عقد قداسة البابا تواضروس الثاني اليوم اجتماع الأربعاء الأسبوعي بكنيسة الشهيد جوارجيوس بشارع أبوطاقية بشبرا بمناسبة اليوبيل الذهبي لتأسيسها والذي اتخذ عبارة ( انه يوبيل ) عنوان له 

وافتتح قداسته لدى وصوله مبنى خدمات الامير التابع للكنيسة وقام بتكريم القائمين علي العمل كما أستمع لبعض التسابيح من كورال الأطفال بكنيسة الشهيد مارمينا الكائنة أسفل الكنيسة الرئيسية، ثم توجه قداسة البابا إلى مبنى الكنيسة الرئيسية يتقدمه خورس شمامستها بالألحان، حيث صلى صلاة العشية، وعقب انتهائها القي القمص يعقوب حنا كاهن الكنيسة كلمة ترحيب بقداسة البابا
هنأ فيها قداسته بعيد ميلاده والقرعة الهيكلية وعيد جلوسه وألقى نيافة الأنبا أنجيلوس الأسقف العام لكنائس قطاع شبرا الشمالية كلمة أخرى، عرض
جاء فيها : هذه الكنيسة تأسست على يد قداسه البابا كيرلس السادس عام 1969
وصلى فيها قداسة البابا شنودة اخر قداس وهو اسقف للتعليم قبل الإعلان عن القرعه الهيكلية
بعدها فريق الصرخة المسرحي فيلم تسجيلي عن تاريخ الكنيسة وقدم كورال رئيس السلام ترانيم روحية وتسجيل لشعار اليوبيل وكرم قداسته رواد الخدمة الأوائل في خدمة الكنيسة وصافح السادة الرسميين من الحضور .
ثم ألقى قداسة البابا كلمته

كرامة الكنيسة ….كلمة قداسة البابا في حفل اليوبيل الذهبي لكنيسة الشهيد جوارجيوس بابو طاقية

القي قداسة البابا كلمته الأسبوعية في حفل اليوبيل الذهبي لكنيسة الشهيد العظيم جورجيوس بابو طاقية واليكم الكلمة
نقرأ من انجيل متى الإصحاح 16
سعيد جدا انى ازور كنيستكم وعندما دخلتها شعرت بروح قداسه البابا كيرلس السادس فيها فهى كنيسة ممتلئه بركه وتتعاملون مع بعضكم كعائله واحدة ..اشكر كل الآباء،
والفيديو والكورال كان جميل جدا

نحن نقول فى صلواتنا كما فى السماء كذلك على الأرض
لذلك الكنيسة قطعه من السماء فيجب أن تكون منظمة ونظيفة وجميلة مهما كانت فقيرة او غنية
خمسة مجالات أساسية ترسم أمامنا الكرامه والمهابه فى كنيستنا المقدسة
١- كرامة المكان
تم تدشينها بالميرون المقدس وصارت مخصصه
٢- كرامه الزمان
الصلوات التى تقام فيها تقدس الزمان ” مفتدين الوقت لأن الايام شريرة”
فالصلوات الطقسية التى تتم فى الكنيسة تجعل المكان مدشن مكانيا وزمنيا
٣- كرامه الكتاب (الكلمة)
يقرا فيها الكتاب المقدس فى كل قداس وعشية فكلمة الله ساكنه حاضرة فى المكان فيصير المكان مقدس
” كلمة الله حيه وفعاله وامضى من كل سيف ذى حدين “
وعندما نقول انصتوا لسماع الانجيل اى اجعلوا كل حواسكم حاضرة للاستماع الكلمة بقلوبكم ويرسل الله رساله خاصه لكل واحد .ونجد نظام دقيق فى القراءات الكنسية قراءات الاعياد والاحاد
٤- كرامه الكهنوت
عند رسامه كاهن يسمى ابونا وهو أغلى لفظ وهو الذى حفظ الكنيسة عبر الأجيال
فى الخارج يقولون حضرة الراعى ولكن عندما نقول ابونا
الله يقدم كرامه الكهنوت للشخص المختار ويصبح ابونا وتجتمع فى هذه الكلمه فكرة العائله
الكنيسة هى كاهن نشيط وخدمه الكاهن هى شكل من أشكال الاستشهاد ( الشهيد يموت مرة واحدة من أجل سيدة والراعى يموت كل يوم من أجل رعيته )يوحنا ذهبي الفم
ممكن يكون كاهن نشيط ولكن روح الأبوة ضعيف عنده فيجب على الكاهن أن يصلى بأن يعطيه الله روح الأبوة
٥- كرامه التقليد المسلم
نحن نصلى ونقول من جيل إلى جيل
الاطفال لهم دور الشباب دور الشعب دور
كنيستنا تقليديه فالسجود أمام الهيكل وتقبيل الستر لم يكتب فى كتب ولكننا استلمناه بالتقليد 

خمسة مجالات أساسية ترسم أمامنا الكرامه والمهابه فى كنيستنا المقدسة
كيف نعيش هذة الكرامه ؟
الكنيسة تحتاج الى
١- الصوت الهادي
٢- الحركة الهادئة
٣- الخشوع
٤- روح العبادة
كل هذه صفات نعيشها
فتصبح الكنيسة كما فى السماء كذلك على الأرض
كلا منا في خدمته يضع باستمرار ان تكون الكنيسة قطعة من السماء
كنيستكم بركة كبيرة …ربنا يبارك ويفرحكم بخدمتكم

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. One God. Amen. May His grace and blessing rest upon us, from now and forevermore. Amen.

By the grace of Christ I will read a portion of Scripture from the Gospel of our teacher St. Matthew Chapter 16:13-19, from the part where the Lord Christ speaks about the Church.

13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

The grace of God the Father be with us all. Amen.

Summary of five major avenues that give our Holy Church honor:

1. A consecrated physical place,
2. Consecrated times and a sanctified history,
3. The Holy Word,
4. The fatherhood of the priesthood, and
5. The Holy Traditions that we practice

The Church is a piece of heaven

I want to speak with you briefly about the honor of the Church, or in other words, the Church’s honor. The Lord has given us many blessings that fill and satiate us, but the foundation in our Coptic Church across all the ages has been the statement we make in the Our Father prayer: “On earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10), for we consider the Church to be a piece of heaven, and so if you were to sit and imagine what heaven must be like, the Church should be the same way.

And even when we pray we wear white garments, which represents light. God lives in the light, and so with these white angelic garments it is as though we too are living in the light. This concept is a major one and each one of us must have it rooted within themselves, that the Church is a piece of heaven, and this is also why the Church needs to be well-organized, the Church must be clean, and the Church must be beautiful. And so no matter how small its size may be or whether it is a poor church or a rich one, a church must be well-organized, clean, and beautiful. 

And because the Church is a piece of heaven, it is always full of saints. When I saw the children’s choir downstairs – smiling, happy, and rejoicing about their church, and then up here I saw the adult choir and the deacons, and the Church servants and Youth Scouts stationed all over the church, as well as in the church’s service building, in essence, what we are saying is, “We want our church to be a little piece of heaven,” and we all strive for this.

Five things that give the Church honor

I want to speak with you very briefly about the Church being a piece of heaven, and how because of this it has a special honor and reverence, so let me now explain to you how this honor entered the Church.

1-The physical place is honorable

The first point of honor about a church is the place itself, because the place itself was consecrated with the oil of Holy Myron. When you read the history of this church that we are in today, you see that the departed Pope Shenouda came here in 1990 and consecrated your beautiful church, and so today has become a special feast day for this church. And as His Grace Bishop Angelos mentioned earlier, it was in this church that Pope Shenouda prayed his final Liturgy immediately prior to the Papal Alter Lottery. And so this church has a special place and blessing within history.

The Church has honor because its physical buildings are consecrated with the Holy Oil of Myron, and so they are consecrated places. And as Father Jacob mentioned, it was common for people to carry away a stone from a church’s building, which is an expression that each person has become as a building block in that church. And so because a church is consecrated with the Holy Myron it becomes holy and sanctified, and it has indeed become a place for the Holy Spirit to descend.

And if you were to ask me how we prayed before the time when we had Church buildings? For sure we would have used the Holy Tablets, but that is a temporary way until an altar is built, consecrated, and a church receives a name.

I want you to also know that at the time of the founding of a church we place a box within the foundation, a small box. And in that box we place the newspapers from that day, the currency being used at that time, the Church’s special forms, pictures of the Pope and the Bishop, and we also place the church’s formal construction documents.

And so all of these things are placed in a box and this box is placed in the foundation of the church, to be preserved for all the generations to come, and this box is present during special prayers that are prayed at the dedication and for the consecration of the church that is to be built upon it.

And this is also why no individual can ever say, “I built this church,” because every person contributed in some way or other, no matter how small the contribution may be. And I’m not only referring to money here, but I also mean contributions of effort, of thinking and planning, of actual work, and of supervision.

For example, when we were at the honor’s ceremony earlier, giving honor to those who served, you said, “So and so was in charge of maintenance.” It is a very good thing that our churches have maintenance and that we have a person who is responsible for this, because maintenance prolongs the longevity of a place, and this is a very important matter and one which we lack in many places. It is a very good thing to make something beautiful, but it is also a very important thing to maintain it continually. And so the first reason a church is honorable is because it is consecrated and has become a special place for the Presence of the Lord.

2-The time and history is honorable

The second reason a church is honorable is because the physical church itself contains the honor of the times and history of the ages, for what is it that a church does? A church prays. When we ordain an Abouna we call him “Abouna el-Qis,” and the word ‘el-Qis’ means ‘one who prays, and these prayers sanctify the time, history, and the ages – they sanctify the time and make it holy.

Do you remember the nice verse St. Paul said, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Eph 5:15-16)? And so the prayers that are raised up in a church building … can you even count how many Liturgies have been held in this church? How many Vespers have been held here? How many feasts have been celebrated here? How many various ritual services have been held in this church? How many times we prayed the Agpeya Prayers here – Morning, Noon, Night, Midnight, and Tasbeha prayers? And so the place itself has become holy.

And that is why when you enter into a church you enter into a place that is consecrated not only physically, but it is also consecrated in time, in history, in the ages, as the Prophet David teaches us to say, “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps 119:97). And so as you participate in prayers of any kind, you are also participating in the sanctification of time.

For example, as we prayed in the Vespers tonight, Abouna was praying, the deacon responding, the congregation participating – all of us together, and all of this makes a place holy. And from the moment we started at six or seven P.M., from that moment until now has become sanctified time, holy time.

How lucky is the person who sanctifies their time, how lucky is the person who sanctifies their physical space! How lucky is the person who fills their physical space with prayers! And in monasteries, the monastery assigns a new monk a cell, and what do we say to him when we congratulate him? We say a very nice expression, we say to him, “May you live long and fill it with prayers.” May you live long and fill it with prayers.

The very small cell that a monk lives in is intended to be a space for him to fill with prayer. And why is it that we like monasteries so much? Because a monastery is composed of many cells and churches that are filled with prayers. So also, your church has been filled with prayers and so it has the honor of the times and ages.

And so,
1. Number one: A church is honorable because of its physical place,
2. Number two: A church is honorable because of the times and the history of the ages, and
3. Number three: A church is honorable because of the honor of the Holy Book, the Holy Word that is imparted within it

3-The Holy Word is honorable

Within a church, countless verses and portions from the Holy Bible are read. Just see how many times we read Scripture in any single Liturgy, or how many Psalms and Gospel Readings we read during Vesper prayers, during the Agpeya’s Morning (Baker) Prayers, and during the Tasbeha, can you even count how many Readings are read in each Liturgy? And then multiply that by the number of Liturgies prayed! There is an honor that is imparted from the Holy Word, the Word by which we live.

When the Word of God dwells and is present in a place, that place becomes holy. And every time you enter into a church and hear a verse of Scripture, a Commandment, it is not at all farfetched to say that that specific Word is coming to you specifically and personally.

And you would say to me, “But these are Scriptures that are often repeated,” and I would say to you, yes, these Words are repeated but they are new every time they are repeated, and this is a very important point.

I cannot say that the Holy Bible is old and I cannot say that it is new. It is old in terms of its age but it is new in terms of its effectiveness, because every statement and every word in it has an effect – “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb 4:12). Pay attention to the word “living” here – the Word of God is living, and that is why we are told in the Liturgy to, “Stand in fear before the Word of God and listen to the Reading from the Holy Gospel.” Please notice the emphasis on “listen” here. To listen means to make all your senses present in the listening to the Word of God, and not hearing it with your ears, but hearing it with your heart – that you hear the Word with your heart.

And it is very possible that God has sent you a personal message tonight or in this Liturgy. And it is not at all farfetched that He is sending you a personal message just for you, regarding a specific issue that you are thinking about, an issue that you are concerned about, or a situation that you want to make a decision in. “The word of God is living and powerful” – the honor of the Word of God.

And truly, the Coptic Church has an extremely orderly system for the Church’s ecclesiastical Readings – what is to be read on this day, what is to be read on that occasion, what is to be read on that feast, the structure and content of Sunday Readings, compared to that of Weekday Readings– it is arranged very precisely.

I sometimes sit to study the organization of this system of Readings and I wonder, how did they do it?! Because there were no computers nor search engines long time ago, so how did they do it? And the answer is always, of course, that the fathers were led by the grace of the Holy Spirit and so they were able to build this great structure and arrangement that connects the Bible to the Church. And so the Church receives honor because of the honor of the Word that is imparted within it. This is the third point.

4-The honor of fatherhood (priesthood)

The fourth point is that the Coptic Church always ordains priests for every church – one or two or ten, depending on the size of a church and its need for service. And in the Coptic Church we refer to a priest that we ordain for a church as “Abouna,” and this is the most valuable term we have in our Christian and Egyptian lives within our Church. I would even dare to say that this term or title of “Abouna” is what has preserved the Church across the ages – “Abouna,” our father.

Outside Egypt they call a priest a “pastor,” it is a title and that’s all, but there is not that strong relationship there that exists between me and Abouna, because an Abouna has now become our father. And all of us who were raised in the Church, without exception, were raised at the hands of an Abouna, and it was this Abouna who step by step taught us about the Church and the faith, and it was this that connected us to the Church. Another special thing about fatherhood in the Church is that each one of us has a father of confession.

And so the honor of priesthood adds beauty to the portrait of the Church. The honor of priesthood is a gift from God and God gives this gift in the form of an ability and responsibility (a talent) to a person who is chosen for service. We choose a person from the Church’s congregation, usually, we then develop him and he becomes a priest, and as soon as he becomes a priest we refer to him as “Abouna.” And whether he was an engineer, a teacher, a lawyer, or an accountant, never mind all of that, he is now Abouna.

And because the word “Abouna” is always stated in the plural, it is a representation of another beautiful thought, the concept of family, for he is the Abouna of all of us. And so he is not just my Abouna, no, he is our Abouna, Abouna to all who are in the Church.

And so priesthood brings honor to and within the Church, and as we always say, “Church is priesthood.” An active priest, a spiritual priest, a priest who practices repentance, a priest who sacrifices himself, this is the priest who creates the atmosphere of a beloved Church.

St. John Chrysostom has a nice saying, he says, “The martyr dies once for the sake of His Master, the shepherd dies every day for the sake of his Master’s flock.” I will say it again, “The martyr dies once for the sake of His Master” – every martyr, for example St. Gregory (Mari Girgis) – but the shepherd dies every day for the sake of his Master’s flock.”
This is the standard by which we measure the service of a father priest, and it is also why we are able to see a form or martyrdom in the service of a priest father, as the Apostle Paul said, “For Your sake we are being killed all day long” (Rom 8:36, Ps 44:22) – a beautiful statement.

And so the Church has great honor because of the fatherhood, and this honor is not found in the buildings – the Church buildings are engineered, just like any other buildings – but it is found in those who serve and in the spirit that the father priest creates within that church, and this spirit pours forth to every home, to every place, and to every family, and this honor is the sacrament of priesthood.

And notice this very beautiful connection between how we call the Abouna who serves us “our father,” and we also call the God we worship, “Our Father in heaven” (Mt 6:9). Do you see the connection here? They are both stated in the plural form – both the father that serves us and the Father we worship – and so we all live together in the spirit of fatherhood.

And this is why God grants the grace of fatherhood to a priest that walks in the fear of God and in faithfulness. Fatherhood is a grace from God, one that He gives us. A priest can be very good at many things – in many different areas of serving, and so on – but the spirit of fatherhood is most needed, and so a smart priest is one who prays continually and says, “Lord, give me the grace of fatherhood, and let all my actions come through this door, the door of fatherhood.”

5-The honor that comes from tradition

The fifth thing that gives honor to the Church is tradition. In the Church we pray saying, “From generation to generation,” and personally speaking, when I go to a church and see that every group within that church has a role – the young children, the youth, the Church servants, the adults, the congregation – it feels as though the entire church is a single united group, harmonized and living in harmony, in agreement, in one accord.

And tradition is passed from one generation to another. The young children among us today will become adults and remember this day of the Golden Jubilee celebration of this church, and they will remember this detail and that one, and they will retell the story … “We stood up and sang a hymn, and Abouna the Patriarch came, and the Bishop fathers came, and we were all so joyful with our priest fathers and Church servants!” This is Church, this is the church that works together as one team, a unified work team.

And so tradition gives honor and our Church is a traditional Church. There are many things we have and do in our Church that we have received through tradition, for example, as soon as I enter a church I bow down on my knee and kiss the veil of the altar – this is not found in any book but it is a tradition that we have received. Also, when we receive Communion it done in a particular way, and when we celebrate our various occasions – whether revivals or feasts or fasts, each with its own beautiful rituals – all of this creates an entity that we call “the Church’s Tradition,” and so the Church’s honor also comes from the Church’s Tradition.

And so these five major avenues illustrate the honor and dignity of our Holy Church for us:

1. A consecrated physical place,
2. Consecrated times and a sanctified history,
3. The Holy Word,
4. The fatherhood of the priesthood, and
5. The Holy Traditions that we practice

Practicing the Church’s honor

And so how are we to practice and live out this honor? I will tell you a few points about this, for example, it is always appropriate to use a low voice when in Church – it is never appropriate for a raised voice; the voice of Tasbeha and praises should be a soft and low voice.

Also, the sounds of one’s movement should be quiet, well-ordered movements. For example, a person can prostrate while making a lot of sound with their feet, but one should bow down or prostrate without making any sounds that get the attention of others, and so, quiet movements.

Also, in our churches we always light small candles, and this small candle has many meanings, but it is a symbol of continuous prayers.

Also, along with the spirit of worship (as with prostrations or bowing of the knee) is the spirit of humility, as when our sisters (the females in the church) place a white scarf upon their heads whenever they are in church. This is a symbol of focus, that I am focused upon the service or prayer that I am performing.

Conclusion

All of these are very important characteristics for us to implant within our children and for us ourselves to practice, and in this way our Church will be exactly as the statement that I began with: “On earth as it is in heaven.” Every Church servant, every priest father, every deacon, should always place before them that the Church is to be like a piece of heaven.

Your church is very beautiful, full of rich history and great blessing. May the Lord bless you and always keep you give you joy in your service. And as the Holy Bible says about the Church, “My house shall be called a house of prayer” (Mt 21:13), may your church always be a house filled with prayer.

May the Lord keep you and bless your lives, always. To our God be all the glory and honor, from now and forevermore. Amen.