Dear father and alll ….you raised an important issue which should be raised and exhausted sometime ago by a our qualified people in this field …i am not qualified in this field but i will put all my experience forward , may the holy spirit support us all for the best of our Coptic community everywhere and specially for us in this part of the world …i will try to cover my vision in point form ….1-recently all organizations restructured to survive with flatter structure and no more hierarchy one , so efficiency , productivity and communication will improve as every one see the other , the top see the bottom and vice verse…2- expenses reduced to minimum 3- all team is responsible and accountable at the end of the day 4- work is done through the right people and the right channels …4-education and technology are important tools in this dynamic change 5- shareholders in our case here our Australian church congregation knowing and sharing their organizational “church ” mission ,vision and strategies will trust, accept and all their loyalty will be to our church leadership flatter team ” bishop, priests and few elected young church reps ….so the bottom line our church MUST change in its way of management to be effective management in order to get back the trust and acceptance of the lord,s flock … some suggestions 1- no need of diocese building and employing people , we can do it simply with a simple accommodation for our humble bishop and a lot of volunteers can help in the diocese work , we must reduce our expenses 2 – education of bishop and priests in problem solving and counseling “christian councellig ” and communication , it is impossible a priest to try to solve a problem without the appropriate tools and skills and in the presence of the word of God will be powerful as he our wonderful councilor… 3 – the congregation need to feel that their issues of concerns , problems and spiritual needs attended with care and love, not seeing the priesthood as only a profession and this is very dangerous 4-churches must take responsibility in running their financial affairs independently within the general diocese strategy focusing mainly in reducing debits 5- church reps not to be selected by priests and all facts to be clear to the whole Coptic community 6 – our identity is Australian Coptic community and no need of Sudanese , Ethiopian or Egyptians 7 – we have got nothing with politics Egyptians or Sudanese stuff and no need for any letters in our feasts from any department …our interest with the politicians in this part of the world and we encourage it , as we pray all the time for our prime minister and the stuff of our country Australia, we are proud of our christian values and our way of life ….8- we need as congregation to feel the spirituality of our bishop as the good shepherd around his people ..9-we need to feel as Australian Coptic community we are capable to deal with our problems locally and not every couple of month our bishop to fly to our mother church 10- truly we have got great bunch of priests with different qualifications and i believe they can make a great team with our bishop 11- truly, there is around a lot of young well educated , well mannered youth know well our Australian system i believe they are capable of doing a lot to our community …..life keeps changing but our lord Jesus Christ was in the past and HE is in the present and He will be the same one in the future , we have to focus on him and in his great love to us all the time , amen ….please forgive me if i mentioned something not in its place , everything is possible in God , it is hard but possible and always the challenges will be there as we live in this earth ….

What dangers threaten the Orthodox Christian faith and way of life?

- Secularism? Maybe, but I think the Church has done well in weathering that storm.

- Atheism? Maybe, but the Church has always emphasised that it relies not on science to explain its faith. If science supports some aspects of our faith, we do not turn from it, if not then we understand that the sciences can never, and will never be able to explain who or what God is exactly. The early Church had many theologians who explained Christological and Trinitarian theology in scientific terms, although even they understood that their explanations were lacking.

I think there are two big threats, I couldn’t narrow them to one…

I think the first threat to the Orthodox Church and the Orthodox faith is Latinisation. I do not mean that the Orthodox Church will dissolve into a Latin identity or the Latin Church (although this has happened to some aspects of our faith, in embracing Augustinian thought, even though this is denied), what I mean is that the Church is in danger of heading down the same path that the Latin Church has, and continues to go down: a path which seeks to ‘change’ the Church in order for the Church to speak to each generation; all in the name of reform.

With our Church in particular, the Coptic Lay Council made this attempt during its beginnings, and continues to, although more controlled, to strive for these’reforms’.
The word ‘reform’ is a ‘dirty word’ when said in conjuction with the Orthodox faith; it needs to be stamped out! The Coptic Lay Council needs to be abolished, or if not then have no standing in Church affairs. If they continue to exist and insist on mingling in Church affairs, they should be demonished and given the same status as the self-proclaimed Archbishop Maximus’ splinter group. No group should interfere or have any say whatsoever in Church affairs save the Holy Synod itself!

The second thing I see as a threat, and forgive me for saying this, is the Ecumenical Movement. I know our Church has been an active participant in this Movement for a number of decades.
Although some good has come of it, particularly in dealings with the Eastern Orthodox Church, I think it is too widely pursued, and could I believe, do great unrepairable damage to the Orthodox faith.

Both the Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox groups of Churches have now recognised each other as Orthodox in all respects, and this is a great thing. Both sides have been able to put aside the animosities of the past and understand that the Orthodox faith can (and was in the early Church) be expressed in different ways as long as the essence of the faith is the same.

However, in pursuit of full Eucharistic Communion between the two sides, the Eastern Orthodox side wishes to see the Oriental Orthodox Churches dissolved into Byzantium (and the whole struggle of the 5th century is repeating itself). They do not understand the relationships between the Oriental Orthodox Churches, in which although full Eucharistic Communion exists, each Church is completely independent. This to them in not Communion at all, and they wish to see the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Orthodox Church formed with one rite, one liturgy, under one Ecumenical Patriarch.

Although the Oriental Orthodox Church has rejected this, and wishes to establish a model based on its own inter-relationship between its Churches, the nature of the Ecumenical Movement seeks negotiations and concessions; which can be extremely dangerous. And if negotiations and concessions are given in this aspect, as they have to other aspects such as Saints, Council and Ecclesiology, then the Orthodox faith, and the Oriental Orthodox faith in particular, is in danger of being destroyed.

The Ecumenical Movement has however gone most dangerously further than this, in seeking negotiations, communion and signing ‘Common Declarations of the Faith’ with other heretical churches such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England and the Assyrian Church of the East.
Although I understand that denouncing any church or teaching as heretical does not have the same weight as it did in the first centuries of Christianity, to seek any sort of communion or negotiate with these churches regarding the faith, goes completely against the work of the first three Ecumenical Councils, which strived to stamp out these heresies.

In the early Church, heresies and heretics were completely driven away from the Church, and for good reason. The Ecumenical Movement now, strives to bring them back in, signing with them ‘Common Declarations of the Faith’, which is putting, and will continue to expose the Orthodox faith to the grave danger of heresy.

The Orthodox faith is one in which concessions cannot ever be made. The Ecumenical Movement does just that. It is enough that the two Orthodox expressions have recognised each other as legitimate, to go any further than that with the Eastern Orthodox Church, and continue to seek meetings, negotiations and signing of Common Faith Declarations with heretical churches, will dissolve the Orthodox Church, and the Orthodox faith to a status just the same as any other Christian expression and it will no longer stand alone as the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church.

Thats what I think anyway…
Please don’t shoot me…

Seems our worldly feasts are changing these days and mixed with our ritual feasts and that only i believe occurs in our churches in this part of the world …on mother day feast our church celebrates our Tasoneys and give them presents !!?? and on father day feast , they celebrate father Mina Nametalla “God bless his soul “????!!! the priest extended his congratulation in his announcement to the family of our late Mina Namatela ???!!too much mate ???!! it is a circus ????!!! truly , “too many chiefs and not enough Indians “!!!?? oh pal we live more , we see more !! that is life !!

we come back to square one and we put forward the big question “DO WE HAVE A PROBLEM OF ATTITUDE IN OUR COMMUNITY CHURCHES !!!????” the other day i attended a mass in one of our churches and the priest was upset from the nature of those heaps of small papers the congregation ask to be put in the altar ??!! oh pal i was shocked of the hatred and unchristian nature of those papers as the priest commented about them at the end of the mass such comments on those tiny papers “may God destroy x and y ” ,” may God destroy the house of so and so “, “may God burn x and y by kerosene as they did so and so “, oh my God till now i can not be recovered of all these and i am trying to convince myself this is only a nightmare and not true ???!! sometimes i wonder if our christian values and way of life were already gone and just we are going in circles with the devil ???!!now i REALLY understand why more and more leaving our churches and join the apathy group ??? now i understand why most of our youth, boys and girls prefer marriage out of our community and it is escalating with high rate in daily basis ???!! now i understand why half of the church have problems with one another as one get absolution not to say hello to own brother and the other brother get absolution from other priest not to say it too ???!! so very easy and they get regularly the sacrament of the holy communion ????!! where are we heading with such LACK OF LOVE AND NO FORGIVENESS ???!! what do we expect from our youth and we are setting the bad example and sending the wrong message for them all the time ???!! i believe our biggest challenge that we have to start with our selves and we MUST live in the fear of God and act as real Christians…” truly if somebody hate all the time , certainly no one do have time to love !!” i believe this is the real cancer in our community churches and forgive me in saying this …my understanding our lord wants only to love him from all our hearts and our souls and to love thy neighbor as thyself and look after those least in Mathew , He does not want from his creatures more than that ???!! i believe this is the real underlined cause for all our problems …. in Arabic language we call “FIRRA ” hitting our community ???!!i believe it needs a lot of prayers so the holy spirit inside each one of us must be reignited with the love and forgiveness for each other in our christian life as real images and followers of Christ …. pray for me as i am one of you as well ….i thank God that He assisted me too to stop and look back through those thoughts which i have being trying to share with you ,so i go back to square one , reflect and by the support of our Lord to rectify a lot of unchristian things inside myself before it is too late ….may our Lord have mercy on all of us ….DA HAL ALDOUNIA !!!!!???the real challenge now is to build up the true christian with those basics of our bible !!!!???