To his Grace Bishop Angaelos and his priests and people in the Coptic Orthodox Church in Great Britain, and to His Grace Abba Seraphim and the priests and people of the British Orthodox Church we extend our heartfelt sympathies and the promise of our prayers on hearing the news of the passing of His Holiness Pope Shenouda III.
The many tributes have recalled his devotion to the service of all the people of the favoured land of Egypt, blessed with the Lord’s own presence, and the welfare and solidarity of all its citizens in peace and love, especially in the recent times of strife and change. We can also recall how in his long reign he was not only a principled and uncompromising peacemaker and reconciler; even when roundly criticised he refused in respect of Israeli-Egyptian relations to “cry peace where there is no peace”, insisting that peace must be for all and cannot be for some. He also called on his flock to be people of love, peace and courageous forbearance, not violent like those who provoked them. But turning the other cheek at the Lord’s command was not a sign of weakness or giving in: he was bold in the face of the oppression of the Christian people and all dispossessed Egyptians before the civil authorities. He thus became a Confessor of the faith, banished and exiled for his faithfulness to the demands of the Gospel and the truth of Jesus Christ. On this rests the respect in which he was held on all sides.
We remember with special gratefulness to God his concern for the union of all Christ’s people, and particularly for the unity of the Churches, signified in the way he reached out warmly to the Catholic Church and successive Holy Fathers in Rome. Many pages have been turned, thanks to his teaching and witness to the apostolic faith, in the long history of philosphical and doctrinal misunderstandings that have best relations between the Catholic, Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox families of churches. Pope Shenouda is now for ever to be remembered for his achievements in our mutual rapprochement and the increasing solidarity of our common witness to Christ not only in our respective historic heartlands, but also in the diaspora where our faithful and our mission of service and proclamation mingle and stand alongside one another. Not least in Britain over the last few decades, the Coptic Orthodox Church has grown from being a community of expatriate Egyptians to a major and much valued contributor, alonside the British Orthodox Church, to the entire ecumenical movement and represents a welcome refreshment to our long standing efforts towards Christian unity and the full communion of our Church. The Christian Churches Together in Britain today would be unthinkable without the Coptic Orthodox Church and this is due in no small measure to the zeal and evangelical energy of Pope Shenouda, making sure that “their sound is gone out into all lands”. May he rest with the saints. May his memory be eternal!
Here is the report from the BBC, recalling a “passionate advocate of unity”.