We live in a world that raises slogans of freedom of worship, but tear them apart on daily basis with increasing hatred, sectarian attacks and persecution. This is wrong and I believe such sectarian violence should come to an end some day. Yet, the latest annual accounting from Open Doors USA revealed that the world is only increasing persecution against Christians with 245 Million persecuted people this year compared to 215 Million last year. The World Watch List 2019 reporting period showed that 4,136 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons, which means that on average 11 Christians were killed every day for their faith. 1.266 churches or Christian buildings were attacked. 2.625 Christians were detained without trial, arrested, sentenced and imprisoned. The rise in the number of persecuted Christians in the top 50 countries is 14% on the World Watch List and sadly enough they experience high levels of persecution. The countries on top of the list where Christians suffer from extreme persecution are North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Sudan, Eritrea, Yemen, Iran, India and Syria. Since 1 in 9 Christians experience high levels of persecution worldwide, the lucky 8 Christians should not only be grateful and thankful, but also praying for the persecuted ones. Moreover, the whole world should be praying for peace and progress and working hard to spread love rather than hatred and division.

Our deeds and sins are exposed and revealed before the eyes of the Lord as He says in the Book of Hosea Now their own deeds have surrounded them; They are before My face. (Hosea 7:2) This should be a good reason for man not to sin. This was explained by Archbishop Bachomious of Behira, Matrouh and Northern Africa. He said in his aricle ’Spiritual Lessons in the Book of Hosea’ that the Lord revealed the sins of his people in the book of Hosea including the sins of their superiors. God also revealed the penalty for trespassing on the will, which represents a personal message for each of us to pay attention to our sins before they destroy our lives. One of the sins that God warned against the bad company with the people of the world and imitating them. God has also warned against being lazy in worshipping and serving the brothers, seeking excuses for the soul that hurts God’s heart, and the sin of pride that comes when a person feels that he no longer needs the Lord. Such sins lead man to lose wisdom and purity and being void of spiritual fruits. Another sin of the chiefs that the Lord announced in the Book of Hosea is the failure of kings to provide service and care to their people and when the head is sick the whole body becomes ill. Thus, the sins of the chiefs are great, for this the church prays special ritual prayers for the kings and the presidents and we must always pray for for God to give all leaders wisdom and understanding.

Egypt has several achievements in the field of sports. The most recent one was a gold medal for the Egyptian champion Ahmed El-Gendy who won the Polish International Championship for adults for the International Modern Pentathlon Union, which is comprising the contemporary sports of pistol shooting, fencing, swimming, horse riding and running. The 19 years old young man has big dreams to achieve to be the world champion in that hard challenge. Yet, he works hard to achieve them through spectacular performances and remarkable results in the sport.

A Coptic woman called Catharine Ramzy survived slay attempt in Warraq, Cairo, after a fanatic called Mamdouh Ramadan has dragged her in the street and attacked her with white weapon saying this is what she get for walking without wearing a hijab. She has hardly survived the attack by a man who don’t even know her! The man was arrested by police and the matter is currently under investigation that revealed he suffers from mental illness and he had attacked another woman in 2017. However, such statement came without even getting him inspected by doctors! Moreover, if he do suffer from such illness, why wasn’t he locked in proper hospital instead of leaving him kill in peace! There is a big difference between being a murderer and being a psychopaths. Yet, this man has prepared a white weapon and attacked more than once, and needs a real investigation to protect the community and achieve general deterrence.

In Egypt there is a famous proverb says “The homes of the careless man destroyed before the house of the tyrant man” and that exactly apply on the Egyptian hospitals. People most of the time go to hospitals and can t find anyone to cure them or take care of them, not just that but also, when there is an accident and people need an emergency, they can t find the emergency service that could help save their life.

The Holy bible says: Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Jesus Christ took flesh from the Virgin Mary without a human father. It is a miracle of the Holy Spirit. Father Benjamin Al-Muharraqi in his article We glorify your unaware birth explained that the divine incarnation without human father is not impossible, since Adam was created from dust and then God created Eve from Adam s rib. Both of them were created without sexual reproduction. The divine incarnation was also without sexual reproduction as St. Cyril of Jerusalem said that Eve was born from the side of Adam without sexual reproduction and so did the Virgin Mary who gave birth to Jesus Christ and this is how we understand the Immaculate Conception. On the other hand, we find Saint Cyril the great explaining to us the goal of the Incarnation saying that the Lord Jesus became a human being like us in order to transform our nature and give us a new spiritual birth by the Holy Spirit. Thus, we call God as Father, and we are called sons of God after taking a new nature emanating from the nature of the Lord Jesus. We pray to God to grant us blessings of His incarnation and to preserve our new nature in Jesus Christ.

There is no doubt that festivals bring special joy, especially the religious holidays that raise minds and hearts to heaven. It brings our souls closer to God. Then we enjoy his presence like the bible says: “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Will bring her into the wilderness, And speak comfort to her. (Hosea 2: 14) Christmas has its own magic go bringing joy into our hearts and enlightenment to our souls. This happens no matter how much evil and darkness in the world. It reminds us of what the angels said on Christmas Eve to the shepherds: “Do not be afraid! Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy for all the people. The heaven tells us not to be afraid and to put our faith in God. We need to show love and mercy and to be the change we need to see in the world. Perhaps we turn to the born child who incarnated to save humans and to show us how to love one another. The magi followed the star from a far at the time Herod decided to kill the child in order to save his fleeting throne.

We studied in the university that countries have to follow international law when it comes to declaring wars or any act of the war, however, we see recently that a lot of countries don t follow the international law but it follows and uses the rule of power. For example, Russia invaded Ukraine and that was against the international law, US invaded Iraq and that was against the international law, Iran seizes British tanker in Strait of Hormuz and that was against international law.

In the new year, I will not write about personal achievements and heavenly gifts, but about the year that has passed from our lives. Each step we make takes us closer to the end of our life. This inevitable end that each man has to face, which is death. Such end means we will have to meet with God at the end, even if we don’t know when. God gives us a chance to make better relationship with him and with the others. Shall we benefit from such great opportunity in the new year? I hope we can use it since no guarantee that such chance will be on the table forever! Many happy returns on the new year and best wishes to fulfill your dreams and wishes in 2020.

By the departure of Eng. Adly Abadir, we have lost a strong knight who was a symbol of courage and steadfastness, but was one of the bravest and purest men I have ever known. The Copts lost a free, bold, and generous voice serving the Lord. He was eager to serve his church and country and could throw stones into still waters of the Coptic cause. Thus, his loss was a great Calamity for the Copts. He was such a great struggler for the Coptic cause, but he earned the new life in heaven with the saints. So, we remember his work at the 10 anniversary for his departure and we praise his struggle and love. May God repose his soul in the paradise of Joy and may his great example is followed by the faithful workers in the Copts United Website. I also pray to God to give his family the heavenly peace and condolences.

2020 is a new year coming with new hope. At the beginning of the year, a person must set himself clear goals like to smoking and start exercising daily! We may have weak will, but we still have to have hope, which is once source of renewable energy. We may not have a plan to implement such goals, but our hope will find a way to carry them out. I think hope is somehow linked to love, and those who have hope must enjoy love in their hearts as well. When I was young, I fall in love with the daughter of the neighbors, who lived with her family on the first floor of the building. She was incredibly beautiful, or so I saw her. I didn’t see her much except through coincidence meetings at the entrance to the building, or when she paid my sisters a short visit. One day, I played a small role in a TV series, and she met me and was very proud of me. my heart couldn’t stop beating and I realized ever since that love is a story that can’t be explained, but it is strongly related to hope. In the new year, let us look forward to love, and to the hope that our world will concentrate on science, arts, and love. This is how life protect itself. I wish you a happy new year full of accomplishments, creativity and determination.

It is true that the British Consul General in the time of the English occupation to Egypt, Lord Cromer, said he couldn t differentiate between the Egyptian Muslims and Christians except when they visit houses of worship to pray, but as matter of exaggerations and scarcity Christian citizen have been known as super polite and shy and fear facing his problems in order to avoid evil! However such exaggerations are not acceptable, they have been supported by media through films and TV series over the years. Such stereotyping have also affected the image of the Jews in Egypt who have been described as super stingy and talk in a funny way just like they appeared in media. Perhaps the church also contributed to form such picture by keeping its children inside its walls and offering them spiritual and social services. The state preferred to deal with the church instead of the individuals, which made many Copts refrain from participating in political life and all kinds of running in elections. I was among those who wrote and warned about the importance of the role of Islamic and Christian institutions in general in supporting the positive spirit of our citizens for participation and serious interaction when it is necessary to participate and meet the nation s call at all political and social levels. ‫Dr. Nagi Youssef, editor in chief of The true path newspaper said once that ‬ negativity is a sin in Christianity since Jesus taught us to be positive and active. At the time community neglected and even attacked certain people like the blind, the leper, the Samaritan woman, and others with a negative and destructive point of view, Jesus supported them and never hurt their feelings.

While a lot of people celebrating Christmas around the world , we need to remember all people in need not just in need to money but to the spirit of “ Christmas”. We need to practice the spiritual meaning of Christmas not only in giving gifts but also in giving love and comfort to who needs it especially with the difficult world we live in right now. Christ born to give us better life not to give us material life, and we must ask ourselves the same question, are we giving others better gifts or only focus on material gifts.

Prayer is the life of communion with God that expresses mutual love between God and humanity. This is the reason God created Adam and Eve and put them in the paradise. Thus, His Eminence, Bishop Benjamin of Menoufia told us in his article The Effectiveness of Prayer about prayer as the common factor that all the apostles, saints, and martyrs enjoyed expressing their love for the Lord. Prayer does not mean asking for earthly needs since God already knows them and and gives us generously, but prayer means praise and glorification of God and constant thanks to his countless blessings. Moreover, after the fall of man in sin, prayer has other spiritual goals such as asking forgiveness, preserving the purity of conscience and human thought, and feeding the soul in order to triumph over the temptations and desires of the world. Hence, the importance of prayer is to get support over Satan s wars and strengthen love between man and his Lord and among people. Through prayer, a person rises with his spiritual life, feels a permanent yearning for God, and protects himself from vice, impurity, and subjectivity, but seeks spiritual virtue and lives in love, joy, peace, and other fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Netflix launched an offer called ‘The First Temptation of Christ’ that sparked angry responses around the world since the film presented Christ as gay. This shameful act is a moral crime and totally contradicts our firm belief. The film mocks the Bible and the Christian faith and is considered a miserable attempt to spoil the story of salvation of Jesus Christ. Jesus who was sinless said ‘Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?’ (John 8: 46) It is worth noting that the teachings of the Bible reject, condemn and warn about homosexuality, and there is a big difference between rejecting homosexuals as persons and rejecting their behavior. The Bible recommends respect and love for all people, but this does not mean accepting their bad behavior. I believe homosexuality is completely rejected because it contradicts the nature that God created us and that it is the result of an imbalance in psychological development, behavioral decline, immaturity in the personality, lack of sense of value and is clearly insulting the human soul. It could be a disease like any disease that requires treatment. Moreover, we believe in freedom of expression, but this suspicious work does not fall under the section of freedoms or creativity in any way, which confirms the validity of our vision that there was an American movie produced in the eighties under the name of ‘the last temptation of Christ’, which is based on the novel of Nikos Kazantzakis issued in 1953. This movie sparked controversy after demonstrating bad relationship between Christ and Mary Magdalene, and was banned in several European countries and faced sharp criticism. The director of the film presented himself to the courts in Rome because of this film. The European Court of Human Rights has triumphed for religious sanctities, and issued a historical ruling a year ago and decided that abuse of sanctities and prophets does not fall within the freedom of expression. There must be a delicate balance between the right to freedom of creativity and expression and the right of others to protect their religious feelings, and the Netflix network should respect such feelings. Therefore, this abusive offer must be immediately dismissed and removed, before Netflix apologize to all Christians of the world.

The city of Bethlehem in Palestine has a distinguished location among all parts of the world, although it does not have many natural properties that lead to a great city. Yet, it has received great attention from Christians, geographers, historians, archeologists, mainly because it is the birthplace of Christ. Nature and geography of the place: The city of Bethlehem is located in the southern part of the Hebron Mountains, which extends parallel to the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, and is about 10 kilometers south of Jerusalem, and about 73 kilometers northeast of the Gaza Strip and the Mediterranean Sea, and about 75 kilometer to the west is the city of Amman, the Jordanian capital, and about 59 kilometers to the southeast of Tal al-Rabi`. Bethlehem is located at an elevation of about 775 meters (2,543 ft) above sea level, 30 meters (98 ft) higher than nearby Jerusalem. Bethlehem is situated on the southern portion in the Judean Mountains. The names given to the city of Bethlehem: The historians have disagreed about the name of the city of Bethlehem, where several names were Tel el-Amarna letters indicate that the name of Bethlehem is delivered from a city located in the south of Jerusalem known as the house of (Ilo Lahama), which is the god of food for the Canaanites, who built the city and its first inhabitants after migrating to it from the Arabian Peninsula. It is worth noting that Micah the prophet mentioned the city of Bethlehem or the city of "Ephrata, and assured that Christ will be born in it. “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.” (Mi 5: 2).

As I was listening to President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi’s speech in the youth forum, he greeted women appreciating their great national and social role. I remembered what the newspapers published in early November 2010 about the crime of a livestock trader in Fayoum who killed his three-year-old daughter, fearing she will have to face the shame caused by a relative who was known as prostitute! He said in the investigations that he killed her to get her rid of shame! The wonderful writer Dr. Ahmad Khamisi wrote commenting on the incident that he decided to save his own dignity by killing his own daughter! Such men think their dignity is stored in a piece of meat that be excluded at any time by some kind of weapon! Women realize that some men may kill them to save their dignity that a girl killed her sister to prevent her from telling their father that she has a boyfriend! Dr. Ahmad Khamisi said that women are not a box to store men’s dignity. In fact, man’s honor lies within his soul, mind and body. It is in one’s positions, relations, achievements, seeking justice and freedom. He should blame and fix himself instead of blaming, abusing and humiliating women and even killing them! The aim has been lost and values have been mixed up. Thus, the writer calls men to leave women alone since they are not property. She is an independent being who doesn’t enjoy torturing others like some men do. Then, it is a matter of honor and dignity. This is how the community develops using ideas of pioneers and people of reform and enlightenment and abandon ideas of retardation and ignorance.

It s clear that Egypt and Turkey are going into clash verbally and might exceed that verbal in the future especially after Turkey announced the agreement with Libya to search for natural gas in the Mediterranean Sea. There is no doubt that Turkey has used all tools to hurt Egypt and tried to weaken its power, for example Erdogan did agreement with Libya and visited Tunisia lately, went to the Islamic summit although the absence of Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

As sinners, we always ask God for forgiveness. Nobody is void from sin if his life doesn t exceed one day on earth. Pope Shenouda III in his article Forgiveness assured us that God is merciful and forgiving by nature because he knows our human weakness. The prophet David says, for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103:14).

December 25 in the West is equivalent to January 7th in Egypt. Christians celebrate Christmas in Egypt on January 7th while they celebrate it on December 25 in the West. It is a matter of calendar calculations and not creed! It is not fair to impose the Egyptian calendar on immigrants who live in a country different from Egypt. Thus, the solution is easy: we start the nativity fasting earlier and unify the date of celebrating Christmas on December 25. The Coptic Christians may celebrate the feast on January 7th as well accepting diversity which doesn’t contradict with our faith. Concerning our Coptic calendar, I would say that it is not applied even in Egypt where the Islamic calendar is more applicable and the Arab identity is embraced. Yet, the Coptic identity is hidden inside the Copts. I’d say that we should celebrate Christmas on December 25 since all the Copts don’t live in Egypt and the Coptic calendar is not applied.