Letter to Anba Pachomius

This is my third letter to Your grace meant wish you all the best for so many blessed occasions, starting with September 2nd which marks 33 years on your consecration as Metropolitan; November 11th, celebrating 61 years on your life as a monk; December 12th, the 52nd anniversary of your consecration as bishop; and today, December 17th when the world was graced with your birth 88 years ago. May Our Lord grant you health and keep you for the Church for a long time to come; and in my heart I ask Him to keep you until the Second Coming.

You are indeed a pillar of the Church and of monasticism, a true example of the early desert fathers, many of whom the world was not worthy of. You have served the Church faithfully in every possible way and in all positions you occupied. Your valuable contribution started with your service in Sunday School when you were as young as 13 years and a few months old; that was in 1949. Your service in Sunday School took you to many places in Egypt, towns and villages, where you established classes and youth meetings, and left an indelible effect on a countless number of young men and women, many of who later joined monastic life or were consecrated as members of the clergy. Moving to Cairo in 1952 to pursue your academic life as a student in Ain Shams University, you seized the opportunity and became one of the main founders of youth meetings in colleges, even as you continued your service in the villages surrounding the governorate of Giza.

The Lord saw in you, just as in St Paul, a chosen vessel unto Him, to bear His name before all sorts of people. Hence, your service crossed the borders of Egypt into Sudan where you brought to the Good Shepherd many lost souls; this was from 1967 to 1971. Tens of years later, your Sudanese children everywhere still speak with love and gratitude of you. Your amazing service there has made you a pioneer and a great cornerstone of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Africa. Only a few months ago, a bishop currently serving in Africa told me how he was blessed to meet you and speak with you for almost an hour regarding his service in Africa. Your Grace gave him valuable pieces of advice that have acted for him as guidelines; thus proving that no matter how weak the body is, the spirit is strong and fervent, willing and ready to give to the very end. When I personally asked you about this meeting only a few days ago, you told me, and I here quote you exactly:

“This is the secret and greatness of our Church, AlTasleem, that is the passing on of knowledge and experience from one generation to the next. We make a point to help upcoming generations.” It is then no wonder that our Church has remained thriving and young, and managed to defeat the hard power of the times and persecution through its great tradition of AlTasleem.

Therefore, my precious father, you continue to teach us until this very day; and many of us, your spiritual children, follow in your footsteps wherever we serve or work, be it inside or outside Egypt. A shining example is His Holiness Pope Tawadros II who was your disciple. You always taught us through words and deeds. You planted in us the love of and pride in our Church, respecting and remaining steadfast in its traditions and services, and honouring its founder, St Mark the Apostle. Your famous sentence, “never ever upset or displease St Mark,” has always made us keep an eye on this great Evangelist, making sure that we never go astray from the Orthodox Christian Faith for which he sacrificed his life.

You also brought us up on the love of our country and the service of our communities. Only a few days ago, you went to vote in Egypt’s 2024 Presidential election despite your weak health. When I met you afterwards, you again taught me the lesson, saying: “I did it out of loyalty and devotion to Egypt, we live on the goodness and blessings of this country.”

A few days before the election, I was honoured to talk to various people in different churches, urging them to be active and positive and to vote in the election. I told them that we follow the example of our Lord Jesus Christ who said “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s;” as well as the example of our father Metropolitan Pachomius who planted in us the love God and the country. Indeed, you served this country greatly during a turbulent time when you were Acting Pope in 2012; you would not allow any foreign interference or messing with the country’s affairs under the guise of helping the Christian Copts. Your attitude bespoke the patriotism of the Coptic Church and was reminiscent of other great figures of the Church such as Pope Peter VII, known as Botros Al- Gawly (18091852) who refused the Russian Tsar’s offer to protect the Christians of Egypt, insisting that Copts are under the protection of the “One that does not die”; why should they leave His protection in favour of that of one that dies [the Tsar].

Your spiritual son, HH Pope Tawadros III, followed your footsteps when he said in 2013, upon the burning of a large number of churches all over Egypt by the Muslim Brothers, “A homeland without churches is better than churches without a homeland.”

Your valuable lesson in community service was evident in the way Your Grace served Beheira Governorate in so many ways, but most importantly through establishing the Hospital of the Good Shepherd and Al-Karma School. This was out of your belief in the sacred missions of both doctors and teachers. You have always been keen on providing for all the best health/ medical and educational/pedagogical services in the least costly ways. Despite all your huge responsibilities and weak health, you insist on following up the services offered in these institutions, and you keep encouraging all those who work there.

My dear father, our earthly language and words will

never suffice to give you your due, simply because they are from this world. You are not from this world; you are among the earthly angels sent by heaven to make our world a better place; to love to enlighten, and to give us a living example of how to walk in the

footsteps of our Lord and Teacher Jesus Christ.