As the whole world is celebrating Valentines Day, I would like to talk today about offering love before gifts. I am talking here about the mature love that is expressed by giving. Yes, one should express his love by giving from his time, efforts, money and etc. This concept extends to love our children, homeland, church, family, friends and spouses. Thus, lets think today about the love that we can offer to those whom we do care about. It is not just about giving more; it is about what we give and how we present it. The gift is valuable no matter how much it costs as long as it is offered with love. A child wanted to give his dad a present at Valentine’s Day, so he offered him the last piece of chocolate that he had and indeed this was very valuable gift since it was wrapped with true love. Lets think about giving more love to those whom we care about. Lets give them a touch of caring, respect and appreciation. Enjoy a happy Valentines Day my dear friends!

Christ did not leave us a specific textbook to memorize it, and has not handed a creed to the disciples, but only gave them the principles of love, holiness and justice through which, they were guided by the Holy Spirit and wrote the creed to be widely accepted by Christians all over the world. This was explained by Father Youhanna Nasief, the priest of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Chicago, in his article the formation of the creed in which he assured that it was written thanks to the holy spirit. In the first church, it was a simple statement of the basic beliefs before accepting baptism which was referred by St. Paul saying Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6: 12)

The military court sentenced 8 defendants to death penalty on charges of attempt assassination of president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and here I remember few political assassinations in Egypt. Th oldest political assassination in the history of modern Egypt is the assassination of Napoleon s deputy Clipper during the French campaign against Egypt. He was killed by Suleiman al-Halabi, a student who came from Syria to study at Al-Azhar. Al-Halabi hid himself between the trees claiming to be a beggar, and used a knife to stab Clipper to death. Then, during the British occupation of Egypt, the Black Hand Association was formed by the National Party, which believed that the assassination is one mean of struggle. They assassinated the English soldiers and those who collaborated with them among the Egyptians. They killed Sir Le Stack, the governor of Cairo, Ahmed Maher Pasha and Amin Pasha Osman. The Muslim Brotherhood continued the list by killing Counselor Khazandar in front of his house in Helwan, and Salim Pasha Zaky in front of the Faculty of Medicine, and placed bombs in front of the churches, and then killed Prime Minister Nukrashi Pasha.

We listen these days to the justifications of those supporting the amendments to the Egyptian Constitution. They say that the Constitution is not a sacred text and the second article, which states that Islam is the main source of legislation for the laws, and that Egypt is an Islamic state is not an exception. Such article was planted in 1980 like a bomb by Sadat to be reelected for lifetime and wanted to get the support of the Islamists. The problem of article 2 is that it impairs the entire judiciary, such as the crimes called (honor killings), a murder that any murderer can claim to defend his honor even if he is a pimp. Moreover, the bearded officers were not excluded since Islamic Sharia doesn t prohibit letting one s beard grow. The personal status laws were no exception despite their extremely big scale. The second article is not a problem for Christians alone, but for all Egyptians, police and army.

Again Egyptian and the political regime in Egypt don t want to learn from his past mistakes and lately member of the parliament suggested many amendments to the constitution. These amendments mainly targeting increasing how many times the president can run for the election, thus, president Sisi can be in the power for longer time. Unfortunately, most of the intellectual and elite of the society can t utter a word or objecting what s going to happen otherwise they will face what the Egyptian director “Khaled Youssef” faced by provoking him with sexual videos.

A friend of mine suddenly decided to move to Rwanda and invest his savings in that African country assuring it is a great investment opportunity. It was an interesting turn in his life that made me curious to learn more about this country. Rwanda is one of the smallest countries on the African mainland and has suffered from civil war and genocide in which around 1 million people were killed. However, Rwanda has changed dramatically and witnessed great development. Moreover, its economy and health services has witnessed great improvement. Paul Kagame is a Rwandan politician and former military leader. He is currently the President of Rwanda, having taken office in 2000 when his predecessor, Pasteur Bizimungu, resigned. Kagame previously commanded the rebel force that ended the 1994 Rwandan genocide. He was considered Rwanda s de facto leader when he served as Vice President and Minister of Defence from 1994 to 2000. He was re-elected in August 2017 with an official result of nearly 99% in an election criticized for numerous irregularities.He has been described as the "most impressive" and "among the most repressive" African leaders. Kagame has been president of Rwanda for 19 years and though he has made many achievements in several fields, democracy remains not one of them. This may show that there is a big difference between development and democracy.

5 years have passed since Mr. President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi took the presidential office, and he always tells us that he won t continue in that office if the people don t want him to. I want to remind him of the story of Harun al-Rashid, who used to hide himself in clothes of a bigger at night to listen to his people and to compare it to the sayings of the people surrounding him. President al-Sisi was born and raised in a local and historical neighborhood, Gamalia, and I visited this neighborhood since I admire Islamic antiquities like Qalawoon, Ghouri, Barqouq, Merdani, Mohamed Bai Abdul Dahab, and Akmar mosques which are full of beauty.

French newspapers talked about the visit of French President Emmanuel Macaron to Egypt, which shows how Makron responded to the demands of his people. The French journalist said that President Macaron has drawn the attention of Egyptian translators more than once to the fact that he speaks about human rights, and yet they do not translate the words accurately to President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. This shows that those surrounding the president don t translate the situation accurately to him and not only the words of the the French guest. The situation also showed that president Macron determined to talk about the issue of human rights no matter what happens. This also happened after he was criticized for not mentioning it last year upon the visit of al-Sisi to France, and therefore, decided to mention it clearly this year. He declared it several times even before he visited Egypt saying that Egypt violated human rights and freedoms. Yet, no body responded in Egypt.

I Write this article to discuss what I am trying to understand, not to evaluate or criticize. It may look useless as a friend told me since our leaders prefer stubbornness, tyranny and even murdering! The situation is totally nonsense as wisdom is hated and giving advice is a crime that is not forgiven. We have tried to amend the constitutions before, and what was the result? Sadat opened the duration of presidential period to be unlimited instead of just two. Yet, he was murdered before his initial period was over.

CNN released recently a report comparing between Apple Revenues and some Arab countries revenues and the report shows that Apple almost beat all the Arab countries revenue like (Egypt- Emirates- Saudi Arabia) not combined but individually. For Example the report showed that apple revenue was about 250 Billion Dollar compare to 239 to Saudi Arabia, 112 to Emirates, 56 to Egypt, 54 to Kuwait, and 49 to Qatar. The statistics explain why US Economy still remain one of the strongest economies on the earth although all troubles happened lately with China related to the trade war. It s a big shame when we see a company in US can beat bif counties especially Egypt which has now over 95 Million population who should be a main power for the economy. Having said that, we need to recognize that this is a big challenge that Arab countries face and we should take it as incentive to work hard and beat such numbers but will the Arab leaders listen and follow, this is the real challenge.

Lord Jesus Christ used to demonstrate his teachings to the disciples using parables. Furthermore, he encouraged them to think over its meanings. One of these parables is the house over the rock. Sister Marian Edward, minister at the church of St. Mary in Amsterdam, talked about the meaning of such house explaining that life of each of us is similar to a building that we build and save throughout our lives. In that account, Lord Jesus has talked about three kinds of houses referring to human life and work and spiritual struggle. First, the house built on sand is the person who hears a lot but does not do according to what he hears, and this house will fall quickly. Secondly, the house built on the rock is a human being who hears and then goes and obeys what he hears. The empty house means life without spiritual struggle in the constant prayer and the bible study. Such person doesn t have spiritual practices and therefore it lacks fruits of the holy spirit like love, happiness and peace. Everybody should check his heart and house and find out which type he belongs to, and whether the way is leading to the kingdom of heavens.

As Bishop Isaac of Tima was visiting the Island of Tima in a pastoral care visit, he was received and celebrated by both Muslims and Christians of the Island. Sounds of music and celebrations were signs of love to the bishop. Sheik Mostafa Abdul Razik, Imam of the mosque of the island, delivered a speech in which he said that he honors the bishop and wishes he could cover the earth under his grace with flowers. I write this article not only to thank and appreciate the love of Sheikh Abdul Razik, but also to salute Bishop Isaac who could, through love and wisdom, gain love of the people and remove all reasons of sectarian strife that attacked many other places in our homeland.

One of the Copts of El-Arish called Adib Nakhla Yassa was kidnapped while returning home in Al-Arish to work thinking the situation is better now. The bus that he was riding was stopped by the terrorists who put on military uniform and searched the identification cards seeking Police, army or Christians. The man declared he is Christian and was kidnapped by the terrorists who might kill him to show their presence in Arish to the world. Our armed forces are waging war against the terrorists and kill many of them in a comprehensive operation since those terrorists target innocent people in order to say that the Egyptian government is not able to protect its citizens.

Lately Muslims destroyed 1,125 churches in Nigeria. This number is a close number of the churches that Muslims Brotherhood burned in Egypt after stepping Mohamad Morsi down in 2013. Unfortunately, the Muslim extremists burn and destroy churches without any mercy everywhere without counting any responsibility of their actions. The international community keeps silent for everything related to Christians and churches. I imagine if Christian s people burned or destroyed the same number of mosques what would be the international reaction toward that violence. There is no doubt that we now suffer from very week international system which doesn t have enough tools to deal with violence against human and against freedom of religious. With the current American trend which encourage tyrant to take over and with the American trend to not defend human rights against extremism I don t think this violence against Christians and their churches will stop soon. In conclusion, I can sense a new international system coming in the road, with France and Germany signed lately a military agreement and with US trying to fight with China and face Russia might be the solution in this new international system.

The unity of the Church derives from the unity of the Trinity, which is the theological basis of unity. The Father is the source of the Trinity or the fountain of the Trinity; the Son is the center of the Church; the Holy Spirit is the bearer of witness, preaching and service. The Trinity is in unity and harmony, and, therefore, the division does not stop at mere logical or conceptual error; but comes as deviation from the proper foundation of the structure of our faith. But the Holy Spirit, the living God, is working in the Church achieving its unity after divisions have caused greater destruction than the persecutions of tyrants and oppressors. We are meeting this year on the theme of (Give me drink) so that the Lord will shake us from His fountain and unite us in His holy divine person. Our Coptic Church has always been present in all humility, love and serious participation since the days of the Alexandria theological school, and its scholars like Pentenus, Clemandas, Origen, and Didimus. its present started with Athanasius, Descurus and Cyril the Great and continues till the visit of Pope Taudros II to the ancient throne of Rome hoping to achieve this unity. 
We believe in one Christ, one bible and one kingdom of heaven. We do have too many things in common. We look forward to many fruitful meetings that strengthen our spiritual and theological knowledge in order to be able to witness for Christ before the whole world. This is our way supported by the holy spirit and obtaining open mind. We should pray and study the holy bible seeking orthodoxy. 
Our hopes that the prayer of unity will be fruitful for the one church achieving the aim of the saints who kept the faith and delivered its blameless and pure. Such unity may come before the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ so that everybody knows that we are His sons and disciples that we don t consider personal benefits and seek the salvation of the whole world.

The Holy Fathers lived a life of pleasure in the Lord, enjoying the divine grace. Their trust in the Lord and the hope in Him were limitless for they have put their trust in the Lord.Yet, how can we get like them to enjoy ourselves in the Lord? His Holiness Pope Tawadros II in his sermon entitled ‘Delight in the Lord’ explains to us examples of biblical characters who delighted themselves in the Lord like Father Abraham who was an example of relying on the Lord in everything. Thus, he believed in the promise of the Lord that he will get a son in his old age. He believed that man should ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding’ (Proverbs 3: 5)

For a long time, through my writings, meetings and media interviews I have expressed my surprise and anger over the expression moderate Christianity by those who defend coexistence just like they demand moderate Islam. This shows that clergy are using form of politicization of religion and apply non-spiritual names and descriptions to their faiths. They try to show that each sect has its own moderate form that gives different models of religion! Thus, the fixed elements of religion should stay the same even when time changes. With the increasing frequency of waves of extremism all over the world, the misuse of verses leads to political plots by evil organizations. We should remember here the words of French President Francois Hollande at the Conference on Democracy in the Face of Terrorism and his assertion. He said that we all must fight against extremism and terrorism and seek creating (French Islam). The French have different religions and races, but received the same rights and duties. The French model is threatened, and the social model has to be fixed. This social model was not considered by president Sadat when he said he is a Muslim president of a Muslim country. He should rather declared he is an Egyptian president of all Egyptians.

In January 2016 Al-Zaher, the former governor of Alexandria promised that Alexandria would witness an international celebration next year. However, the governor left soon before he applies his creative idea to restore the days when Epiphany was a national holiday celebrated by all Egyptians. Epiphany is one of the greatest festivals in the Coptic Church when Jesus Christ revealed his divinity according to the Christian faith celebrated in Egypt on the eleventh of the Coptic month of Tuba. It is one of the feasts that are celebrated at night since Christmas and Epiphany were celebrated together at the first centuries, but were separated later and kept their time of celebration according to Bishop Benjamin of Monofia.

The last attack from the extremists on the priests and Copts in Minya showed with no doubts that we are living in a chaos and in absence of law. Not only Copts can t find a place to pray but also Salafists and sheikhs attack them because they pray on an empty place or they pray in their church. Unfortunately, the governor of Minya and the state security can t control the extremists because they like what they do and they agree on it. In fact, we have repeated many times that the situation in Egypt will not change and this is simply because extremists Muslims believe that they are above any law. In conclusion, if Egypt didn t change the culture and education methods in Schools and mosques to teach people to accept other and be tolerant, the situation is going to get worse especially for Copts.

For the first time, the Egyptian government come out to comment on church attack by fanatics. This time, the government denied the existence of 3 churches that were claimed to be closed by the Copts. I was surprised to know that the three churches were not included on lists of legalization, which raises even more questions about why they were not included!

Following the scandal of Zafarana village in Minya, where hundreds of extremists supported by certain agencies or parties prevented some people from holding their prayers. According to article 46 of the Egyptian constitution, many people tired to condemn the victims including bishop Makarious of Minya. Their cheap attempts was supported by an anchor and a statement of the Evangelical Church. Yet, we shouldn t forget about the freedom of worship. This reminded me of what was written by Magdi Mehanna in the site of the civilized dialogue: (The friend Sulaiman Shafiq talks about the liturgy of the protest led by Abba Makarios in the face of the repeated attacks on the Coptic citizens, just for being Copts! The liturgy is worship and prayer, and when they are an expression of protest or objection, we are faced with a work that connects the daily reality with faith and belief, which gives faith its momentum and meaning. The reality is the mirror of faith. It is not strange that Bishop Makarious calls for prayer in protest of the wrong situation supported by the state that allows the criminal to escape even if he is a murderer. This is permitted as long as the victim belongs to the minority!) The truth is that the inability of the Church Building Law to solve the problem has made the Copts in the villages pray in very small houses like Zafarana, or even in the streets like Forn village in Minya. They also had to held funerals in the streets like Dimshaw Hashim. Here I introduced the concept of Liturgical Protest where people protest by praying which appeared years ago in Latin America. Pope Shenoda started it in Egypt when he decided to lock himself in a cell at the monastery. Bihsop Makarious has taken it to the next level when he invited thousands of angry youth to pray to God in a gathering after the murder of Coptic man and his son by policeman. It doesn t make sense that the law is applied only on certain people, but in case of insulting Christianity it disappears! Moreover, the law of building churches should be fixed by adding an article to license churches. Those who issued the bad statement of the Evangelical Church should realize that they caused great damage to their credibility. I salute Bishop Makarious and all Christians who rejected the statement of division. I also salute the people of Zafarana village both Muslims and Christians who will understand that people always have the right to pray. Moreover, the state has to revise its views and methods.