New Coptic Pope to Visit New Catholic Pope

Both the Coptic Church and the Catholic Church have chosen new leaders in the past year, and now Coptic Pope Tawadros II has told the Vatican Ambassador to Egypt that he will visit his new Catholic counterpart, Pope Francis, at the Vatican soon.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the late Pope Shenouda III's 1973 visit to Pope Paul VI at the Vatican, which marked the first direct meeting between the Roman and Alexandrian Popes since prior to the Council of Chalcedon in 451AD. Pope Paul VI had earlier repatriated a relic of Saint Mark from Venice to Egypt on the occasion of the dedication of the new Coptic Cathedral in Abbasiyya in 1968, as a gesture to Shenouda's predecessor, Pope Cyril VI. Subsequently, in 2000, the late Pope John Paul II visited Egypt and met with Shenouda prior to making a pilgrimage to Mount Sinai and the Holy Land. The two churches have also maintained an ecumenical dialogue at lower levels.

Sunday's Coptic "Altar Lot": A Recent Revival of an Ancient Tradition

The Altar Lot Electing Shenouda III in 1971

At the Cathedral of Saint Mark in Abbasiyya, Cairo, on Sunday, the 118th successor of Saint Mark the Evangelist, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the Preaching of Saint Mark, will be chosen — by a blindfolded child drawing one of three pieces of paper from a sealed jar. Of course, the three candidates were chosen through a complex process that involved the Holy Synod (the Coptic bishops), the lay leadership of the church, and a narrowing vote by an electorate of prominent Copts in politics, society, and civil office. The final three names, however, are not chosen by vote. Copts believe they will be chosen by God's will.

Many commentators are treating this process, called by Copts the "Altar Lot" (Al-Qur‘a al-Haykaliyya), or "Altar lottery" or "Altar  ballot." is the ancient manner of electing Coptic Popes. It both is and it isn't. It has been used occasionally throughout the history of the Egyptian Church, but was only formally established in 1957, and was used for the election of the late Pope Shenouda III in 1971.

As The Egypt Independent notes, the process this Sunday will go like this:

During the altar lottery scheduled for Sunday, the names of the three final candidates will be written on slips of paper and presented to a blindfolded young Coptic boy, who will pick one name out of a glass receptacle.

[Election Committee Spokesman Bishop] Paula told Al-Masry Al-Youm that acting Pope Pachomius will choose 12 boys between 5 and 8 years old. The deadline for Coptic families who want to nominate their children will be 12 pm on Friday, Paula added.

"The acting pope will be solely responsible for the selection of the child, and the names of candidates will be clearly written on the papers before the cameras, and will be placed in a transparent glass vase, sealed with red wax. The vase will be put on the altar during mass prayer," Paula said.

Following the prayer the vase will be taken off the altar and one of the 12 boys will be blindfolded to choose a paper that bears the name of the new pope.

Since the Altar Lot process began to be publicized I've seen suggestions that the Egyptian President, the American President, the Catholic Pope, or the Archbishop of Canterbury ought to be elected in such away. The first two ideas are frivolous, but for religious leaders, why shouldn't religious leaders be chosen by God rather than humans, by random lot?

But the process, though long known in the Church, was until the middle of the last century the exception rather than the rule; an ancient method used, usually, to decide matters when an election was in dispute. It only became the formal rule in 1957.

The origins, at least as claimed, are indeed ancient. Egyptians point to the fact that, according to the Acts of the Apostles, after the suicide of the traitor Judas, the surviving 11 Apostles chose his successor by lot (Acts 1, 23-26, King James Version): 

²³ And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.²⁴ And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,²⁵ That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.²⁶ And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

The idea of election by lot was only one way of choosing the Pope; as The Coptic Encyclopedia article on the Popes notes:

Traditionally the popes of Alexandria were chosen from among the monks of the Coptic monasteries by a council composed of the chiefs of the clergy and the ARCHONS (chiefs of the Coptic laity). The election was then confirmed by a synod of bishops, and their choice was ratified by the civil authority.  Immediately after the death of a pontiff, news of his decease was circulated by letters from Alexandria to all bishops, abbots, and archons. It called for an assembly, first for the appointment of a senior archbishop to serve as patriarch after securing sanction from the temporal sovereign of the country. Subsequently the faithful prepared for the election by praying, fasting, and holding vigils. Habitually in olden times the problem was solved by the will and testament of the deceased pontiff, who recommended a specific person to follow him. In case of disagreement among the living, a protracted method of selection and elimination was pursued until a final decision was reached.

The nominee was required to fulfill certain conditions. He had to be a person of free birth, the son of a "crowned" mother, that is, of a woman in her first marriage (widows remarrying were never crowned at a second ceremony). He also had to be of sound body and mind, unmarried, over fifty years of age, never tarnished by bloodshed, a man of learning with a blameless life and pure doctrine, a dweller in the desert, but no bishop. This last limitation was enforced with unwavering rigor from the beginning until the reign of the seventy-fifth patriarch, CYRIL III, in 1235.

Oddly, the choice of lots is said to come from a Muslim recommendation that the Copts adopt a Nestorian practice:

It is said that under Muhammadan rule in the eleventh century, a vizier recommended that the Copts use the Nestorian custom of elimination from a hundred candidates until they arrived at a list of three names that were inscribed on three slips of paper. These were to be placed with a fourth, bearing the name of Jesus Christ, in an envelope on the altar. After the celebration of the liturgical offices, an innocent child was asked to draw the winning name. If it happened to be Jesus, all three candidates were rejected as unworthy, and the procedure was repeated until a name was found. This method was first adopted by the Copts in the election of the sixty-fifth patriarch, Sanutius or SHENUTE II (1032-1046), and afterward was used only occasionally in doubtful cases until the election of the present pope, SHENOUDA III, in 1971. The only difference from the Nestorian system was that the Copts placed the names under rather than on the altar. Subsequently the acting archbishop proclaimed the selected name in church, and the congregation confirmed the selection by acclamation, shouting agios, agios (holy, holy).

So the tradition is ancient (nearly 1000 years) in its origin, but only sporadically used thereafter. Shenute II (the name is the same as Shenouda) was not a very well-regarded Pope, accused of corruption and Simony (the selling of bishoprics). The issue came up again, in the 1145 election of Pope Michael V

When his predecessor, GABRIEL II, died and the bishops and archons began their arduous search for a worthy successor, a monk of Anba Maqar by the name of Wanas or Yunus ibn Kadran came forth and requested the nomination for himself. This automatically rendered him unworthy of consideration in the eyes of the majority of the congregation, despite the support that he secured from a few members of the community. Thus, it was decided in the absence of a clear choice to write three names on three cards and a fourth with the name of Jesus Christ and place them on the altar. After praying for three successive days and nights, they asked an innocent child to pick up the winning name. Michael's name emerged from the lot as the Lord's candidate. Michael was made a deacon,

Michael, though his reign was short, is remembered as a positive figure, though he died after only eight months in office. As noted in both quotes, in these days, it was apparently the practice to write a fourth slip of paper with the name "Jesus Christ Our Savior," and if that slip was chosen it was interpreted as a sign that the Holy Spirit did not approve of any of the three names.

Some sources note that the process was used "occasionally," generally when there was no consensus among the monks, the Holy Synod, or a will of the previous Pope stating his preference for a successor. Without time to go to a major research library that's about as specific as I can get; I haven't come up with a list of how many times the process was used. But as the official and canonical means of election, it was really only officially revived with the 1957 canonical rules.

I should perhaps note that the prominent Egyptian journalist Mohamed Heikal, in his 1983 book Autumn of Fury, an object lesson of why politicians shouldn't jail writers since it is a virulent hatchet job on Anwar Sadat after his assassination (Sadat jailed Heikal), devotes considerable space to the clashes between Sadat and the late Pope Shenouda, and in the process claims that Sadat knew, before the Altar Lot, that Shenouda would win, implying that the process was somehow rigged.

I don't give much credence to this; I've talked to many people who were present at events where Heikal was not, but later claimed inside knowledge, who claim he's completely full of ... unreliability. His description of the altar lot process is wrong (he says it occurs in a darkened room) and he gives no explanation of how the process could be fixed. (The Government does have some role in deciding who the final candidates can be, and must approve the election after the fact. But we've already seen that potentially controversial candidates were excluded long before the final three.)

Ironically (or perhaps appropriately), Mohamed Heikal's family name is the same word as the Arabic word Copts use for "altar" and which appears in the term for altar lot: haykal. A little Divine irony perhaps?

I'd ignore Heikal, not just here but in many other areas, but the Church may be sensitive about this since it has said that a television camera will be trained on the container with the lots, to guarantee there is no interference.

So the altar lot is both ancient and modern, an old means of breaking deadlocks introduced half a century ago to guarantee a lack of chicanery.

Coptic Papal Candidates Chosen, Vote Moved Up

The process of choosing a new Pope for Egypt's Coptic Church has seemed stalled for months, but in the past few days it has not only started up again but now the election date has apparently been advanced from Decenber 2 to November 4,

Pope Shenouda III died in March. The rather cumbersome election process was expected to take until July or so, but moved at a glacial pace, largely because the election of an Egyptian President was also under way. There was much speculation and plenty of rumor about political maneuvering within the Church's Holy Synod, possibly due to concerns about the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and growing tensions in Coptic-Muslim relations.

In August the Church finally announced the names of 17 candidates for the position. An electoral commission was due to narrow that list from 17 to about seven, later to be submitted to a vote of seberal thousand selected Copts who will narrow it to three. The Electoral Commission began its work on October 4 and was widely expected to take until November; December 2 was named as the expected date for the Altar Lot, when a blindfolded young boy will choose one name from the final three.

But last Saturday it was suddenly announced that the Electoral Commission had narrowed the number of candidates to five. eliminating most of the best known (and most divisive) figures. It was announced that the election would be held November 24 to choose the three candidates, with the Altar Lot on December 2.  I was starting to write this post explaining events to date when it was suddenly announced that the election to narrow the list will be held October 29, less than two weeks from now, and the Altar Lot on November 4.

What had been a glacial process has in a matter of days been speeded up to elect the new Pope quickly. Whatever considerations (political and otherwise) had been slowing the process down have apparently been fixed.

My earlier attempt at handicapping the papal race on this blog discussed three key candidates. None of them made it into the final five, so you may want to consider that track record in judging my prognostication powers when it comes to choosing Coptic Popes. The controversial and divisive Bishop Bishoy, Secrertay of the Holy Synod and a man who has been "running for Pope" for years, failed to make it into the final list, as did Bishop Youannes, Patriarchal Secretary to Shenouda and a very powerful figure.

The Final Five Candidates

By choosing only five candidates rather than seven, the rest of the selection process is streamlined a bit, since the elections will choose three of the five to go to the Altar Lot. Also, only two of the five are bishops; the other three are priest-monks.  

The tradition of the Coptic Church historically was to choose the Pope from the monks (though bishops are also chosen from the monks only, not from parish priests). In the past century soeme Popes hae been chosen from the bishops. Some conservatives insist the choice of bishops is uncanonical. Shenouda was a General Bishop, a bishop without a specific see but rather head of a department in the church; some of the candidates, such as Bishoy, were both General Bishops but also held diocesan sees. The two bishops remaining under consideration, however, are a General Bishop and an Auxiliary Bishop.

The finalists are:
Bishop Tawadros: Auxiliary Bishop for Behuira, auxiliary to Bishop Bakhomius. A member of the Holy Synod, Tawadros was born in 1952 and studied pharmacy at the University of Alexandria. He was ordained in June 1997.

Bishop Raphael: Auxiliary Bishop of Central Cairo and Heliopolis, former aide to the late Pope Shenouda III and a member of the Holy Synod. Born in Cairo in 1954 and a graduate from Ain Shams University's medical faculty, Raphael was ordained as a bishop in June 1997.

The the other three candidates are priest/monks:

Father Raphael Ava Mina: A monk at the monastery of St. Mina (Mar Mina) in Alexandria governorate. He was a disciple of the late Pope Cyril (Kirillos) VI, considered by many Copts to be a saint. He is the oldest candidate; some reports give his birth as early as 1924, but 1942 seems correct, so he is 70 rather than in his late 80s. He has a law degree from the University of Ain Shams.

Father Seraphim Al-Suryani: A monk at the Virgin Mary monastery in Wadi Natrun. Born in 1959 in Cairo, Seraphim has a science degree from the University of Ain Shams.

Father Bakhomius Al-Suryani: Also monk at the monastery of Virgin Mary in Wadi Natrun. Born in Aswan in 1963, he is the youngest candidate and holds degrees in science and education.

Handicapping the OTHER Egyptian Election: the Coptic Pope

With the Egyptian Presidential electoral race a confused mess, what about the other major leadership race in the country: the selection of a new Coptic Pope? Since Pope Shenouda III died in March, the hierarchy and followers of the largest Christian denomination in the Middle East have been gearing up for the election of the 118th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of Preaching of Saint Mark.

With the end of the 40-day mourning period for Shenouda last month, the process of nominations for the papal throne has begun. Recently a church spokesman indicated that there were already 14 names of bishops and priests placed in nomination, with nominations open until May 17. As is traditional the Acting Pope or locum tenens, Bishop Bakhomious, has refused nomination as he will oversee the process.

I discussed the overall election process just after Shenouda died. The process will identify nominees and winnow them down to a final three (or possibly four) candidates. These names will be placed in a box on the high altar of the Cathedral of Saint Mark, and a randomly chosen child will be blindfolded and will draw one name. This so-called "altar lot" is seen as guaranteeing that the Holy Spirit oversees the final choice, though the hierarchy and the faithful have chosen the candidates.

The Holy Synod: Is the Next Pope One of These Men?

Just as Roman Catholics like to speculate about papal candidates prior to a Papal Conclave, so Copts tend to do the same before their Papal election. In Italy, potential candidates for Pope are popularly known as papabile, a word I have always thought should be translated as "Popables" or something similar. Copts have their own discussions of potential candidates.

The Middle East News Agency (MENA) recently identified the bishops it called the top three candidates; there seems to be a general agreement these three are the most prominent, so I thought I'd briefly discuss them here. If you want a broader range of potential Popes, see this group of profiles by Hani Labib. Or you can browse the biographies of the members of the Holy Synod. (Mostly Arabic.)

The three identified by MENA and most other discussions as the front-runners (though they may not turn out to be the three whose names go into the lot box) are Metropolitan Bishoy, Bishop Musa, and Bishop Yuannis. Two are in their 70s and would be unlikely to enjoy the 40-year reign Shenouda did.

All are bishops. An ancient tradition of the Church held that the Pope should be chosen from the monks, not from the bishops, but over the 19th and 20th centuries this was neglected. Shenouda was a General Bishop, which was considered less controversial than choosing the bishop of a geographic diocese. Of these three supposed front-runners, one (Bishoy) is a diocesan bishop (and also holds general jurisdiction as General Secretary of the Holy Synod); the other two are general bishops). Some will prefer to choose a monk, but the reality of the modern church is that the bishops tend to be better known in the church as a whole than all but the most famous monks.

Metropolitan Bishoy

Metropolitan Bishoy

Bishoy, who is 70, is General Secretary of the Holy Synod and Metropolitan of Damietta and Abbot of the Monastery of Saint Demiana, is one of the best-known figures in the Church as well as one of the most senor Metropolitan bishops. He is also a lightning rod of controversy, having frequently offended Muslims and non-Coptic Christians with his statements. I've discussed him before, and he has long maintained a bilingual website, though it seems to be offline now, perhaps due to the election. He is perhaps the best=known of the senior bishops, and one with the highest media profile. As General Secretary of the Holy Synod since 1985, he is also well-known to the other bishops and abbots.

Bishoy has made a number of statements through the years that have alienated Muslims, including a remark that non-Coptic Egyptians were "guests" in the country; he has also written critiques of the Qur'an that offended Muslims. With the rise of Islamist politics, a Pope with a history of confronting Islam could make the Church's already awkward position worse. In addition, Bishoy publicly supported the succession of Gamal Mubarak to the Presidency (as did Shenouda), which hardly makes him an appealing figure post-revolution. Nor are his relations with other Christians smooth, despite being in charge of outreach to other churches: he has questioned whether Catholics and Eastern Orthodox can be saved (though Shenouda worked hard at improving relations with both communions). He has indicated that a Copt who marries a Protestant is committing adultery.

So, while he is well-known and very high-profile, he also has high negatives.

Bishop Musa
Bishop Musa, 74, General Bishop for Youth Affairs, is another popular figure with an important distinction:

Bishop Musa

he was the only senior member of the Coptic hierarchy to openly support the revolutionaries prior to the fall of Husni Mubarak in a series of newspaper articles. Founder of the bishopric for youth affairs and an active writer, preacher, and spokesman, he is considered much more conciliatory and less confrontational than Bishoy. He would likely be seen as a figure who would seek consensus.

Bishop Yuannis

Bishop Yuannis is only 52 years old and thus is more likely to have a lengthy papacy should he be chosen.

Bishop Yuannis

He was the Papal Secretary to Shenouda, and has been very active in Church affairs and as an administrator. He is also said to have had good relations with state institutions, which could make him a good liaison with the government. Some consider him ambitious, and his closeness to Shenouda may be seen by some as a qualification and by others as an impediment.

If other candidates emerge as the process evolves, I'll talk about them here.

Copts Begin Papal Nomination Process

Egypt's Copts have just completed the 40-day mourning period following the death of Pope Shenouda III, and now the nomination process for selecting a new Pope has begun, with a committee now receiving nominations for the post. This begins a nomination process which will eventually narrow the field to three candidates, with the next Pope chosen by "altar lot" when a young boy draws lots among the three final candidates. See my earlier post here for more on the process.

Coptic Pilgrims', Egyptian Mufti's Jerusalem Visits Stir Up a Hornet's Nest

Thirty-five years ago, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat flew to Jerusalem and spoke to the Israeli Knesset. After the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, regular flights between the two countries were inaugurated. I believe it was in 1983 that I first took an El Al flight from Cairo to Ben Gurion Airport.

Israeli tourists regularly go to Egypt; few Egyptians reciprocate. There are government delegations, businessmen who travel regularly, and so on, but few private Egyptians visit; it's still stigmatized. Though Jerusalem is holy to both Christians and Muslims, neither group has traditionally made pilgrimages. The late Pope Shenouda III banned Copts from making pilgrimages to Jerusalem, and while some have done so (including at least one bishop a few years ago), the Church does not approve. (For the Copts there are two issues: Israeli occupation of the occupied territories, but also the fact that Israel has supported the Ethiopian Church in a controversy over access to the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, claimed by the Copts. This issue, the Deir al-Sultan, is worthy of a post in its own right, but let's leave that for another time.)

First, the Coptic taboo was challenged. With the approach of Easter, regular flights began carrying Coptic pilgrims to Jerusalem; some 2000 had gone by Easter. The Church still disapproves, but Shenouda is gone, and many Copts feel the ban is now collapsing.

Then the Mufti of Egypt went to Jerusalem and all hell broke loose. The senior Egyptian cleric paid a quick visit on Wednesday, prayed at the Al-Aqsa mosque, and was accompanied by the Mufti of Jerusalem and other religious figures as well as a Jordanian prince; the Mufti, Dr. ‘Ali Goma‘a,  explained on Twitter that it was an "unofficial" visit aimed at showing solidarity with the Palestinians and the rights of Jerusalem:







No official meetings with any Israelis have been reported (or even alleged), but there has been a huge uproar from Egyptians who consider such a high-level visit as somehow recognizing Israeli occupation of Jerusalem, despite his Jordanian host. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party has  denounced it as a "gross mistake" that imposes normalization with Israel on the Egyptian people.

Zeinobia rounds up much of the debate and print pictures. Meanwhile, The Arabist puzzles over what Gomaa was thinking while also feeling the ban on travel is a mistake.  Salafis in Parliament want him fired, which is the President's prerogative (that currently being interpreted as SCAF)..

I have never understood why a religious figure visiting a religious site in Jerusalem, and having no official contact with Israelis other than what is absolutely necessary, is somehow "normalization" or recognition of the occupation. But I also recognize that coming at a time when on the one hand the Coptic taboo seems to be eroding but on the other, Egyptian-Israeli relations are extremely fragile, the Mufti's "unofficial" visit was certain to create an uproar. And it has.

New Western Attention to Copts' Concerns as Easter Approaches without a Pope

Based on a completely unscientific sample (a personal impression), I seem to be seeing more articles about Egypt's Copts than usual this year. The recent death of Pope Shenouda and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood are key factors, of course, as is the fact that Easter is fast approaching, one of the only two times a year (the other being Christmas) that the Western media remembers that Christianity actually had something to do with the Middle East, and then discovers that there are actually still Christians there. Usually you can count on the usual stories from Bethlehem at Christmas and Jerusalem at Easter, but this year the Copts seem to be getting a bit more attention than usual. That would be good in any event since the Church is so little understood in the West, though it comes at a time when Copts are more uncertain than usual about their future in an Egypt where Islamist activism is growing.

So unsurprisingly, much of the tone of these stories is apprehensive, reflecting the concerns of the Copts themselves in this period of uncharted transition. Who the next President of Egypt will be may have as much effect on the Copts as who the next Pope of Alexandria is; and all of Egypt is uncertain on that front.

And the Church is in the news. The papal selection process is on hold until the mourning period for Shenouda ends, and there seems to be a desire to delay the selection beyond the Presidential elections. But the whole constitutional issue has involved the Copts as well.  But just in the past three days or so:

• On Monday, the Church's representatives quit the constituent assembly in protest over the dominance of that body by Islamists; that rightly garnered world attention, to the point that it is easy to forget that the official representatives of al-Azhar, the official Islamic establishment in other words, had done the same.

• Today, Prime Minister Ganzouri is meeting with the locum tenens of the papal throne, or "interim Pope" as the media calls him, Bishop Bakhomious. The report says they'll be discussing the papal election process, the role of the Copts, etc. The article fails to note, and Bishop Bakhomious will be too polite no doubt to bring it up, that this whole meeting is a formality, since no one — SCAF, Parliament, and presumably Prime Minister Ganzouri himself — pretends that the Prime Mimister has any power to control events or make real decisions.

• Meanwhile, the sort of petty but persistent obstacles the Church often faces continue. A prominent and controversial Coptic activist, Father Felopateer Aziz, who is under a travel ban for his role in the Maspero clashes last October, was held at the airport for hours before the travel ban was lifted. (His first name, by the way, in this article spelled as above but often unfortunately transliterated "Flopateer," conceals the old Greek Christian name of Philopater.)

This coming Sunday is Easter in the Western calendar; the following Sunday is this year's Eastern date, observed by the Copts and most other Eastern churches. It may be to the Copts' advantage (among many competing disadvantages) that the Pope's passing and the Brotherhood's rise have brought attention of the world to their ancient church at the precise moment in the calendar when the Western media perennially discover that there are Christians in the Middle East, before they disappear once again until Christmas.

The "Coptic Mount Athos": Wadi Natrun, Shenouda's Last Resting Place

Anba Bishoi Monastery (Wikipedia)

Pope Shenouda III of the Coptic Church was laid to rest yesterday at the Monastery of Anba Bishoi in the Wadi Natrun. Both the monastery itself and the monastic region in which it is located play central roles in the history and tradition of Christian Egypt, and probably deserve notice while world attention has been focused on the Coptic world.

Although Shenouda's home monastery, where he had labored as a monk, was the Suriani, also in the Wadi Natrun, he liked to retreat to Bishoi to meditate or to protest political developments; ironically (or perhaps not) it was also the monastery to which Anwar Sadat exiled him when he deposed the Pope in 1981. Of the four monasteries still in use in the Wadi Natrun, Bishoi is the easternmost and the first to be reached coming from the Cairo-Alexandria road.

Monastery, Wadi Natrun 1978 (Dunn)

Like several of its neighboring monasteries, Bishoi is a fourth century AD foundation, dating from the earliest days of the Desert Fathers of Egypt, who developed monasticism, at least in its group form, and later saw it spread to the rest of Christianity East and West. Along with the even older Monastery of Saint Anthony in Egypt's Eastern Desert, the Wadi Natrun and neighboring areas became centers of the monastic life in Egypt, analogous to the comparable (but younger) Greek Orthodox center of Mount Athos.

Scene, Wadi Natrun, 1978 (Dunn)

 Known to the Greek world as the Scetis, the place of ascetics, or as Nitria for the natron that gives the Wadi Natrun its Arabic name, the region and adjacent areas once harbored dozens of monasteries, separate areas of monastic cells where monks lived in solitary, and other religious institutions. Often subject to depredations by bedouin tribes, the monasteries developed fortress-like walls in many cases. Many of the Coptic Popes have come from these monasteries, of which four survive today: Anba Bishoy, Anba Maqar or Saint Macarius, associated with the reform movement led by the late monk Matta al-Maskin, Suriani (the monastery of "the Syrians";

Wadi Natrun, 1978 (Dunn)

Shenouda's home monastery), and Baramos.


So the Wadi Natrun is a fitting resting place for a Coptic monk, even one who reigned for 40 years as Pope. And Anba Bishoi, so often a haven (or exile) from the political world during Shenouda's life, will host him in death.

How the Copts Will Choose their Next Pope

With the death of Pope Shenouda III this weekend (see my appreciation of Shenouda here), the Coptic Church of Egypt embarks on a process for choosing the next Pope, who will be the 118th successor of Saint Mark the Evangelist. Since Shenouda reigned for 40 years, it has been a long time since the process of succession has been implemented, so even Copts may need to familiarize themselves with the process.

It is a process likely to take several months at least. There are reports suggesting the Church may delay the election until after the election of an Egyptian President, no excessive delay may be required: the President should be chosen by July 1, while in 1971 the interval between the death of Pope Kyrillos VI and the election of Shenouda was eight months. (It can take even longer; in 1956-59 it took more than two years.) The basic rules currently in force were laid down by a Presidential decree of 1957 by Gamal Abdel Nasser, (link is in Arabic), prior to the election of Kyrillos VI.

Acting Pope Bp. Pachomius

The first step in the transition is the election of a locum tenens or Acting Pope who will preside over the Church during the transition. The holder of this post is considered ineligible to be elected Pope since he will have overseen the electoral process, though in the last century there were exceptions to this. The Acting Pope has already been named, Bishop Pachomius (Bakhomious), Metropolitan Archbishop of Buheira.

The Holy Synod — the body of Coptic bishops — is the Church's man ecclessiastical body; the Millet Council (Al-Maglis al-Milli) is the lay body of prominent Copts who have provided a voice for the laity since 1874. These two bodies play a key role in the creation of the electoral council to choose the Pope. Each nominates nine of its members, presided over by the Acting Pope to form a 19-member Council, which receives nominations. These are then voted on by the Holy Synod, the Millet Council, and a third body, created by the 1957 decree, which consists of prominent Copts from each diocese, former Ministers and MPs, and other notables. This body may be the way the state maintains some oversight in the selection process.  At the end of a vetting process, the Electoral Council announces the names of no fewer than five and no more than six or seven candidates. This process can easily occupy three months, so once again little delay is required to postpone the papal election past that of the President.

Under the Presidential decree, the only specified requirements are that the candidates be 40 years old, never married, and have spent at least 15 years as a monk. However, an ancient tradition of the church was to choose the Pope directly from a monastery, not from the bishops (though the bishops themselves are all drawn from the monks, in the Eastern tradition). This was relaxed in the 20th century and several Popes wee elected from the bishops. Shenouda himself was a general bishop (administering a Church-wide department, not an individual diocese). There are some who favor returning to a monks-only rule; others who accept election of a General Bishop but not a Diocesan Bishop, and others who believe precedent allows the election of Diocesan Bishops as well. At least one prominent figure, Bishop Bishoy, is both a General Bishop as Secretary of the Holy Synod and the Diocesan Metropolitan Bishop of Damietta. This eligibility issue is likely to be argued within the Church in the coming weeks and months.

In the Acts of the Apostles, when the eleven remaining Apostles sought to replace Judas Iscariot, they chose a new Apostle by lot. The final decision in the election of a Coptic Pope is still carried out, by ancient tradition, by what is known as the Altar Lot. The Coptic faithful, including their children, gather at the Cathedral of Saint Mark in Abbasiyya. A young boy is randomly chosen from the congregation, blindfolded, and draws a name from a box on the altar. The name drawn becomes the successor of Saint Mark.

Just as Italians love to speculate on the papabile or papal candidates when it is time to elect a Roman Catholic Pope, so Copts speculate about the candidates for their Papacy, and the question of whether Diocesan Bishops are eligible comes into play.  But that will be the subject of a separate post in the coming weeks.

Shenouda's Last Viewing

Front Page, Al-Tahrir: "The Last Viewing"

Yesterday tens of thousands of the Coptic faithful flocked to Saint Mark's Cathedral in Abbasiyya to pay final respects to Pope Shenouda III. In an ancient tradition, rather than viewing the deceased laid out in an open casket as in Western funerals, the last viewing takes place with the pontiff on his papal throne for the last time.

That paragon of journalism, The Daily Mail, seems to find this particularly unusual.  I think it's done in other Eastern Church traditions as well, and frankly I don't see how it differs greatly from any viewing in which the corpse of the deceased is publicly displayed: and that is regularly done in most Western traditions. Perhaps I'm more multiculturally attuned than The Daily Mail, but then you can probably say that of just about everybody.

I have already offered my own initial obituary, but Al Jazeera English's video obit may be of interest, particularly for its historical film clips:

Coptic Pope Shenouda III, 1923-2012

His Holiness Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa and the Preaching of Saint Mark, died Saturday at the age of 88. He has long been ailing from back and kidney problems and appeared extremely frail at the Christmas liturgy in January and in more recent appearances, so his passing is not a surprise, but coming at a time of rising Islamist political influence in Egypt and recent tensions between Copts and their Muslim neighbors, the succession of the See of Saint Mark is of considerable political importance to Copts and other Egyptians alike.

Shenouda's reign of over 40 years, 1971-2012, was an unusually long one (though Pope Kyrillos V, 1874-1927, at 52 years holds the record), and his papacy has many accomplishments to boast of: the enormous growth of the Coptic diaspora, and the creation of bishoprics in Europe, the Americas, and Australia; the great expansion of Coptic education and improvement of seminaries at home and abroad, the building of new churches, improvement of ecumenical links with Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, and much more. But he also created controversies throughout his reign as well. He emerged as something of a protégé of the popular and saintly monk Matta al-Maskin, who had once been his confessor, but with whom he had a theological falling out, leading to the banning of some of Matta's work. Beyond such internal Coptic theological issues, most of the controversy surrounding him involved his role in politics, and his very different relationships with the two Presidents whose presidencies coincided almost exactly with his papacy, Anwar Sadat and Husni Mubarak. (Shenouda came to power only a few months after Sadat assumed the Presidency, and survived just over a year after Mubarak's fall.)

His predecessor, Kyrillos VI, had been a close ally and friend of Gamal Abdel Nasser, which I discussed in this post last year.Sadat initially saw Shenouda as an ally, but Shenouda became increasingly critical of discrimination against Copts, attacks on churches, and other issues. When the Coptic diaspora in Europe and America began agitating for Coptic rights just as Sadat was being hailed in the West for his visit to Israel, he blamed Shenouda and the two men became increasingly antagonistic. When Sadat cracked down on all his critics shortly before his assassination in 1981, he deposed Shenouda and sent him into internal exile in the desert monastery of Anba Bishoi in the Wadi Natrun. After Mubarak succeeded Sadat, the restrictions on Shenouda were relaxed, and in 1985 he was fully restored to his papacy. (A Council of Bishops had governed the church in his absence.)

If Shenouda had had a confrontational relationship with Sadat, he had a very different one with Mubarak. Perhaps chastened by his deposition and exile, or genuinely grateful for his restoration, he was an outspoken supporter of Mubarak, even when many of the faithful at home complained of government neglect and tacit toleration of attacks on Copts. Many Copts abroad became critical of the Pope, at least of his political support of Mubarak. In recent years, he even appeared supportive of the project for Gamal Mubarak to succeed his father. Many supporters of the Revolution, especially among Copts, felt the Pope was too cautious too long, though in the end he was cautiously supportive.

The timing alone assures that the choice of his successor will be an important one, not just for Copts but for Coptic-Muslim relations as a whole. A new Pope will, in fact, once again begin a papacy almost at the same time as a new, elected President.

A locum tenens  will be named to run the church during the transition. I will be posting soon on the complex unusual process for choosing the next successor of Saint Mark, and will no doubt find I have more to say about the legacy of Shenouda III. Whatever one's verdict on his reign, it was one of the more eventful in the recent history of the ancient Church of Saint Mark.

Coptic Midnight Mass: Chanting Erupts when Pope Addresses SCAF

This is very poor video and I imagine better will be available soon; I've watched some live streaming but can't actually embed that. Anyway many SCAF generals are in the front rows; the Pope's message to the attendees mentions them and noise erupts; Twitter accounts say some worshipers started chanting against SCAF and were removed.

And Pope Shenouda, at 88 and in uncertain health, is looking quite frail. I hope for better video soon (Arabic narration):
 (Video removed by YouTube)
UPDATES: Not only has YouTube taken down the previous link, but better ones are now available. This news report shows excerpts (also Arabic only except for some liturgical Coptic), but is much clearer video:



More of the Pope in better video:

Coptic Pope Shenouda's Absence Becomes an Issue: Politics or Health?

A couple of weeks back,  on May 22, the Coptic Pope, Shenouda III, went to the Cleveland Clinic for his regular  checkup; the Pope has acknowledged back problems, is rumored to have kidney problems, and at 87 (he'll be 88 in August) is someone whose health is not only of concern to his flock, but to Egyptians generally at a time of sectarian tension. His succession is likely to be a thorny and disputed issue. (Relevant previous posts can be found here.)

Rumors have been floated that the Pope's visit to the US was extended because he was deliberately absenting himself in the wake of recent anti-Coptic violence in Egypt as a protest; the Church's Holy Synod has strongly denied this, but their explanation that his medical tests are taking longer than expected raises separate questions: was something unexpected found? Field Marshal Tantawi sent his own solicitations, though rather recently, so there may in fact be health issues here.

At the  moment, given the sectarian tensions in this transitional period and the fact that one of the most prominent potential successors, Bishop Bishoi of Damietta (see the links above) is anathema to many Muslims, many Egyptian Muslims might want to join with their Christian fellow countrymen in praying for the aging Pope's health, at least until things stabilize a bit.

Egypt: Resurgent Salafism and Cautious MB-Coptic Feelers

This is obviously both an exciting and a very delicate time in Egypt, and secularists and Islamists alike are staking out their positions prior to the fall elections. Egypt's new interim constitutional declaration retains the existing ban on political parties based on religion, sect, or ethnicity, but the Muslim Brotherhood expects to create a political party that will pass the test, and compete in the elections. The Brotherhood has also announced its intention to create a satellite channel and a newspaper. The less centrally organized, but even more conservative, Salafi movement has also been very active, and their growing influence has alarmed secular Muslims, Christians, and the mystical Sufi orders. A brief roundup of links, since there's been too much going on to comment individually.

The Brotherhood has been reaching out to the Coptic Church, apparently to appear mainstream. Brotherhood General Guide Muhammad Badie has asked for a meeting with Coptic Pope Shenouda III, whom he telephoned after one of the Pope's frequent medical visits to the United States. Shenouda downplayed the request.The Brotherhood also wants to meet with the Coptic Youth Movement.

Meanwhile, Salafi movement demonstrators clashed with villagers over closing liquor stores and coffeehouses. and also demanded the "freeing" of Camillia Shehata, a Coptic priest's wife they believe tried to convert to Islam, and who they charge is being held against her will by the Church. On the day before the Salafi protest on the Shehata affair last Tuesday, a wild rumor spread among Christian and secular Muslim women claiming that the Salafis were going to kidnap unveiled women and hold them hostage until Shehata was freed. The Salafis issued a strong denial (link is in Arabic), and the ruling Military Council met with Pope Shenouda, to reassure the church.

The Wafd and other secular parties are talking about forming a secular alliance to compete with the Brotherhood and Salafi movements in the Parliamentary elections, while Salafis and Sufis are also clashing, with Salafis attacking Sufi shrines, and the council of Sufi Orders threatening a "war" against the Salafis if they continue to demolish shrines. The Sufi (Islamic mystical) orders venerate local saints and the sheikhs of their order, while the Salafis equate saint veneration with idolatry.

All of this ferment also coincides with efforts to organize the long-discussed Wasat or Center Party, led by younger Islamists disillusioned with the Muslim Brotherhood, even as the Brotherhood itself is reportedly riven by internal divisions. I've always thought that those who assumed the Muslim Brotherhood was going to be the obvious winner of the revolution were buying into Mubarak-era propaganda, since with real political pluralism, a wide spectrum of religious and secular movements are likely to take the field. The fact that the Brotherhood now seems to be just one religious movement among many may be bearing that out, though don't count them out since they still have the best organizational infrastructure.

Clearly, a number of religious/secular, fundamentalist/mystical, and Muslim/Christian fault lines are under stress.

I'll be back later with a lengthy historical post before disappearing for the weekend.

Egypt's Muslims Rally to Back Copts after Al-Qa‘ida Threat

It's been a rough year for Coptic-Muslim relations in Egypt, as noted previously. Not so long ago, some Islamists were even questioning whether Copts should be citizens. So what does it take to persuade members of the Muslim Brotherhood to pledge to defend the Copts?

If you know Egypt, you may well guess: some non-Egyptians are making threats. In this case it's the Al-Qa‘ida-linked "Islamic State of Iraq." The group claimed responsibility for the hostage taking during Sunday services at an Armenian Catholic church in Baghdad last Sunday; some 60 people died either at the hands of the hostage-takers or during the rescue. The Islamic State of Iraq announced that Iraqi Christians were legitimate targets who would be "exterminated" if al-Qa‘ida militants in Iraq were not released, and also demanded that Egyptian Copts would become a target if they did not release "the Muslim women held hostage in its churches" referring to the Camillia Shehata affair and a similar case, Wafaa Constantine. The church denies that the two women are being held for trying to convert to Islam.

In the wake of the Iraqi threat, Egyptian security forces reportedly stepped up security around churches, and warned that the controversial bishop Anba Bishoi, whose previous comments about Islam stirred protests., might become a target. The head of al-Azhar, members of the Brotherhood, and other senior Muslim officials quickly denounced the threat and pledged to defend Egyptian Christians.

While the threat did remind many of the claimed conversion cases, the fact that much of Egypt's Muslim leadership sprang to the defense of the Church was, as Pope Shenouda III noted in his weekly Wednesday sermon, a positive result of the threat.

And Egyptian Muslim institutions showed that they would support their own fellow citizens against foreign threats.

More on Coptic Tensions in Egypt

If it seems as if this blog has devoted more time to Coptic-Muslim issues this year, it is because Coptic-Muslim issues in the last six months or so have reached levels of tension, and vitriol, rare in recent times. As a perusal of this blog's Copts topic will reveal, we've had the dispute betweeen church and state over divorce, and then its sudden resolution; the long-running and still tense dispute over the Camillia Shehata "conversion" (or non-conversion?); Bishop Bishoy's foot-in-mouth provocation of Muslims and, in response, an Al-Azhar Salafi group questioning Christians' right to citizenship, as well as Pope Shenouda's criticism/non-criticism of Bishoy.

And that's just since July: if you go back to January you had the Nag Hammadi killings.

Adding to all this, of course, is the presumably imminent double succession: Husni Mubarak is 82 and Pope Shenouda III is 87, and both are in uncertain health. Certainly Coptic-Muslim tensions have not been exacerbated to this degree since 1981, when Anwar Sadat deposed Shenouda and sent him to a desert monastery, though these days the Church and State tend to be on the same side, with Islamists and ordinary Muslims on the other.

In the midst of this, here are a couple of additions: First, Mariz Tadros has a good summary of the issues at MERIP. It may be easier to read it than to click on all my blogpost links above.

Now, there's s story in yesterday's Al-Masry al-Youm that may or may not relate to the internal and external maneuverings of the Church. It seems Bishop Theodosius of Giza left Wednesday for Jerusalem, and a pilgrimage to Christian sites there. It also reports that he has previously visited the Coptic Bishop of Jerusalem and has other Israeli visas in his passport.

Now, after he Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, Pope Shenouda banned Copts from making pilgrimage to Jerusalem, in part over the Palestinian issue, in part because the Coptic Church blames Israel for taking sides in a religios turf dispute. The Coptic Church and its daughter Church, the Church of Ethiopia, have long engaged in a bitter dispute over the Deir al-Sultan, a monastery that occupies part of the rooftop of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Israel backed the Ethiopians, jand they occupy the Deir today, impoverished and unable to enter the Church below because the Copts bar the way. So in theory at least, Bishop Theodosius is, as the headline claims, defying a papal ban.

But I'm struck by several things. First, if this list of the Coptic Holy Synod is in fact current, Theodosius is only the Auxiliary Bishop of Giza, number 46 on the list in seniority while Metropolitan Domadius of Giza is number four. Second, if he has done this one or more times before without being disciplined, it may well be that he is serving as a liaison to the Coptic Church of Jerusalem; the papal ban applied to individual Copts, but perhaps not to hierarchy on Church business.

In any event, and despite the fact that Al-Masry al-Youm has some Coptic ownership and a generally favorable approach, I suspect this report is more a symptom of current high levels of attention to things Coptic, rather than a real story of episcopal defiance. Let's see if there is any follow-up.

Shenouda: Apology? What Apology?

Sorry to be so all-Egypt all-the-time this week, but now Coptic Pope Shenouda III, after his apology to Muslims and criticism of Bishop Bishoi, now is saying that he didn't apologize, he merely expressed his regret that Muslims had been offended. (I guess "I'm sorry" is no longer considered an apology?)

I think what's happening here is that Shenouda was widely criticized by Copts for apologizing and seeming to kowtow to Muslim pressure. So now he's saying he didn't apologize, though it sure sounded like it. (Expressing regret and sorrow usually constitutes an apology.)

So now Bishoi has embarrassed not only the Church but the Pope himself, put Shenouda on the defensive, as well as offending al-Azhar and Muslims in Egypt generally. Not to mention having already offended Catholics and Eastern Orthodox.

His earlier comments that the Gospels provide support for Husni Mubarak may help him somewhat, but I think Bishop Bishoi's position as what the Italians would call a papabile, a credible candidate for the next Pope, are fading fast. Of course, I'm neither a Copt nor an Egyptian, and may well be wrong.

And since I characterized the Pope's remarks as an apology in my earlier post, I guess I should apologize, express my regrets.

Bishop Bishoi in Hot Water Again, This Time with Muslims

It's been a tough few weeks for the Copts in Egypt; the Church has been accused of covering up and hiding a priest's wife who allegedly converted to Islam (both the Church and the Government deny it); a prominent Islamist recently told Al-Jazeera that Copts are stockpiling weapons in churches; and now the Church's controversial Bishop Bishoi has gone and insulted Islam, to hear the press tell it.

I've talked about Bishoi before. He's bishop of Damietta and Secretary of the Holy Synod, and considered (not least by himself) a likely successor to Pope Shenouda III should the frail octogenarian Pope pass on. He's the Church's ecumenical outreach bishop for other Christian churches, but has sometimes raised questions about whether Catholics and Eastern Orthodox can get into heaven, (as for Protestants, it's probably best not to even ask: his English website has a prominent denunciation of Seventh-Day Adventists.) His approach to ecumenism is, one might say, a little limited.

Ah, but as I noted earlier this year, he's quoted the gospels on why Husni Mubarak should be supported, and of course Pope Shenouda has said nice things about Gamal. Bishoi does presumably want to be the next Pope, and the state has an effective if unofficial veto on the succession.

Bishoi has gotten in trouble for comments about Islam before, but he's just gotten in trouble again, at a time when the church is under fire and the Pope's health is uncertain. His foot-in-mouth problem may be undermining his ambitions.

A speech he had prepared for delivery in the Fayyum got leaked to the media, and in it he reportedly questioned whether some verses of the Qur'an were actually revealed to the Prophet or were added after his death. Now, apparently he said that Christianity and Islam were compatible except for a handful of Qur'anic verses, specifically citing one that says that those who say that God is Jesus Son of Mary are unbelievers. While that would clearly seem to be unacceptable to a Christian priest, a Christian priest in a Muslim country isn't supposed to come right out and question the validity of Qur'anic revelation. He also supposedly said that many Muslims believe Christ was crucified (generally they hold, based on the Qur'an, that he only appeared to be crucified and another died in his place), and is also alleged to have said that Muslims should remember that Copts were in Egypt first, allegedly referring to Muslims as "guests" who arrived only 14 centuries ago. He's hardly the only Copt who feels that way, but he's a bit prominent to be saying it in public.

It's said he postponed the formal speech when he learned it had leaked. Anyway, if you read Arabic, there are fairly detailed accounts in Al-Wafd, Al-Dostor, and Al-Masry al-Youm (all opposition or independent papers, none unfriendly to Christians and the last with Copts among the owners). For accounts in English, much shorter and less detailed, here's an article in Al-Masry al-Youm English and an opinion column in the same paper.

This will be the usual flurry of controversy; so far the official media doesn't seem to be piling on. But Bishoi's papal ambitions may not prosper if he keeps opening his mouth.

Feud Between Copts, Orthodox Still On

The feud, mentioned earlier here, which has seen the Coptic Church suspend its membership in the Middle East Council of Churches, is simmering on. Here, Patriarch Theophilus, the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, denies he accused Coptic Pope Shenouda of "treason," insisting that was a fabrication of the Egyptian media, but also praised Bishop Bishoi, the sometimes controversial Coptic figure who was involved in the dispute. See my earlier post and also this one for more on some of the personalities involved.

Coptic Bishop (and Pope Wannabe) Bishoi Jumps on the Mubarak Bandwagon

Bishop Bishoi, Coptic Metropolitan of Damietta and Secretary of the Church's Holy Synod, has given an interview to Al-Masry al-Youm in which he cites the gospels on why one should support Husni Mubarak, (article is in Arabic). Now, this seems pretty self-serving (blogger Zeinobia is calling him "the Salafi bishop"), but there's more than meets the eye here.

As Secretary of the Holy Synod for the past 25 years, Bishoi is a powerful figure and a strong candidate to succeed the aged and ailing Pope Shenouda III. He's also a polarizing figure. Though he's been active in ecumenical talks with other Christian churches (his website has links here), he's also made remarks to the effect that Catholics and Protestants cannot go to heaven (Arabic reports here and here; the Wikipedia article on Bishoi addresses the issue.) Shenouda has been very active ecumenically, has met with Roman Popes and Greek Patriarchs, and talked intercommunion. Bishoi seems more divisive. (One reason that Al-Masry al-Youm frequently covers Coptic issues is that some of its primary funding and leadership is Christian.)

But Bishoi is not a minor figure, and if anyone in the Coptic church can be said to be "running for Pope," it is he. His episcopal website, in English and Arabic, is here.

This blog has discussed both Pope Shenouda's politics and his fragile health several times. Bishoi, though he has a very different style than Shenouda, seems well-positioned to be a strong contender for the succession. (Traditionally, when a Coptic Pope dies, three candidates are chosen as proposed successors. Their names are put in a container from which a child draws one name, presumably with the guidance of the Holy Spirit; coincidentally however, the name drawn is always someone approved by the Presidency of the Republic.) There is another issue in that ancient canons say the Patriarch should be chosen from the monks, not from the bishops. But Shenouda was a bishop when chosen, as were several other modern Popes. (Shenouda, however, was a "general bishop" without a geographic see, while Bishoi is Bishop of Damietta.) Still, don't count Bishoi out as the next Pope.

And he's clearly making it known to the regime that he's utterly reliable on Mubarak's (presumably father's or son's, since Shenouda has endorsed Gamal) infallibility.

Of course, he's gambling on the race over which octogenarian passes from the scene first: Mubarak (who turns 82 on May 4) or Pope Shenouda (who's 86).