christian Education and President of the Coptic Orthodox Theological Seminary. He was known as His Grace Bishop Shenouda. Through his leadership of the seminary, the number of students tripled.
On November 14, 1971, His Grace Bishop Shenouda was consecrated as His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, the 117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark.
Since that blessed day, the Coptic Orthodox Church has witnessed a remarkable revival through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the pastoral care of H. H. Pope Shenouda III. H. H. conducts a weekly meeting, which is attended by over seven thousand of the faithful at the Cathedral of St. Mark in Cairo.
H. H has been the editor-in-chief of El-Keraza Magazine, the official publication of the Coptic Orthodox Church, since 1962. He became the first patriarch of Alexandria since the Fifth Century to have been Dean of the Theological Seminary and continues to lecture at the branches of the Seminary in Cairo, Alexandria, and abroad and the Higher Institute of Coptic Studies. He also established other branches of the Seminary in Egypt as well as in America, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
His Holiness is the author of 101 books on a variety of subjects, over half of which have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, and other languages.
He has ordained more than eighty Metropolitans and Bishops and over 600 priests since 1971. He gives special attention to the youth of the church. H. H. has said many times, “A church without youth is a church without a future.” And one of our youth once replied to H. H., “And youth without the church are youth without a future.”
H. H. also gives special attention to the service of women in the Coptic Orthodox Church. H. H. said, and I quote, “We felt a great need of the work of women and we wanted women to have a certain order and service in the church, not only to have girls as Sunday School teacher who give a part of their time whenever they can, but we want girls and women to give their whole life to God and serve the Church.”
Despite his many responsibilities, H. H. usually manages to spend three days a week in the monastery. His love of monasticism has led a monastic revival in the Coptic Orthodox Church. He has ordained hundreds of monks and nuns and reestablished many monasteries and convents. He is the first pope to establish Coptic monasteries outside of Egypt, which presently number nine.
One of the most remarkable things about the growth of the Coptic Orthodox Church is her expansion worldwide. When H. H. became pope in 1971, there were only four churches in North America. Today, there are over 100.
The year 1996 witnessed the installation of the fist two Diocesan bishops for the United States, one for Los Angeles and the other for the Southern United States. There are plans to further group the churches into regional dioceses in the near future.
H. H. has established mission churches in the U. S. Virgin Islands in St. Thomas, Bermuda, and St. Kitts. Moreover, he founded the first Coptic Orthodox Church in South America in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and the second in Bolivia.
Under his leadership, the Coptic Orthodox Church has also witnessed a growth in Australia and New Zealand, where there are currently twenty-eight churches. In 1999, we witnessed the enthronement of the first bishop over Melbourne, Australia and New Zealand. In Europe, there are currently over fifty church and ten bishops. Africa currently has two bishops serving in missions in nine African countries.
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III is well known for his deep commitment to Christian Unity. In an address he gave at an ecumenical forum during the International Week of Prayer in 1974, he declared, “The whole Christian world is anxious to see the church unite. Christian people, being fed up with divisions, are pushing their church leaders to do something about church unity and I am sure that the Holy Spirit is inspiring us.”
H. H. has emphasized that Christian Unity must be found upon a unity of faith and not a unity of jurisdiction. As a result, H. H. has paid many visits to the various sister Orthodox churches and their patriarchs, such as those of Constantinople, Moscow, Romania, and Antioch. A full communion of these churches with the Oriental Orthodox Churches is very close.
In 1973, H. H. was the first Coptic Orthodox pope to visit the Vatican in over 1500 years. In this visit, both H. H. Pope Shenouda III and H. H. Pope Paul VI signed a common declaration on the issue of Christology and agreed to establish joint commissions for dialogue on unity. There have also been dialogues with various Protestant churches worldwide.
Under the leadership of H. H., the Coptic Orthodox Church is a full member of the World Council of Churches, the Middle East Council of Church, the All-African Council of Churches, the National Council of the Churches in Christ in the U.S.A., the Canadian Council of Churches, and the Australian Council of Churches. In May 2000, he established the first ecumenical office, in the Archdiocese of North America.


 Source: Coptic Orthodox Church Network

May God Give the Condolence  for all the Christian World in General and the Orthodox Christians in particular!!!

THE FIRST PROOF: Explicit Verses On the Divinity of Christ

Section II

This proof consists of the following:
(A) Proof that the Lord Jesus Christ is God
(B) Proof that there is only One God, that is, God
(C) Conclusion: Christ is This One God, that is, He is God

(A) Christ Is God

(1) (Rom. 9:5): St. Paul the Apostle said in his discourse about the Jews: "and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen. " The phrase 'over all ' gives power to Christ's Divinity; He is not God of certain people only, as the pagan gods are. The expression 'eternally' signifies the continuity of His worship and the infinity of His Divinity.

(2) (John 20:28): When Thomas said to the Lord: "My Lord and my God!", the Lord Jesus Christ accepted the title and reproached Thomas for believing only after seeing when he should have believed without seeing.
(3) (John 1:1): "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. " Although Jehovah's Witnesses, in their heterodoxy, say: "and the Word was a God", yet they do not deny the Divinity of Christ and consider Him second to Jehovah. In order not to enter into translation controversies with them, we say that their mere belief that He is a God leads to the fact that He is God, because there is only One God.

  
(4) (Matt. 1:23): The angel was referring to Isaiah's prophecy: "'Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and bear a
Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel" which is translated, 'God with us"' (Is. 7:14). The fact that Christ is 'God with us' is an obvious profession of His Divinity. That is why the prophet Isaiah explains this meaning when he says:

(5) (Is. 9:6): "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace". It is probably the phrase 'Mighty God' in this verse that has made Jehovah's Witnesses
say that Christ is a Mighty God, although in their opinion, He is not God. Strangely enough, this verse is from the Book of Isaiah in which the clauses: "I am the Lord and there is no other; there is no God besides Me", are repeated many times (Is. 45:5,6,21,22).

(6) (Heb. 1:7,8): When St. Paul the Apostle explained how the Lord Jesus Christ is greater than the angels, he said: "And of the angels He says: 'Who makes His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire. 'But to the Son He says: 'Your throne, God, is for ever and ever. ' " St. Paul quoted this verse from Psalm 45, verse 6, where the reference to the Divinity of Christ is very clear.

(7) (1 Tim. 3:16): "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. " It is obvious, from this verse, that Christ is God who was manifested in the flesh. But the heresy of Jehovah's Witnesses presents another translation: "Great is the mystery of godliness which was manifested in the flesh", which is incompatible with the continuation of the same verse. Because how could the mystery of godliness be seen by angels? Or how was it received up in glory? Was it not Christ who was seen by angels, ascended to heaven in glory, preached among the Gentiles and believed in the world? However, the theological facts are not based upon one verse: (1 Tim. 3:16) is similar to another verse:

(8) (Col. 2:9): St. Paul the Apostle says about the Lord Jesus Christ: "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily. " The phrase "all the fullness of the Godhead" adds to the power of this verse. If all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in the Lord Jesus Christ, then He lacks nothing and He is God, and there is no other God but Him, because there is nothing outside the fullness. The expression 'bodily' signifies that This Godhead took a body or was manifested in the flesh as the previous verse (1 Tim. 3:16) explains, and as is
explained in the following verse:

(9) (Acts 20:28): "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." It is known that God is Spirit (John 4:24) and a spirit has no blood. So, God did not purchase the Church with His blood unless He had taken flesh and sacrificed His blood for her. Here, we reach the same meaning of "God was manifested in the flesh".

       

(B) There is only One God

(1) This is clear from the first of the Ten Commandments: "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Ex. 20:3);(Deut. 5:7). 

(2) And from other verses in the Book of Deuteronomy, such as: "the LORD Himself is God,. there is none other besides Him" (Deut. 5:35), and: "Hear, 0 Israel.. The LORD our God, the LORD is one!" (Deut. 6:4)
(3) The doctrine of One God is also clear in many verses in the Book of Isaiah, among which are:
(a) (Is. 43: 1 0,1 I): "I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the LORD, and besides Me there is no Saviour." This is the chapter from which Jehovah's Witnesses extracted the phrase: " 'You are My witnesses,' says the LORD" (Is. 43:10,12).
(b) (Is. 44:6): "I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God."
(c) (Is. 45:5,6): "I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me."
(d) (Is. 45:21,22): "Have not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Saviour; there is none besides Me. For I am God, and there is no other."
(e) (Is. 46:9): "For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me."
(4) Another testimony on the Oneness of God is in the Book of Hosea the Prophet: "Yet I am the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me, for there is no Saviour besides Me" (Hos. 13:4). 

 (5) We find the same testimony in the New Testament:
(a) (Rom. 3:30): "...since there is one God"
(b) (1 Cor. 8:4): "...there is no other God but one"
(c) (James 2:19): "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe - and tremble!" This means that even the demons, unfruitful as they are, know very well that there is one God and tremble from His Judgment. If there is mention in the Holy Bible of the word 'gods', it does not at all mean Deity. Sometimes it means the pagan gods as is mentioned in the Psalms: "For the LORD is great and greatly
to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the people are idols" (Ps. 96:4,5), and: "Worship Him, all you gods" (Ps. 97:7). Naturally, those who worship another are not true gods.
Another example, said by the Divine Inspiration in Psalm 82, is: "I said, 'You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes."' (Ps. 82: 6,7). Naturally, he who dies and falls can not be a God. But it is a symbolical expression signifying power and authority, as when some of the Jews' enemies were afraid from the return of the Ark of the Covenant and said: " Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness" (1 Sam.4:8). They described all the people as gods which has a symbolic or a metaphoric meaning.

(C) Conclusion: Christ is God

If there is only one God, by the testimony of the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible, and if Christ is a God by the same testimony, then Christ is This One God. God says in the Book of Isaiah: "And there is no other God besides Me", and in the same Book the Divine Inspiration says that Christ is a "Mighty God." What does this mean other than the Two are One?

Source: Divinity of Christ by H.H. Pope Shenouda III

.....To be continued in the next section....

The Divinity of Christ - Introduction

 In the following sections, we will try see the teachings of  H.H. Pope Shenouda III in the book named the
Divinity of Christ. It is the fundamental teachings of Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Church strongly bases the Christianity on the Divinity of Jesus Christ. This book addresses the proofs of the Divinity of Christ with biblical verses and the nature itself. The teaching will be presented in several continuous sections. Each section makes one post. Today the introductory of the book is presented. The teachings are in English to make other non-Ethiopians to able to reach the concepts related to the Dogmas and cannons of our church as the blog is for all African Nations. Nice Reading!!!

The Divinity of Christ is one of the most important and vital subjects in the Christian doctrine. Many heresies rose against it in various eras, and the Church confronted them and replied to them. The most dangerous was the Arian Heresy which reached its peak in the fourth century and led to many Ecumenical Councils being held. The first Ecumenical Council in history was held in 325 A.D., attended by 318 bishops from all the churches of the world. Arius and his heresy were refuted, and the Christian Creed was formulated. Nevertheless, the residues of Arianism have continued to spread even till this
day.
Many atheist philosophers and scientists rose against the Divinity of Christ. The heresy of Jehovah's Witnesses rose against the Divinity of Christ. It was allegedly founded, in Pennsylvania, America, in 1872. Then in 1909 its headquarters moved to New York where a community was established under the name of "Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society". They published many books, the most important of which were: Let
God Be True, The Truth Shall Set You Free, The Harp of God, The Rich Man, Deliverance, Creation, The New Heaven and the New Earth, Government and Peace, Protection, Reconciliation, and various other publications called Tracts.

In the following posts, we will try to discuss the subject of the Divinity of Christ in a positive light, and prove this fundamental doctrine from the Holy Bible. We will discuss all the objections and reply to them in due course.

Many of the saints faced these objections and were contemporary with the Arian Movement. Among them were:
(1) Saint Athanasius the Apostolic who wrote Contra Arianos,
(2) Saint Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers who wrote a treatise against the Arians called De Trinitate,
(3) Saint Basil the Great,
(4) Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa,
(5) Saint Gregory Theologus of Nazianzum who wrote theological treatises and
(6) Saint Cyril of Jerusalem who delivered lectures to the catechumens.

In our research on the Divinity of Christ, we will give proofs which will include clear verses pertaining to His Divinity with respect to:
(1) Him being the Logos (the Word)
(2) His relation with the Holy Spirit
(3) His relation with Heaven
(4) His relation with the Father
(5) Him being the Only Son
(6) Him being the Only Son of God
(7) Him being the Lord
(8) Him being the Redeemer and Saviour
(9) The belief in Him

(10) His Divine qualities
(11) His authority over all Creation
(12) His miracles

I began this research in July 1953 when I published the first article against Jehovah's Witnesses in the Sunday School Magazine, then in consecutive articles during 1953 / 54. I taught it as a subject in the Theological Seminary during 1954 and also in the 1960s when I was bishop of the Seminary. I replied to many questions pertaining to this subject in general lectures. And finally, I thought it fit to publish it as a subject of study to be taught in the various departments of our Theological Seminary.

Source: Divinity of Christ by H.H. Pope Shenouda III

.....To be continued in the next section....