US-based religious group challenges Coptic church
CAIRO, July 11- A Greek Orthodox fringe group based in the United States has angered Egypt’s largest and oldest church by sending an Egyptian bishop with liberal ideas to Cairo to win followers among Egyptian Christians.
Bishop Maximus played down theological differences with other orthodox churches at a news conference on Tuesday, but spoke in favour of allowing bishops to marry and allowing divorce on grounds other than adultery — positions rejected by the head of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox church, Pope Shenouda.
Shenouda, speaking to the Ala al-Hawa television programme, said on Monday no one recognised Maxiumus’s credentials but simple people might mistake him for a mainstream church leader.
Maximus’s church has also been organising pilgrimages to places in the Holy Land, which the Coptic Orthodox church does not allow out of solidarity with Palestinians.
Most of Egypt’s Christians, who account for between five and 10 percent of the country’s 73 million people, are members of the Coptic Orthodox church. Most Egyptians are Muslim.
Foreign denominations including protestants have set up Coptic branches and attracted Egyptian followers, but Maximus’s group appears to be the first direct competitor from within the Orthodox family of churches.
EXPELLED FROM CHURCH
Although Egyptian born and Coptic Orthodox raised, Maximus was ordained bishop for Egypt and the Middle East in 2005 by a group of Greek Old Calendarists based in Seward, Nebraska.
The Old Calendarists are ultratraditionalists who rejected the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1924. They have not previously had an organised following in Egypt.
The Egyptian media have portrayed Maximus’s small movement as a schism within the Coptic Orthodox church, which derives its authority from the congregation led by the apostle St Mark in Alexandria in the earliest days of Christianity.
Maximus denied his movement was schismatic, saying his relationship with the Coptic Orthodox church ended more than a quarter of a century ago, alluding to his expulsion in 1976 while serving as a deacon of a Cairo church.
Coptic church representatives say he was expelled for teaching unorthodox theology. “I don’t know what upset them,” Maximus said.
Maximus has accused Shenouda of promoting sectarian strife in Egypt, where relations between Christians and the majority Muslims are sometimes fraught.
In an interview with the newspaper Al Masry Al Youm this month, Maximus said Shenouda had purged the church of anyone who disagreed with him. “The church throughout its history has never seen an era like the Pope Shenouda era. It has been absolutely the worst for the Coptic people,” he said.
Shenouda, 82, returned from medical treatment in Germany on Sunday. He told reporters he had spoken to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak but not about Bishop Maximus’s church.
Mubarak, whose government has the power to decide which religious sects can operate in Egypt, said in an interview published on Tuesday he does not intervene in church matters. “The Copts are able to solve their problems by themselves without intervention,” he told el-Masa newspaper.
(Reporting by Jonathan Wright and Aziz El-Kaissouni)
What seems to me to be missing so far from reports about this is how popular this guy really is. Could he be no more than just a media-driven phenomenon? Now if Bishop Maximus — a failed deacon brought back to Egypt by an obscure sect of Greek Orthodox priest from Nebrasks — really is drawing a following among Egyptian copts, what does that say about the state of the Coptic Orthodox Church and how it’s meeting the spiritual needs of its flock?
I concur with Schemm. No one has thus far been able to guage the numbers involved, and Maximus has repeatedly said he doesn’t know. He also said he doesn’t care if it’s just ten, so long as they’re given the freedom to worship and congregate.
Maximus does seem to be meeting a demand. The Coptic church’s rigidity on issues such as divorce and papal authority is offputting to many Christians; so was Shenouda’s public endorsement of Mubarak for President in elections last year. And Maximus isn’t the only religious leader who has been critical of the Shenouda style; evangelical style Christianity has been growing in Egypt over the past decade or so. The big question, I think, is whether the Coptic church will acknowledge these realities when it comes to choose Shenouda’s successor…
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III is the 117th successor of St. Mark the Apostle, who brought Christianity to Egypt and established the Alexandria Church, and became the 1st Pope of Alexandria. After that St. Mark ordinated Bishops. H.H Pope Shenouda, as the successor of St. Mark, is the only one who has the right to ordinate Bishops in the Coptic Orthodox Church. The whole world knows how H.H is the mostly beloved Father for all the Coptic Orthodox people all over the world. The question is, from where does Maximus get his status? He does not belong to the COC anymore, and his status is illegal, and as he is from outside the Coptic Orthodox Church, no one Coptic is ready to lose his eternity and follow him. I think he is playing a game he will lose, like some other losers who tried to do same thing before and failed. God said “Blessed are My people, Egypt”, and the Coptic Orthodox Church is the Church of Egypt .. the people of God.
God keep the life of H.H Pope Shenouda III.
INTERNATIONAL EDITION
Saturday, July 15, 2006
GREEK PROMOTION
Egyptian ‘state church’ trying dirty tricks
Imad Boulos
July 8, 2006
CUMBRIA, United Kingdom — The rebel priest who split from – or rather tries to split – the Coptic Church has been encouraged by the Egyptian government and its security services. (“Rebel priest splits from Egyptian Coptic Church” [July 6] and “Egyptian Copts challenge priest over split” [July 7])
His accusation that Pope Shenouda has incited sectarian conflict tells the tale. It is a cheap trial to weaken the Coptic Church.
It is despicable even more because it comes at a time Pope Shenouda is out of the country receiving treatment for a disabling illness.
The government needs to know that their state-supported rebel churches will be never be filled with more than a few hundred Copts – the rest of the seats should be reserved for government security personnel.
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I have personally met the so called “bishop Max” before his excommunication. He was giving a sermon in a house of a lady we knew in Heliopolis, Egypt, and from the first encounter with the man I felt quite uneasy in his presence. I admit that my personal feelings are not to be taken as a measure of a person’s integrity but throughout the years my first impression never failed me. His followers almost abducted a girl whom he married against her parents’ will. A married Pope, what next !!!!
He is entitled to start any sect he chooses, (as many did over the ages), but he is not entitled to usurp the identity of the Coptic Church. If that Church has been wrong for 20 centuries (as he claims) I personally think it is too late to reform it now.
We are all responsible for Saving coptic orthodox church. What shall we do to help Pope Shenouda in his mission. Please visit us at : http://www.webservicesfree.com/blog/antimax.htm“ rel=”nofollow”>Save Our Coptic Church from Max Michel
This sad person (Max Michel or the so called maximus ) cannot threaten anyone,.. he is not worthy of any media attention!