It is no secret that the Coptic Orthodox community in Egypt and in the Diaspora is anxiously waiting for a new patriarch now that the papal seat has been vacant since the
It is no secret that the Coptic Orthodox community in Egypt and in the Diaspora is anxiously waiting for a new patriarch now that the papal seat has been vacant since the death of Pope Shenouda III last March.
The number of candidates nominated for the post is a record 17 candidates: seven bishops and ten monks. The electoral committee of the Church should short-list five or seven of them for the Coptic electorate to vote in three to take part in a draw held during Holy Mass. The name that comes out in the draw will be that of the new patriarch.
Standards and interviews
The nomination committee of the Coptic Orthodox Church is currently busy preparing the criteria upon which to short-list the candidates. Watani talked to the judges Edward Ghaleb and Munssif Soliman, both members of the Coptic Orthodox Melli (Community) Council and the nomination committee, on the topic. The committee includes 18 members: nine of them bishops and nine are legal experts who are members of the Melli Council and the Coptic Endowments Authority.
Judges Ghaleb and Soliman told Watani that the principles according to which the patriarch would be elected are objective and impartial, removed from any personal whim or preference. It is expected that these principles will include the candidate’s general knowledge, theological scholarship, ability to preach and educate, spiritual experience, pastoral experience, life before and during taking orders, and other standards along the same lines.
Candidates will be interviewed about their visions on how to hold a reasonable, balanced relationship between the Church and State; on their plans for the future of the Church, and how to lead the congregation along the teachings of the Holy Bible. Candidates will also be asked about how they would manage the service for the Coptic congregation in the Diaspora, and if they have any propositions for changes in the by-laws of choosing the patriarch. The current by-laws were drawn in 1957, and await the new patriarch to launch changes to bring them in line with modern times.
The interview will also be used to confront the candidates with any complaints submitted against them, or contests against their running for the post.
Voter lists
Watani also talked to Anba Morqos, Bishop of Shubral-Kheima and head of the committee for voter registration for the papal election.
Whereas, according to Anba Morqos, it is easy for dioceses in Egypt to draw their voter lists, the matter is not so simple when it comes to Copts outside Egypt.
“When the bylaws for the patriarchal elections were drawn in 1957,” Anba Morqos said, “there was no substantial Coptic congregation in the Diaspora. The bylaws, therefore, made no provision for such a sector. Today, however, the Coptic Church has 28 dioceses outside Egypt, plus ten monasteries all over the world, in addition to a large scattered congregation that is not administratively gathered into dioceses and is not under the care of any bishops. This congregation is under the direct care of the patriarch, and it is this congregation especially that needs provision through which to determine an electorate body to represent it.”
In cases of dioceses or monasteries, Anba Morqos explained, it is easy to pick an electorate body: each diocese is represented by its bishop and his deputy as well as those members of the clergy who act as notaries, and 12 laypersons. “We have already received the voter lists from several dioceses and monasteries abroad,” he said. “From Africa, we received the registration forms of 16 voters; 31 from Jerusalem and the Near East; 47 from Italy, 60 voters from the UK, 26 from two dioceses in the US, 13 from Brazil and 13 from Sydney, Australia. But this is not the full list; we are still in the process of receiving other voter lists from outside Egypt.”
Answers needed
“We are working hard,” Anba Morqos noted, “to devise a way to determine eligible voters in the case of congregations that do not belong to specific dioceses—and these are many. While there are 550 Coptic churches spread over 60 countries, many of them do not belong to dioceses.”
“How could you contact all these numbers?” Watani asked. “The problem is not how to contact them,” Anba Morqos explained, “the problem is how to pick those who will take part in choosing the new pope. Anba Pachomeus is now attempting to draw the standards according to which the voters may be picked.”
Since this is the first time Copts outside Egypt take part in choosing the pope, another problem needs to be addressed, according to Anba Morqos; that is whether or not they will be required to come to Cairo to cast their ballots.
“These questions and a few others are under study by a team of legal experts together with the Melli Council and Anba Pachomeus,” Anba Morqos concluded. “We hope to have all the answers by 15 July or, even the end of July, in order to announce the voter lists and the candidate short list. We can then get to the business of electing the new pope.”
WATANI International
24 June 2012