Tributes paid to Coptic Pope Shenouda III

Today’s edition of the Church of Ireland Gazette [30 March 2012] carrries the following half-page report and photograph in ‘World News’ seciton on page 7:

Tributes paid to Coptic Pope
Shenouda III

The Church of Ireland’s Canon Patrick Comerford pictured recently with Pope Shenouda who was visiting Dublin [correction: the caption should say that the photograph was taken in Cairo, not in Dublin.]

Pope Shenouda III, spiritual leader of the Egyptian Coptic Church since 1971 and a President of the World Council of Churches (WCC) from 1991 to 1998, died at the age of 89 on St Patrick’s Day. He was the 117th Patriarch of Alexandria.

The Bishop of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa, the Most Revd Mouneer Anis, said as Egypt currently went through many political changes, “it is not easy for Egyptian Christians to lose Pope Shenouda,” adding: “I was not surprised to see hundreds of thousands of people in the streets of Cairo … immediately after the announcement of the passing away of the beloved Pope, who was such an important symbol for the nation.”

Bishop Anis said that his Diocese’s relationship with the Coptic Orthodox Church was “the strongest among the different denominations in Egypt.”

The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Canon Kenneth Kearon, said Anglicans around the world had been saddened to hear of the death of Pope Shenouda, who “was a man of great holiness whose life was spent in the service of his people, even to the point of houe arrest”.

WCC General Secretary, the Revd Dr Olav Fyske Tveit, paid tribute to Pope Shenouda’s unwavering pursuit of Christian unity and peace throughout the Middle East and the world, as well as his strong belief in Christian-Muslim “conviviality and cooperation.”