On Sunday, May 30, the Supreme Administrative Court in Egypt issued a final decision in the case of a Copt who sued the Church for denying him authorization to remarry in the Church after divorcing his wife. The court decreed that the Egyptian constitution guarantees his right to remarry in the Church.

This decision, however, is contrary to the teachings of the Holy Scriptures and the Orthodox Church. His Holiness Pope Shenouda III respectfully rejected the Egyptian court’s verdict, saying, “…this is a strictly religious matter for which the Bible serves as our only reference.”

His Grace Bishop Serapion recorded a pastoral message to all parishioners in the diocese expressing his support and solidarity with His Holiness in this matter. The message may be heard and downloaded here:

1. I am very grateful to you for the eagerness with which you welcomed my words on prayer, because you have made me happy. Happy is he that speaketh in the ears of those who hearken (Ecclesiasticus 25:9). I am convinced of this, not only by the applause and praise that I received, but also by what I saw you doing. For, as I was exhorting you not to pray against your enemies and telling you that we irritate God by so doing, and legislate in opposition to Him (for, He Himself said, Pray for your enemies [cf. St. Matthew 5:44], and when we pray against our enemies, we demand that He abolish His own law); as, therefore, I was saying these things and the like, I saw many among you striking their faces and breasts, groaning bitterly and stretching their hands out to Heaven, asking forgiveness for having uttered such prayers. Then I, too, lifting up my eyes to Heaven, gave thanks to God that the word of my teaching had borne fruit for us so quickly.

O God and Lord of the Powers, and Maker of all creation, Who, because of Thy clemency and incomparable mercy, didst send Thine Only-Begotten Son and our Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of mankind, and with His venerable Cross didst tear asunder the record of our sins, and thereby didst conquer the rulers and powers of darkness;

Receive from us sinful people, O merciful Master, these prayers of gratitude and supplication, and deliver us from every destructive and gloomy transgression, and from all visible and invisible enemies who seek to injure us.

I. It is the Day of the Resurrection, and my Beginning has good auspices. Let us then keep the Festival with splendor,  and let us embrace one another. Let us say Brethren, even to those who hate us; much more to those who have done or suffered anything out of love for us. Let us forgive all offenses for the Resurrection’s sake: let us give one another pardon, I for the noble tyranny which I have suffered (for I can now call it noble); and you who exercised it, if you had cause to blame my tardiness; for perhaps this tardiness may be more precious in God’s sight than the haste of others. For it is a good thing even to hold back from God for a little while, as did the great Moses of old, and Jeremiah  later on; and then to run readily to Him when He calls, as did Aaron and Isaiah, so only both be done in a dutiful spirit;— the former because of his own want of strength; the latter because of the Might of Him That calls.

If any man be devout and love God, let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast. If any man be a wise servant, let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord. If any have labored long in fasting, let him now receive his recompense.

If any have wrought from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward. If any have come at the third hour, let him with thankfulness keep the feast.

If any have arrived at the sixth hour, let him have no misgivings; because he shall in nowise be deprived therefor.

If any have delayed until the ninth hour, let him draw near, fearing nothing.

If any have tarried even until the eleventh hour, let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness; for the Lord, who is jealous of his honor, will accept the last even as the first; he gives rest unto him who comes at the eleventh hour, even as unto him who has wrought from the first hour.

Today we rejoice as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ, Who by His death trampled down death, and bestowed eternal life upon those in the tomb.

At the beginning of this year, the Church offered a group of righteous martyrs in Nag Hammadi. We pray that God may repose their pure souls in the Paradise of Joy. We also pray for their families that God may grant them the joy of the Resurrection and the heavenly consolation. We also pray for their murderers so that God may open their eyes and lead them to the way of truth. Today, as we remember the victims of Nag Hammadi, it is not to mourn the viciousness of the crime and the injustice that is falling on our brothers and sisters the Christians there, but rather to see our martyrs through the light of the power of the resurrection of our Living Christ.

On March 21, 2010, (12 Baramhat 1726 A.M.) the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria observes the Sixth Sunday of the Great Lent, in which we remember how we have been enlightened through baptism.

On March 7, 2010, (28 Meshir 1726 A.M.) the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria observes the Fourth Sunday of the Great Lent, in which we remember how our Lord Jesus Christ broke all barriers to lead the Samaritan woman to the light of His knowledge and grant her the Living Water.

 On February 21, 2010, (14 Meshir 1726 A.M.) the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria observes the Second Sunday of the Great Lent, in which we remember our Lord Jesus Christ overcoming temptation and evil in the wilderness as He fasted for us forty days and forty nights.

On February 14, 2010, (7 Meshir 1726 A.M.) the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria observed the First Sunday of the Great Lent, in which our Lord teaches us, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on… But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6.25, 33).

Our Coptic Church has a very rich musical heritage, for music has its deep effect on the soul, as mentioned before. Saint Paul said; “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19).

Music is used, since old, to move the believers’ desires and emotions for praying and worshipping.

When one hears a sad hymn or song, it moves the tender emotions, thus, elevating the human feelings, and subliming the human thought. This causes one to come to one’s self - wake one’s senses, and remember the Lord and seek repentance and reform.

By the same token, the joyful tones-the festal hymns, gives one’s soul peace and spiritual happiness.

This is the nature of the Church hymns and songs, which present special words with theological meaning, and specific dogma, for certain occasions .

From Monday, January 25 through Wednesday January 27, the Coptic Orthodox Church observes the Fast of Jonah, a three-day fast commemorating the fast of Jonah the Prophet in the belly of the great fish and culminating in the Feast of Jonah the Prophet on Thursday, January 28, 2009.

Let revelry keep away from our rational entertainments, and foolish vigils, too, that revel in intemperance. For revelry is an inebriating pipe, the chain. The passage is obscure. of an amatory bridge, that is, of sorrow. And let love, and intoxication, and senseless passions, be removed from our choir. Burlesque singing is the boon companion of drunkenness. A night spent over drink invites drunkenness, rouses lust, and is audacious in deeds of shame. For if people occupy their time with pipes, and psalteries, and choirs, and dances, and Egyptian clapping of hands, and such disorderly frivolities, they become quite immodest and intractable, beat on cymbals and drums, and make a noise on instruments of delusion; for plainly such a banquet, as seems to me, is a theatre of drunkenness.

Words about music are secondary to music itself. The true meaning of music lies in the aural experience. Other experiences are merely adjuncts or glosses on the acoustical event. Music is inseparable from function as is the case of music in the Bible.

I. Definition of Music

The science or art of incorporating pleasing, expressive or intelligible combinations of vocal or instrumental tones into a composition having definite structure and continuity. (Webster Third New International Dictionary, vol. II).

Music is the most abstract of the arts. Its components: pitch, duration, texture, rhythm, color and ultimately form, speak their own language. The composing experience which brings these together in a satisfying wholeness, is to be matched in the listening experience, which then must comprehend this wholeness. (Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, vol. IV ,p. 311).

Throughout the past month the world has witnessed the unprecedented visitation of the holy Virgin Mary in the lands of Egypt, across several churches, by tens of thousands of eyewitnesses, and countless miracles and healings.

The blessed prophet David shows that those who put their trust in God were most courageous when he says, "Act like men and let your hearts be strong, all you who hope in the Lord" (Ps. 31:24, LXX). For those plants which are in pleasure gardens both increase, bloom, and are raised to a great height by abundant streams of waters. And a man’s soul, by the comforts and encouragements of the Holy Spirit, becomes brave in piety, is made firm in faith, and gets that unbreakable patience which the blessed Paul admired more than all other virtues and so says, "And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint" (Romans 5:3-5). Therefore, patience is the supplier and winner of all good to us, a way of approval and esteem, a nurse of the hope which is unto the life to come.

People react quite differently when confronting suffering. Some cry out in anger; others rebel in frustration. Another might seek scapegoat to vent his frustrations. A fourth might instead abandon the way of purity and righteousness, and decide to live a life of pleasure and lust, feeling almost justified to lust for his light affliction.