Egyptian Chronicles

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Pope’s Funeral :Wait for another big Egyptian funeral

Pope Shenouda III’s funeral will be held tomorrow starting at 11 AM Cairo Local time at the Saint Marks Cathedral in Cairo.
The Pope has been already taken from the Papal Seat and was put in his coffin which arrived from Rome as a gift from the Vatican if I was not mistaken.

Al Masry Al Youm :Transferring Pope Shenouda III to a coffin

According to the Holy Synod the funeral of the Pope will be by invitations only , of course many Christians are angry for that decision yet others understand it. The angry Christians are sad that only prominent figures , foreign and Egyptian officials will let in while they are left outside.
Of course God knows how the streets surrounding the Cathedral will be packed with sad mourners tomorrow.

Outside the Cathedral "Getty"

Here is a map with the directions for the area , to be honest I did not understand much from it !!

This is one hell of elections year !!

2012 is just as interesting as 2011 as it seems.

We are going to have :

We are going to have a new president through presidential elections.
We are going to have a new constituent assembly.
We are going to have a new constitution through a referendum
We are going to have a new Pope for the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria through Papal elections as well.
We are supposedly going to have new government

This is the official elections year in Egypt and honestly we should be worried and concerned because we are speaking about the fate of this nation.

By the way the Orthodox Church of Alexandria announced that the Papal elections and process of choosing a new pope can be adjourned till after the presidential elections. We can be speaking now of more than 4 months of Papal seat’s vacancy.

Still this is not the first time in the Egyptian history or the history of the Church that the Papal seat will be vacant for several months , already in the past 3 centuries the papa seat was vacant for couple of years from time to time.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Al Jazeera Documentary : Pope Shenouda III “in Arabic”

This is a documentary about Pope Shenouda III was produced by Al Jazeera documentary from a year ago.

Al Jazeera documentary : Pope Shenouda III

Unfortunately it is Arabic. I am currently working on some sort of a profile for the late pope.

Technorati Tags: Citizen journalism,Documentaries,Pope Shenouda III,Video,Egypt,Media,History Religion,Christianty,Arab,Egyptians,Egyptian Orthodox Church,Mideast

Christians have one last look at Pope Shenouda

Pope Shenouda III on the papal Chair

Thousands of Egyptian Orthodox Christians have head to the Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Abassiya to have one last look at Pope Shenouda’s body since early morning.
According to Christian Orthodox rituals the late pope after death will be seated on his papal chair or as it is called “The patriarchal throne” wearing his full papal golden robe for three days before the funeral. His body is being prepared for this through some sort of mummification I suppose.
Bishoprics across the country and globe are preparing delegations to head to Cairo starting from today.
Bishop Pachimous , the Bishop of Behaira is appointed as the interim Pope for two months starting from today till the Papal elections. He held a meeting this morning with the rest of the Church men and the Holy Synod in order to prepare the funeral of Pope Shenouda that will be held on Tuesday ISA.
Bishop Pachimous is the second oldest Bishop in the Church after Bishop Mikhail who declined the position due to health reasons.

How Will the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria Choose its Pope ?? “Coptic Papal Conclave for dummies”

How will the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria choose its next Pope after the death of Pope Shenouda III earlier on Saturday ? How will one of the powerful and oldest Churches in the world choose its leader , the Pope of Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria ??
The System in the Coptic Orthodox Church is different than the Catholic Church and its papal conclave as follows based on the patriarchal elections law issued in 1957:

After the death of the Pope , the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church will call the oldest bishop in the church within 7 days of the Pope’s death to choose a temporary pope “I do not know the correct term in English” till electing a new pope.
A committee will be formed with inone month of the Pope’s death from temporary pope and 14 members of the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church in order to prepare a list of candidates for the papal position based on recommendations.
The list of candidates should be published in 3 major Egyptian newspapers in Arabic.
The process or rather this stage should take 3 months.

Egyptian Constitution : 50%-50%

And the parliament “Upper and lower houses” members reached out to the best of form of membership for the constituent assembly after receiving suggestions from the parties and members : 50% of the constituent assembly’s members will be from the members of parliament and other 50% will be from outside the members from prominent personalities , representatives from syndications and unions.

I hate lying and liars Freedom and Justice party as you can recall suggested that the constituent assembly would be consisted of 40% of the MPs and 60% from outside the parliament. Most of the liberal parties and non Islamist parties in the parliament supported this suggestion. From two days ago I remember that I read a statement for one of the MB/FJP leaders in the media saying that the constituent assembly may end to be 30% from MPs and 70% from outside !!

Now earlier today FJP shocked us all by choosing that 50%-50% plan !! So what made them change their mind at the last moment !!? Already this was not the only shock of the day the biggest shock is that the 40% MPs-60% from outside suggestion only got 20 votes !!

Now there is an assumption that if the Islamists in the parliament “FJP & Al Nour” are going to be represented in the 50% or rather in the 50 seats , they will take at least 31 seats according to their percentage in the parliament. This is just an assumption.

It is worth to mention that that MB is already controlling several syndications and unions so the MB will have more than share in the constituent assembly , we want a constitution that represents all Egyptians and not only the members of the Muslim brotherhood.

Technorati Tags: Citizen journalism,Egypt,Politics,National,News,Egyptian Constitution,Constitution,Freedom and Justice party,Al Nour Party,MENA

Breaking News : RIP Pope Shnouda III "Updated"

Just from moments ago it was announced online through MP Marianne Malek that Pope Shenouda III , the head of the Egyptian Orthodox Church has passed away from couple of hours ago.

فقدت مصر اليوم رمانة الميزان الباباشنودة الثالث عزاء الى كل شعب مصر والى الشعب المسيحى فى كل العالم
— marianne malak 84 (@MarinneMalak84) March 17, 2012

Pope Shenouda III was 88 years old and he was suffering from several health problems. He has been sick for the past few week.s
Marianne Malek’s father was the legal adviser of Pope Shenouda III

Pope Shenouda III (1923-2011)

Few moments ago also it is was confirmed Egypt’s general consul in NYC who received a confirmation from Cairo Coptic Church.
My condolences to the Egyptian Orthodox Christians all over the world as well to all Egyptians , we lost not only a religious icon but as well an Egyptian with a long history.

Updated :

It is 7:20 PM and the Egyptian TV has not announced the breaking news !!!!! They did not have got the permission

Updated @7:46 PM :

Prime minister has presented his condolences to the Egyptian Orthodox Church and Egyptian Christians for the death of the late Pope.

Late Pope Shenouda III passed away at 1 PM , he suffered from sudden heart attack. The updates about his funeral will be announced later today. Some sources say that the funeral will be held on Tuesday.

The Supreme

The leader of Freedom and Justice party Mohamed Morsi has presented his party’s official condolences to the Church and to the Egyptian Christians.