Blah, Blah, Blah…

The election has been a mess from start to end.

New Archbishop of Canterbury – a message from the Secretary General

I thought it might be helpful to clarify that the arrangements for announcing the next Archbishop of Canterbury are the responsibility of the Prime Minister’s Office rather than Lambeth Palace or Church House. Downing Street has now confirmed that there will be an announcement at 11am tomorrow. Until then, press stories about the appointment remain speculative.

William Fittall

Professional propagandists. Still trying to look and feel important.

 

Bye-Bye USA

Via Anglican Samizdat:

I know it’s a cliché, but a democracy does get the government it deserves and, apparently, what the US deserves is a con man who has convinced the gullible that he can give them what they want: unlimited, unearned, undeserved hand-outs. God’s punishment to the Romans in Romans 1was not to rain down fire from heaven, but to allow them to have what they wanted unfettered by God’s restraining morality; here we go again.

Not to worry, though: the fall of a civilisation is a reminder for Christians that we live in two kingdoms, the more important of which is a kingdom that can never be shaken: the kingdom of God.

 

Bishop Tawadros New Pope of Egypt’s Coptic Christians

Meet the New Coptic Pope: Pope Tawadros II

Bishop Tawadros was chosen this morning as the 118th Coptic Pope.

Cairo — Egypt’s ancient Coptic Christian church chose a new pope in an elaborate Sunday ceremony meant to invoke the will of God, in which a blindfolded boy drew the name of the next patriarch from a crystal chalice.

Bishop Tawadros, 59, an aide to the acting pope, was selected to become Pope Tawadros II, replacing the charismatic Pope Shenouda III who died earlier this year after 40 years at the helm of the church.

All three senior clerics whose names were in the chalice were considered consensus candidates who stayed out of disputes both within the church and with other groups. Tawadros will assume the papacy as Egypt’s Christians, estimated to make up 10 percent of the country’s 83 million people, fear for their future amid the rise of Islamists to power in the wake of the 2011 ouster of longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.

The death of Pope Shenouda III at age the of 88 this year heightened the sense of insecurity felt by many who had known him as patriarch for all or most of their lives.

At the televised ceremony held in the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo, acting Pope Pachomios laid the three names in clear balls inside a chalice before starting Mass. There was a moment of silence before the drawing by the blindfolded boy, an act believed to reflect God’s will in the choice.

“We will pray that God will choose the good shepherd,” Pachomios told the packed cathedral as he sealed the chalice with red wax before laying it on the altar during Mass.

The process of electing a new pope began weeks ago, when a committee from the church narrowed the list of potential candidates from 17 down to five monks and bishops. On Monday, about 2,400 clergymen and church notables drew up a short list of three that also included Bishop Raphael, 54, once an aide to the late Pope Shenouda, and Father Raphael Ava Mina, the oldest among them at 70, a monk in a monastery near Alexandria and a student of the pope who preceded Shenouda.

In addition to having stayed out of disputes with other groups, including Islamists, the bishops were chosen only from those without a diocese to avoid any risk of favoritism.

The papal election comes during a shift in Christian attitudes toward their relation to the state. For years, Christians largely relied on the church to secure protection for their rights, using Shenouda’s close relationship with Mubarak.

But Shenouda had longstanding critics within the community who asked why a cleric should act as an intermediary between them and the state. Following the uprising and the pope’s death, more Copts have been emboldened to act outside the church to independently demand rights, better representation and freedom of worship.

None of the candidates attended the ceremony, and are instead praying in their respective monasteries. The state’s MENA news agency says church leaders will head to Tawadros’s retreat in the monastery complex of Wadi Natrun northeast of Cairo to congratulate him.

Pope Tawadros II faces tremendous challenges as the country’s transition to democracy is marred by a deep rift between increasingly politically powerful Islamist groups, from which the country’s new president hails, and the liberal and secularist groups who were initially behind the revolt that ousted Mubarak last year.

At the center of the political squabbling in Egypt is the role of Islam in the country’s new constitution, currently being drafted. The Christians, along with liberal and secularists, oppose demands by Islamists to increase the role of Islamic Shariah law.

Egypt’s Coptic Christians have long complained of discrimination by the state and the country’s Muslim majority. Clashes with Muslims have occasionally broken out, often sparked by church construction, land disputes or Muslim-Christian love affairs.

The prospects of a stronger role for Islamic law in legislation increase the community’s concern of further marginalization, or of curtailing of their rights of worship and expression.

Late Saturday, Pachomios said during a popular TV program on the private station al-Nahar that Christians have never held senior state posts or leading positions such as university deans in Egypt’s modern history. He also insisted there will be no clause in the constitution allowing state monitoring of the church’s finances, a demand often made by Islamists.

When Christ Returns, He Will Reign in Jerusalem, and Missouri…

So says Mitt Romney- and the Mormon Church.

HT:  Dr Jim West

A Lottery for Primate

Speaking of lots,

Time was when the prime minister chose the Archbishop of Canterbury – if only…

The Telegraph:

It seemed so easy: scarcely was the ink dry on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s letter of resignation than the nomination of his successor was made. That was Stanley Baldwin, instantly appointing Cosmo Gordon Lang in succession to Randall Davidson in 1928. It was a perk of being prime minister, to choose who should reign at Canterbury.

How different from the slough of indecision since the resignation of Dr Rowan Williams last March. In two months he is to become Master of Magdalene College. In the meantime, a committee of 16 has floundered, paralysed by worthy motives. There is no reversing the ratchet that took the choice first from the monarch, then the prime minister. But we might be sooner served by emulating the Apostles’ casting lots for Matthias, or by following the Copts, whose pope’s name is drawn from a box by a blindfolded child.

Anglicans…

 

Coptic Church Selects Three Candidates for Pope

And with lots being drawn to decided on who it will be.

Brother Raphael

Bishop Tawadros

Bishop Raphael

Delegates to a special electoral synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria have selected a monk and two bishops as candidates to succeed Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria.

On 29 October 2012 the 2,405 members of the Synod of Bishops and the church’s General Lay Council meeting at St. Mark’s Cathedral, in Cairo’s Abbasiya neighborhood cast ballots to select three candidates for the post. Seventeen names had been put forward for consideration by the commission, which narrowed the list to five candidates.

Read it all in Anglican Ink.

New Coptic Pope to be Named on 4th November

The spokesman of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, Bishop Paul, has announced that the new Coptic Orthodox Patriarch will be chosen on 4 November.

Three out of the current list of five candidates will be selected on 29 October, and their names will be put into the altar lottery, which will take place on 4 November.

The current final candidates were announced earlier this week.

The lottery will determine the successor to Pope Shenouda, who held the apostolic throne from 1971 until his death last March.

Source

 

Coptic Orthodox Church Declares Three Days of Fasting and Prayers

OBL News:

Cairo: The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria has announced fasting and prayer 3 days in order to select the New Pope of Alexandria & Patriarch the Holy see of St. Mark

Divine Liturgy at all Churches on Sunday 30 September  will prepare the faithful for  the three day fasting and prayers.  It will begin on Monday 1st October, continue on Tuesday 2nd October and will end on Wednesday 3rd of October 2012. The Church has requested one all to pray and fast for the complete success of the Papal elections.

God Bless you all.

I certainly hope it goes better for them than it has with the deadlocked Canterbury Anglicans.

A Church of England panel meeting in secret to choose the next Archbishop of Canterbury has failed to reach agreement on who should be the new leader of the world’s 80 million Anglicans, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

After three days of talks behind closed doors in an undisclosed location, officials narrowed the field to three candidates, but will need to meet again to finish the job, the Sunday Times said, citing an unnamed senior cleric.

The choice of a replacement for Rowan Williams, who steps down in December, is critical for a church in danger of splitting over divisive issues such as gay marriage and senior women clergy, and facing a rising threat from secularism.

The Crown Nominations Commission (CNC), a church panel with 16 members whose chairman is appointed by the prime minister, had been expected to pick a preferred candidate and a second choice on Friday, a church source said last week.

The names were then due to be passed to Prime Minister David Cameron and Queen Elizabeth, supreme governor of the Church of England, before an official announcement within days, possibly on Wednesday.

Strange, all these different election traditions. How the Holy Spirit works. How He exercise His will. And of course, the spiritual discernment of man. ‘Deadlocked’. Come to think of it, I read of no such call to fasting from the Anglicans. Instead, we have things like: Critics attack secrecy of Archbishop selection.

 

Coptic Orthodox Church Reveals 17 Candidates for Papal Seat

Lest we forget… Down to 17 candidates for the position of Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa on the Holy See of Saint Mark. Ultimately though, it’ll fall to lots to decide who will get to lead the estimated 12 – 18 million adherents of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.

The Church has unveiled its longlist of bishops and monks competing to succeed Pope Shenouda III later this year .

The acting head of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church has released details of the 17 candidates in the running to become the next pope, according to a report on Ahram’s Arabic-language news website.

Bishop Bakhomious has been head of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria since the death of Pope Shenouda III in March. The election of the next pope is due to take place in autumn.

Seven of the the candidates named by the Church are bishops and 10 are monks.

According to church rules, the list will be whittled down from 17 to 7 from which the boards of the church’s city councils will vote to pick three. The final choice will be made by a young child picking a name from a box.

Ahram lists the candidates as follows, with limited biographical details:

1. Bishop Bishoy: Secretary of the Holy Synod and the metropolitan of Damietta, Kafr El Sheikh, Babrary and the monastery of Saint Demiana

Born in 1942, Bishoy studied engineering before joining the monastic order. Ordained as a Bishop in 1972, he was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan in 1990.

2. Bishop Youannes: Former secretary of the late Pope Shenouda III and responsible for social services

A former student of medicine at the University of Assiut, Youannes was ordained as a Bishop in June 1993.

3. Bishop Boutros: General Bishop and Pope Shenouda III’s personal secretary

Born in Sharqiya governorate in 1949, he has a degree in agricultural sciences and was ordained as a bishop in June 1985.

4. Bishop Tawadros: General Bishop of El Beheira

Born in 1952, he studied pharmacy at the University of Alexandria and was ordained in June 1997. Tawadros is a member of the Holy Synod.

5. Bishop Raphael: Auxiliary Bishop of Central Cairo and Heliopolis as well a former aide tolate Pope Shenouda III and 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.

6. Bishop Bavnotius: Bishop of Samallout and Taha El Aaameda

Born in Cairo in 1948 and a member of the Holy Synod, this medical graduate was ordained as a bishop in June 1976.

7. Bishop Kyrillos: Bishop of Milan

Born in 1952 in Sohag governorate and a former engineering graduate, he was ordained in June 1986 before becoming Bishop of Milan in June 1996.

8. Father Anstasy El-Samuely

A monk at the monastery of St. Samuel in Minya. Born in 1939, he has a degree in commerce.

9. Father Maximos Anthony

Born in Alexandria in 1954, he serves at the monastery of St. Anthony in the Red Sea governorate. Holding a degreee in agriculture, he also has a diploma in icon restoration from the University of Moscow as well as one in museum administration from the United States.

10. Father Raphael Ava Mina

A monk at the monastery of Mar Mina in Alexandria, he was born in 1924 in Cairo and graduated in law from the University of Ain Shams.

11. Father Begul Anba Bishoy

A monk at the monastery of St. Bishoy in Wadi Natrun, he was born in 1951 and has a degree in mechanical engineering.

12. Father Shenouda Anba Bishoy

Also serving at St. Bishoy in Wadi Natrun, Shenouda was born in 1943 in Minya and holds a degree in religious studies.

13. Father Bishoy St. Paul

A monk at the monastery of St. Paul in Egypt’s Red Sea governorate, he was born in 1964 in Mansoura. He holds a degree in agriculture from the University of Alexandria.

14. Father Sawiris St. Paul

Also at St. Paul’s, Sawiris was born in Sharqiya governorate in 1959 and has a degree in religious studies.

15. Father Bakhomious El-Sorian

A monk at the monastery of Virgin Mary in Wadi Natrun. Father Bakhomious was born in Aswan in 1963 and has a joint-degree in science and education.

16. Father Daniel El-Sorian

Also at the monastery of Virgin Mary, he was born in Qena governorate in 1962 and holds degrees in science, education and Coptic studies from the University of Lyon.

17. Father Serafeem El-Sorian

The third contender from the Virgin Mary monastery, he was born in 1959 in Cairo and has a science degree from the University of Ain Shams.