Motabaqat Toqous wa Aqa’ed al-Kaneesa ma Kaneesat al-Qarn al-Awal (Comparing the Church Rituals and Beliefs with those of the First-Century-Church); Kamal Fakhry Kamel; the publishing committee at Beni-Sweif bishopric; 2007
The biblical verse says: “The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season … He awakens me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to hear as the learned.” (Isaiah 50: 4). The author of Motabaqat Toqous wa Aqa’ed al-Kaneesa ma Kaneesat al-Qarn al-Awal (Comparing the Church Rituals and Beliefs with those of the First-Century-Church)Kamal Fakhry Kamel, obviously had this verse very much in mind when he spent years on end researching and studying, finally to come up with his comprehensive book.
Dr Kamel aims to help bring about an end to the differences between various Christian sects and denominations in order to reach the unity of heart the Lord recommended. In his introduction, he says: “When I intended to write this book I tried to go back to the days when there were no sects disputing with one another and when the Church was one.”
My Church
The book was revised and introduced by Anba Metta’ous, bishop and abbot of the Surian Monastery in the Western Desert. Kamel dedicated his work to Anba Philippos, the late bishop of Daqahliya, who was the author’s spiritual father and who had specifically asked him to write about the Church.
The first chapter, “The Church”, tackles comprehensively the various uses of the term ‘church’, its history, its use before the apostolic era, and the way Jesus Christ used it, the most important characteristics of the Church of the New Testament, as well as the meanings of some terms commonly used in the Church and their reference in both testaments. “By ‘Church’,” Dr Kamel says “I mean the teachings put by our early fathers and by the apostles, as received directly from Christ the Lord”.
In the second chapter Dr Kamel takes us smoothly all the way to the Church’s teachings, rituals and beliefs. It carries the name of “My Church…How beautiful you are!” “Every day we may, if we wish, be guests at a dinner held by our Saviour,” he says as he introduces us to this chapter which tackles Holy Mass. It explains the function of Holy Mass as an instrument of Salvation, its duration, its times, its parts, and its texts which he proves are direct quotations from the Holy Bible.
Dr Kamel discusses why Holy Mass is chanted even though Jesus Christ and His apostles did not themselves chant it, explaining that music and chanting are very natural outpourings of praise.
Another question, frequently asked by young people, and which Dr Kamel attempts to answer, is: “Why does Holy Mass take so much time when it could conceivably take up much less? The Coptic Mass in full may—in its longer version—take up to three hours, while the short version lasts one and a half hours. He justifies that by the fact that Holy Mass is not a mere ritual to be done with briefly, but is a spiritual experience that needs time for its fulfilment.
Councils and liturgies
In the third chapter Dr Kamel takes the reader on a journey through the history of the Creed. He begins with the Council of Nicaea (AD325) and its ‘hero’, the defender of the faith, Anba Athanasius the Apostolic, through to the Council of Constantinople (AD381) at which the Nicene creed was instituted, and on to the Council of Ephesus (AD431) which was called to refute the teachings of Nestorius against the Holy Virgin. At the end of this chapter the author briefly describes the three magnificent liturgies of St Cyril, St Basil and of St Gregory. In a superb contemplation he writes, “We have to know that the Divine Mass prayed daily in our church is not a mere ecclesiastical ritual we carry out every day but a meeting with the saints, prophets, angels and our Lord Jesus. Our ancestors have prayed these prayers and lived them; we also live them”.
Concentrated and accurate details were mentioned in the fourth chapter on the order of the liturgical prayers and important directives to the deacons on how to prepare for and pray the liturgy.
The invitation
Dr Kamel’s remarkable book is comprehensive and detailed. He has taken into consideration the importance of using the original Latin and Greek words to supply accurate interpretations of some texts. He ends with a decisive call: “The Coptic Church’s rituals are deeply spiritual and, as such, fill an absolute need in the human soul. An invitation to participate in Holy Mass is an invitation to ‘the Groom’s dinner’. Don’t miss it”.
BOX
• Kamal Fakhry Kamel was born in September 1947.
• He studied Accounting at the American University in Egypt.
• He studied Philosophy, Psychology and Pedagogical studies at Ain-Shams University in Cairo.
• He earned a degree in Theological Studies from the Clerical College in Cairo.
• He participated in several scientific, pedagogical and literary studies inside and outside Egypt.
• Kamel mastered English and Coptic in addition to Greek.
• He established the Choir of Daqahliya Bishopric in Mansoura.
• He also established chanting and deaconship classes for older people at St George’s Church in Heliopolis, Cairo. These classes became so popular that they were later converted into the weekly Family Meeting to accommodate everyone.
• He wrote several books among them How to present our Coptic heritage to children? , My father taught me / My mother taught me, Life taught me / Service taught me, Your dignity as a volunteer worker, The silent weepers and What do you wish me to do? .
• Kamel departed from our world in September 2008, after an extended illness that lasted for six months. He was the husband of Mary Mansour, and the father of one son, Peter.