The Coptic Church has always felt the needs of her children throughout the ages. When the Apostles saw the need to serve tables for the people, they appointed deacons to serve them. When the issue of Judaization arose, almost dividing the Church at that time, they held the Council of Jerusalem to solve the problem at its roots. Our Church continues to this day to work for her children.

At the beginning of the last century, there was a growing and urgent need to provide education for the young, so our Church established Sunday school classes. There was also the need for specialized academic services, so our Church established a bishopric for education and another for scientific research. Then the Church saw many of her children in need of support, so she established a bishopric of services. Thus, from generation to generation, our Church continues to think about the needs of her children and tries to meet their needs in the best way possible.

Today, another need looms on the horizon for a large segment of the Church’s children; with her remarkable love and well-known initiative, she hastens to meet this need. The expansion of our church outside of Egypt has established a long and rich history of the many churches and dioceses outside of Egypt. The product of this is a deep desire for Immigrant Copts of the first, second, third, and sometimes fourth generation over the course of about 60 years, to visit Egypt, the motherland, the land of St. Mark the Apostle, and our mother Church. Subsequently, there have been many visits from different churches and dioceses outside of Egypt Small youth groups flock to Egypt for basic services, varying from educational to medical to social. There were also other services that became a source of joy for everyone who participated in them, and everyone, the youth in particular, began to rejoice in visiting Egypt for different services.

In 2018, we held the first World Youth Forum. The youth asked me at the end of the forum to come visit Egypt again the following year, and we accomplished this request for them in the form of a service week. The days of that service week were all full of happiness with services for children, the elderly, people living in shelters, the sick, and refugees in rural, desert, and urban areas. This was also the case at the 2022 World Youth Forum. When the youth returned to their respective dioceses, a large number encouraged their friends and others to the idea of a week of service in Egypt. This resulted in groups from multiple dioceses organizing different service weeks, which reinforced the need to organize this rapidly growing ministry.

Therefore, we concluded that there is a great need to establish an office aimed at organizing the service between Egypt and the rest of the world; an office that acts like a bridge of communication between the children of the Coptic Church abroad and the areas in need of service at home, here in Egypt. This office symbolizes Christ whose one hand holds the youth of abroad, and the other holds the neediest groups inside Egypt. The office is called HIGH, an acronym for “Hands in God’s Hands” It is one of the services of the synodal Immigration Lands Affairs Committee, and its headquarters is in the Patriarchate in Cairo.

The office consists of three groups:

Working Group Outside Egypt:
This group consists of a priest and a servant from each continent who act as the link between the office in Cairo and the service groups in each continent. Here are summaries of their roles:
1- Collaborate with the Cairo central office through the designated continent servant to establish a mutually agreeable service schedule.  They determine this service schedule based on their number, duration, timing, and target demographics (a form is filled out to determine all these points).
2- Contribute to developing specialized itineraries for the needs of each Coptic group from abroad, and their mission, goals, and vision.
3- Actively promote participation in Egyptian service experiences by dioceses abroad, research, and analyze the needs and deficiencies of the youth abroad to establish specialized services.

Patriarchate Coordination Office:
Made up of about five individuals living in Egypt, this office serves as a central hub for coordinating the activities of service groups and the various locations they will serve. Their duties include:
1- Collect information for the places most in need of service, and distribute service groups to them without an overlap in coverage.
2- Be a central communication point between international and Egyptian servants.
3- Develop specialized itineraries to include spiritual enrichment, engaging activities, cultural immersion, and visits to monasteries and convents, aiming to provide a fulfilling experience for all participants.
4- Have follow-ups and reviews of the service and organization between members of the office and service groups to confirm quality assurance.
5- Coordinate initiatives that serve the children of the Church in Egypt, such as: children’s education programs, children’s support, friendship programs for college youth to continue studying, programs to help institutions in construction, education, small business, medical convoys, etc.
6- Track the work through periodic reports with the participating youth after returning to their dioceses.

Working Group Inside Egypt:
This group consists of a priest or servant representing a region, a diocese, or a pastoral district within Egypt, who are happy to host service groups. They have previously applied to host service groups by filling out the service request form and providing necessary data about the diocese requesting service in that area. Their role includes:
1- Collecting and analyzing data for the neediest churches in Egypt to work on providing and meeting their needs.
2- Preparing development programs in education and medicine, and small projects that suit each pastoral area.
3- Providing information for places within the dioceses that will host the service groups while they are in Egypt.

Some Examples of Services by the Office:
Village Service: providing educational services, health care, small development projects, and visiting some homes for blessing and consolation.
Visitation Service: organizing visits to different groups such as shelters, senior homes, those with special needs, and the homeless.
Wedding Planning Service: helping a large number of females in wedding planning by providing some basic needs.
Children’s Education Service: helping families inside Egypt to continue their children’s education, and participating in bearing part of the cost of the educational process, by monthly assistance for approximately 15 years, which are the years of the education system in Egypt.
Business Service: helping some families improve their economic situation by contributing to the establishment of small businesses suitable for family members.
Friends Service: Providing the opportunity for undergraduate students from inside and outside Egypt to communicate with each other based on their majors, with possible financial aid.

We hope that our good God puts this idea into action to be of benefit to the groups of servants and youth in Egypt and abroad.