This morning, H.H. Pope Tawadros II met at the Papal Residence in Alexandria with the servants of the Leadership Preparation Program, in the presence of Their Graces Bishop Bavly (General Bishop of the Montazah Churches Sector), and Bishop Hermina (General Bishop of the East Alexandria Churches Sector), along with Hegumen Abram Emil (the General Deputy of the Patriarchate in Alexandria).

The meeting included a word from Father Antonios Fahmy, the priest responsible for the Leadership Preparation Program, in which he thanked His Holiness for his continuous encouragement of this service—one whose foundation was laid by His Holiness himself in 2015. Hegumen Antonious presented the history and purpose of the program. Afterward, a group of the program’s servants shared the vision and goals of the service, along with statistics on participants, curriculum structure, and graduation projects.

Father Mina Moris and Father Kyrillos Dawood, who oversee the personal interviews of the program’s applicants, presented the nomination process and the criteria for selecting candidates for study.

The meeting concluded with a word from His Holiness, in which he reaffirmed his belief in the importance of preparing leaders and servants with innovative and forward-thinking mindsets. He offered thanks to the fathers and servants, praised the presentation, and spoke about the Church’s experience in reaching out to the world and the expansion of its mission abroad. This began during the papacy of Pope Kyrillos VI, when there were only five churches outside Egypt; today, the number has grown to 800 churches and monasteries—around 400 of which were purchased from the Catholic Church in those countries.

Pope Tawadros noted that there are now around 40 bishops serving outside Egypt, some of whom hold the nationalities of the countries they serve in. He emphasized that such expansion requires leaders who are open-minded, culturally aware, creative, and capable of embracing and understanding others who are different.

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