The late Pope Shenouda still inspires Coptic Christians

By Rev. Alexander Santora/For the Jersey Journal
12/4/2012

Orthodox Christians follow a different liturgical calendar than the rest of Christianity so today begins their Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

Culminating with Easter is quite joyful but for the Coptic Orthodox it will be bittersweet this year. Their Patriarch of 40 years, Pope Shenouda III, died last month at the age of 88, and for many of the Copts in our area, he is the only religious leader they have known all their lives.

That is certainly true for Fr. Anthony Basily, 42, the associate priest at St. George & St. Shenouda Church on Bergen Avenue in Jersey City, one of the two Coptic Orthodox churches in Jersey City. He immigrated from Egypt to the U.S. in 1994 and was ordained in 2004 back in Egypt. “I did not know any other leader,” said Basily who also said that Pope Shenouda “was strong for all these years.”

Even though persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt has been a historic problem, many analysts believe that Pope Shenouda helped stem some of it under former President Hosni Mubarak. Now there are fears that a predominantly Islam Egyptian leadership further threatens the some 10 million Coptic Christians who still live in Egypt. Immigration to the U.S. is still strong and Jersey City’s large Coptic population is a magnet for newer immigrants like Reamy Telobos, 26, and his wife, Mariam, who immigrated eight months ago. “I think that Islamic control in Egypt will pose problems for the Copts,” he said. The graduate from the College of Law and Administration from the University of Cairo “prefers safety over jobs.” He says that since Mubarak was deposed there is more “lawlessness” in Egypt.

What may prove difficult in Egypt freedom to worship is quite open and thriving in the U.S. St. George & St. Shenouda has two sites. Their main church is the renovated Masonic Temple the congregation bought in 1974 and now accommodates the English-speaking. They expanded by purchasing the old Barrett’s Men’s Store, which had become a Social Security Office at 861 Bergen Avenue. They built an addition to it and it can accommodate the larger Aramaic-speaking Egyptian community. I was there last Friday when a huge crowd gathered for a liturgy to mark the beginning of the Holy Week vegan fast. There was a score of baby carriages at the side entrance on Vroom Street and the congregation seemed on the younger side.

Marina Dawoud, 20, greeted me. She’s studying chemical biology at Stevens Institute in Hoboken and is quite involved in the church. She teaches in the Bible school and Sunday school fifth graders. She referred to Pope Shenouda as their “father” and, like many Copts, followed his weekly talks on CTV, the local Coptic Channel.

“We are praying for a new shepherd who will come at a difficult time,” said Dawoud.

Basily said that at the end of this month, after a significant mourning period, a committee of the Holy Synod for the Coptic Orthodox Church will put in motion the process to select a new patriarch. Eventually, three names of bishops will be placed on the altar of the Cathedral of St. Mark’s in Cairo and one will be selected randomly. He believes that this process is divinely inspired.

The Telobos’ feel a divine connection to the late Pope Shenouda. Married in Egypt 14 months ago, they were unable to conceive. Then Mariam had a dream of Pope Shenouda after he died and he was making the sign of the cross over her. She soon learned that she was pregnant for two months.
I wonder if he’ll be baptized “Shenouda.”

Santora is the pastor of The Church of Our Lady of Grace & St. Joseph, 400 Willow Ave., Hoboken, 07030, (201) 659-0369, fax (201) 659-5833, e-mail: padrealex@yahoo.com

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