Our Need for Human Energies for Service
Our Need for Human Energies for Service
The service of consecrated deacons in Cairo, Alexandria, and in the lands of the diaspora
The service of deaconesses, and an ecclesiastical order for consecrated women and women’s ministry in the Church
In the past two issues, we spoke about the human energies that were sent outside the country for various works of evangelism, and about the human energies that were prepared to serve the churches of Cairo and Alexandria, and to rebuild the monasteries, and about the institutes and monastic orders that were established for this purpose. We also spoke about service in the villages of Egypt and in the countries of Africa.
Today we will speak about other types of these energies:
Consecrated Deacons:
His Holiness the Pope restored the ministry of deacons in the Church—those who are fully devoted to service—after their role had ceased with the passing of Ayad Ayad, Eskandar Hanna, Habib Girgis, and others like them.
The first step he took in this field was to appoint all the graduates of the day section of the Clerical College as deacons in Cairo and Alexandria. Their work included visitation, preaching, and church education. Some of them were later ordained as priests.
Then came the role of the consecrated deacons in America.
For the first time in the history of our service in America, consecrated deacons were sent there. Their first task was to preserve the liturgical rite in the Church by teaching the hymns and responses, forming deacons’ choirs, carrying out the duties of the altar deacon, and leading the congregational responses. Then they undertook the service of church education, youth classes for young men and women, preaching in the church, visitation, and assisting in publishing the magazine.
The service of these deacons succeeded, and they were all graduates of the day section of the Clerical College and of the hymn and music department.
Among the foremost of them were the deacons: Mounir Edward Mikhail, Salama Caesar, and Michel the priest Youssef.
These deacons served in three churches in New York. After that, many other churches in America remained, as well as the churches of Canada and Australia. All these require human energies.
There are also services in Cairo, Alexandria, and elsewhere that require consecrated deacons, for whom a system of consecration will be established.
We are in need of directing the energies of the youth who wish to consecrate themselves—that is, to dedicate themselves to the Lord—whether in the priesthood, monasticism, or virginal service.
Women’s Ministry:
To clarify the Church’s need for human energies in women’s ministry, we may, by way of comparison, mention something about:
Human Energies in the Catholic Church for the Service of Nuns:
The Catholic religious congregations include 1,478 serving nuns, distributed among 137 associations: 61 in Cairo, 29 in Alexandria, 8 in the Delta, 2 in the Canal region, and 37 in Upper Egypt. All these nuns serve in schools, hospitals, and social centers, in visitation and in spiritual ministry.
In Cairo alone, 793 nuns serve; in Alexandria, 337; and in Upper Egypt, 271 nuns. Meanwhile, all our Coptic nuns number about 200, devoted to worship.
Here we ask: What is the role of women’s ministry in our Coptic Church at the level of full-time dedication and consecration?
How easy it would be to establish a system in the Church for women devoted to the work of the Lord. From here began the thinking about the order of deaconesses.
Deaconesses:
The Church will return to the order of deaconesses that was known in ancient times in the Church; we will restore it as part of women’s ministry. We have previously published an extensive article about the service of deaconesses: in churches, in nurseries, in workshops, in visitation, in teaching, in shelters, and in social service.
God willing, this Year of the Woman will not pass before we celebrate the restoration of the rite of deaconesses, which some bishops are currently arranging.
We must open the way for the consecrated woman who serves, and not let consecration be merely for virginity and worship.
We are in the process of establishing an ecclesiastical system in which the Church will care for these female servants, so that they may serve under her spiritual and administrative supervision.
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