His Holiness Pope Tawadros II met this Saturday morning, at the Logos Papal Center in the Monastery of St. Bishop in Wadi El-Natroun, with 59 new priests, who are receiving the training course provided by the Coptic Institute for Church Management and Development (COPTICAD) during the forty-day period following their ordination.
His Holiness delivered a lecture titled “Seven Principles that Govern the Service of a Priest.” The seven principles were as follows:
1- The first year in the priesthood, an introductory year during which the priest establishes his life and service throughout the days of his priesthood.
2- The Bible is the guardian of your thoughts, faith, doctrine, and service.
3- The key to hearts is love and service depends on how much you love others.
4- The self is the arch enemy of the priest, and most problems in church service occur because of the self.
5- Renewal in life and service is a constant need for the priest.
6- The priest’s care for his family is essential because his family is his support, and his wife is his partner in success.
7- The priest must always keep the end before his eyes, “The end of a thing is better than its beginning”
The training process, during the course that will conclude on December 23, will be undertaken by professors from the Coptic Institute for Church Management and Development (COPTICAD), led by Dr. Magdy Latif Al-Sindi, Dean of the Institute, in partnership with the Counseling Institute in Maadi.
The training course included: practical concepts and methods in church management and institutional work in the church, pillars of wise management (rational management or governance in the church), principles of development from a Christian perspective, and the role of the priest in managing the church as an institutional work system.
His Holiness prayed the Holy Liturgy yesterday morning in the Church of the Transfiguration in the LOGOS Papal Center, and the new priests participated with H.H. before H.H. delivered his lecture to them today.
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