Next Wednesday, 3 October, Holy Mass will be held in churches over Egypt to commemorate the 27 Copts who lost their lives a year ago in Maspero, Cairo, shot by
Next Wednesday, 3 October, Holy Mass will be held in churches over Egypt to commemorate the 27 Copts who lost their lives a year ago in Maspero, Cairo, shot by security forces or crushed under military vehicles. They had been among a several thousands strong peaceful demonstration of Copts protesting against the gross injustice of official inaction in the face of hardline Muslims attacking the Copts in Merinab, Aswan, and burning their church.
Kamel Saleh, member of the Coptic Orthodox Melli (Community) Council, told Watani that the acting patriarch Anba Pachomeus, has declared next Wednesday a Prayer Day during which all the Churches in Egypt would join in prayer for Egypt and its national unity, for the Coptic Church and a new pope to succeed Pope Shenouda III who died last March, and for commemorating the Maspero martyrs. The Maspero incident actually occurred on 9 October 2011, but the commemoration will be held during the Prayer Day a week earlier since Anba Pachomeus, together with other members of the papal election committee, will be leaving Cairo on Thursday 4 October to the monastery of Anba Bishoi in the Western Desert. During a two-week retreat, the committee will short-list the 17 candidates for the papacy to seven or five candidates, among whom the Coptic Orthodox electoral college will elect three names for a draw on the altar during Holy Mass, to name the new pope.
The Wednesday prayers will be attended by Anba Yuhanna Qolta, Assistant to the Patriarch of the Coptic Catholic Church, Rev. Safwat El-Bayadi, Head of the Evangelical Community in Egypt, Rev. Mounir Hanna, Head of the Episcopal Church, along with the members of the Coptic Orthodox Holy Synod and Melli Council.
Kamel Saleh and Georgette Qellini, also a Melli Council member, extended invitations to the families of the Maspero martyrs to attend Holy Mass on Wednesday.
Watani International
29 September 2012