Category: Shay & Biskot

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What Might Have Been…

For all sad words of tongue and pen;
The saddest are these: ‘It might have been’.

Thus wrote John Greenleaf Whittier, to which Bret Harte replied:

If, of all words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are, ‘It might have been’,
More sad are these we daily see;
‘It is but hadn’t ought to be!’

It is interesting to contemplate on what might have been. Often a person will day-dream of opportunities lost and paradise averted. Much useful time can frittered away in this manner, and there are cases of whole lives destroyed because of an obsession with ‘what might have been’.

We would be better served contemplating not on the good things we might have had, but on the bad things that might have come upon us. As the famous 19th century poet said upon seeing someone in a terrible state, “But for the grace of God, there goes Robert Barrett Browning.”

This principle applies on a larger scale as well. Consider for example, what the Christian Church today mught have been like had Arius and his heresy won the day back in the 4th century AD. Imagine us belonging today to the Coptic Arian Church, instead of the Coptic Orthodox Church. What might have happened?

To begin with, I don’t believe we would have had a Church by the 21st century. Arius, you will recall, denied the divinity of Christ, claiming Him to have been a mere man who was simply imbued with a larger dose than usual of the power of God. Thus, the One who died on the Cross was not God, but a man like us. What difference does it make?

Quite a lot! This mystery of God made man is one of the main engines that drives the faith of the Christian. That the Creator of all the cosmos should so humble Himself as to take vulnerable flesh is astonishing; astounding; mind-blowing! It sets Christianity apart from all mere ‘philosophies’ which tend to be theoretical and academic in nature, for this is a reality, Truth embodied and enacted. It sets Christianity apart from other religions, for none has the granduer and vision of this mystery.

What increases the distance between Christianity and other beliefs is the central role of love. For the Incarnation of Christ was not a party trick, it was no sign intended merely to astound and entertain, it was an act of unimaginable love. If love gives, then the Incarnation was the giving to end all givings. One cannot imagine any expression of love greater than this one. Yet, all of that falls by the wayside if Christ is not God.

It’s like the engine falling out of the car. Sure, sheer momentum will keep it rolling for some time, but sooner or later it must come to a stop, with no hope of moving again, until an engine is restored. The Christian faith, I think, would have dwindled gradually until it petered out altogether.

Can you imagine the glee of the Muslim who finds an ally in the Arian, for both belief systems deny the divinity of Christ and proclaim Him only to be a particularly good man. Can you imagine how easy it would have been for Arians to slip smoothly into Islam, with its denial of a Holy Trinity? An Arian Christianity would have been one without its main motivation to resist the innovations of Islam, and who knows what the history of the world might have been?

And if the Church had survived till now, can you imagine an Arian Church trying desperately to face the challenges of 21st century Western society, standing upon this weakened and empty base? Instead of a living, risen Saviour, a Saviour who united us with God and who dwells in us daily, we would have only a ‘very good man’ for our inspiriation. We would not have seen the face of God made flesh. We could not say that God had dwelt among us, so that by His sacrifice on the Cross, and His daily sacrifice on the altar, He dwells not only among us, but inside us, in our very bones and muscles.

The Christian Church had a very close shave back then, in the 4th century. There was a time when Pope Athanasius was warned that he stood alone against this whole world, to which he offered his own famous reply:

“One with God is the majority.”

We owe him a deep, deep debt of gratitude.

Fr Ant
www.stbishoy.org.au

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In Memoriam

The last couple of months have seen a spate of deliveries to Paradise.

After long lulls, the passing of beloved souls seems to often pick up momentum, only to slow down again, and so on. I would like to mark the passing of one beloved soul, special to me because he is my father-in-law: Mr Emile Bassilious, who passed away peacefully in his sleep some time early in the morning last Friday. He was 81. I know that many of the things I will fondly remember about him will strike a chord with many who read this, remembering their own dearly departed relatives. That is why I would like to share these thoughts, for our mutual consolation and to celebrate the beautiful souls who have gone before us, learning from them as much as we can, helping their legacy to live on after their departure.

Uncle Emile was an incredibly gentle soul. He was brought up in a time and place where life was much simpler than it is now. He spent much of his youth roaming the countryside with his friends (among them a young man who would become HE Metropolitan Domadius of Giza, to whom he is related). After completing his studies he worked for various petrochemical companies based in Egypt and experienced some remarkable adventures. One time, as war began between Egypt and its enemies, he and his fellow employees were forced to evacuate their base in the Sinai desert and make their way back to Egypt on foot – a sort of ‘reverse Exodus’!

This image characterises Uncle Emile well. He was a man who did much, but spoke little. His actions spoke louder than his words, as it should be for the genuine Christian. He would go on to marry a remarkable woman, Aunty Ramza, who must have been chosen by God to be the perfect second half for him. In so many ways they completed each other as neatly as the two halves of an apple. After nearly fifty years of marriage, finding her way in her new life alone is not going to be easy. God is good and will not leave her for a moment.

They brought up two wonderful children together, Sam, the eldest, and my lovely wife Dalia, the cute baby of the family. So many of the virtues of the parent are manifest in the children. Each has gone on to live a full and rich life, whether in their secular careers, in their family lives or in their spiritual life and service to God.

Uncle Emile was a ‘doer’. He was one of the motive forces behind the C.O.P.T. organisation, which has pioneered the publication of books and resources for the Coptic community and raised the standard of publishing to a new level. Together with his wife, he translated dozens of books for HH Pope Shenouda III into English for younger generations to enjoy. Who can say how many lives have been touched and transformed through access to these spiritual treasures in their own language?

To his dying day, he was active in both services. This in parallel to other services too numerous to mention. There are some in this world who retire from work and find themselves at a loose end. That was never the case for Uncle Emile. In a way, it might be said that retirement for him was the beginning of his real work, his single minded dedication to service to His beloved Lord and his beloved Church, which up until then had necessarily been only part time.

He never sought the limelight, indeed actively ran from it. He never sought any personal goals in his service, seeking only to give without expecting anything in return. His generosity was of the legendary brand of his generation, stemming from a heart so sensitive and so sincere that even a sick animal could bring him to tears, much less a human in misfortune. His many acts of generosity will largely go unknown to all but those who benefited from them, and His gracious Father.

Despite his quiet demeanour, he was a deep man. His thoughts and ideals were rich and often accurate. He cared deeply for the Church, and was deeply, deeply pained by hearing the news of any kind of disturbance or problem that the Church had suffered, whether from within or from without. In this he embodied a beautiful idealism that 81 years of life on this earth could not corrupt. For him, right was right and wrong was wrong, and woe to him who sought to confuse the two! Never did a lie or falsehood come from his lips in all the years I knew him. He was as straightforward as they come; a trait that probably caused some to misunderstand him at times, but that endeared him to all who came to know him and his gentle loving heart.

More than ever, our Church and our world need such people in these difficult days. Though one has left this world, his ideals have been an example to many who I pray will continue to live as he lived, fearlessly following the Lord of Truth and Love wherever He may lead.

I have lost three fathers now: my own father in the flesh who passed on thirty years ago; Fr Mina Nematalla who accepted me to share the service with him at Archangel Michael and treated me like a son; and now, Uncle Emile, who accepted me into his house and granted me the great gift of marrying his precious only daughter. Each of them had his own unique personality, each of them is inspirational in his own unique way, yet all of them share the same outlook on life, the same dedication to core Christian principles, the same love for the One God.

Our lives are immeasurabley enriched by their presence, for which we gratefully thank our Lord. I cannot help but feel joy for this latest of a long line of blessed men and women who have fought the good fight, who have kept the faith, and who have now gone to receive their heavenly crown.

Perhaps you too have such shining lights to illuminate your life? Perhaps, even, your lights are still here on this earth. If so, please: go to them. Sit with them. Talk to them. Observe them. Learn from them. Record their wisdom and their experience, before the day comes when you will see them no more…

Fr Ant

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Pride Cometh Before the Trivia Fall

Oh Dear.

I was afraid this would happen. For weeks now, the “Men in Black” have been boasting how they would once again sweep the field and win the Trivia Night. With unassailable confidence we said, ‘come and see if you can second’. How could anyone doubt that we would defend our title? And then, last night came the moment of truth.

It wasn’t pretty.

First of all, a record turnout – 27 tables! But we could still beat them!

People came from all over Sydney. There were challengers from St Mark’s and St Anthony’s and Anba Abraam. St Demiana sent some representatives as did the Apostles. And probably others I did not notice in my agony. But no matter … let them come! We were ready for them!

At the half way point, we shared the lead. Yes, everything was going to plan. Let them build up their confidence and then … we’d go into overdrive in the final rounds!

But then the wheels began to fall off!

Our Sudoko expert (Tasoni Georgette) unexpectedly fell sick and couldn’t make it (sabotage?) Fr Arsanius, filling in that role valiantly struggled with puzzle, wrestling it with the full force of his analytical prowess – but he didn’t have his laptop with him! Oh no – that was a 30 point advantage we had to give away. But we could still do it, surely!

We killed the first “Famous Faces” question, but then we went against our instincts in choosing what was behind St Mark instead of our local favorite, Pope Kyrollos VI … and instead of 30 much needed points we ended up with … Siyami Cake! SIYAMI CAKE? Where is the justice????

Then they changed the mix of questions on us! Come on! Where were all the questions about Ishbosheth or the towers if Uzziah? Lo-ruhama and Lo-Ammi we know, but what is this Viduka???

We were beginning to stumble! We fell to the dark depths of 16th position. It was like a nightmare, a nightmare you want to wake up from but you just can’t!

The final rounds, and we bravely knuckled down to make a late comeback. 14th place. 11th place. Yes, yes… 10th place, 8th place … and suddenly, it was over!

AUGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Seriously though, it was a wonderful night regardless of who won (yes, I know, that’s what the losers always say, but in this case, it is true). Believe it or not, the MIB table was actually overjoyed at the outcome of the night. Through the rounds, we were torn between disappointment at every question we got wrong and pure joy at every religious question that everybody else got right. And there were some tough ones in there! You guys have learned your stuff well. And your performance in the general knowledge questions showed that you are very well-rounded individuals.

Christians living in the world, yet firmly and permanently founded in Christ – what more could a bunch of priests (and their wives) ask for? We may not have been winners on the scoreboard, but we certainly felt like winners when we saw you all doing so well and enjoying the night in such a lovely spirit of Christian love and fellowship. Not to mention the countless selfless individuals who gave up their time and effort to make the food, do the decorations, work the IT, prepare the questions, etc, etc, etc. A huge task, and all carried out without a complaint or an angry word, teamwork at its best.

No, we could have come 28th last night and still felt that we were winners – because you are our joy and victory. May God bless you all and protect you from the wiles of the devil. And especially, may He keep that ugly demon pride away from you all. Speaking of which…

We’ll be back next year, and this time …. no more Fr Nice Guy!

Fr Ant

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The Muslim Menace!

Muslims are invading our land!

Not content with persecuting Christians in their own lands, they are moving into countries like Australia and slowly taking over. Every Muslim is in on this evil plan. They have a multitude of strategies: building mosques everywhere, marrying Christian girls, training terrorists in Muslim schools, forcing Prayer Rooms to be provided in public places, insisting on praying five times a day, wearing the veil … where will it stop?

Beware of any Muslim you meet – they cannot be trusted! They are sneaky by nature. They don’t have loving families like we do – they just have children to populate the world with Muslims and to send them off to become suicide bombers.

Hmmm.

Does the above worry you? I confess it worries me greatly. Those words are the kinds of words I hear occasionally from people, both Coptic and non-Coptic. The thing that worries me most about them is that they are not Truth. As Christians, as followers of Christ who called Himself “the Way, the Truth and the Life”, we should be concerned with the truth above all else.

Now it is undoubtedly true that there are Muslims who are fanatical in their approach to their religion. Not in a nice way, that would make them pious and ascetic and full of works of charity (yes, giving to the poor is often commanded in the Quran), but fanatical in a way that says, “We are superior to everyone else and everyone else must submit to us”. Of course they don’t say it that way to themselves. To themselves, they say, “Our religion is superior to all others, and therefore everyone in the world must submit to Allah of Islam”.

Strange that they should take the foundational name of their religion, “Islam” and twist it so. It was meant to refer to a willing and free choice of the person to submit himself to an All-Powerful God. Instead, the fanatics twist it to mean forcing people to submit to God through submitting to them, here and now, politically rather than spiritually. That’s the fanatical fringe that gives Islam a very bad name. But they are only a minority.

Yes, it is very disappointing to see that often Muslim leaders do not stand up to this fringe and set them straight. For example, when 9/11 occured, I was incredibly disappointed that for a long time, no significant Muslim leader came out and publicly stated that this was an abomination and a disgrace to any religion. Instead, we heard Muslim leaders trying to change the subject and ask, yes, but why did the terrorists do this? Solve the problems of Palestine and you wouldn’t have 9/11s. Of course, this is ridiculous. It’s like saying to someone whose father has just been murdered by an irate neighbour (as was recently in the news) “Well if your father hadn’t expressed his opinion he’d be alive now – don’t blame the murderer!”

Put it another way: if Copts committed some horrible act of terrorism, what do you think Pope Shenouda and all the Coptic leaders would say? I’m pretty sure (going on past precedent) that His Holiness would immediately come out and condemn the violence, perhaps even excommunicate those who practice it or condone it. He would make it very clear that such violence has no place whatsoever in the life of a genuine Christian. I wish the Muslim leaders would do the same, and to be fair, they have moved a little in that direction in recent years, though not nearly enough, I suspect.

And yet, I fear that Christians have nothing to feel superior about here. The History of Christianity itself is strewn with horrible and vioolent acts, all perpetrated int he name of religion. Think of the Crusaders, the Byzantine army in Egypt after Chalcedon, Ireland of the 1970’s … Today we see clearly that this sort of behaviour is totally incompatible with authentic Christianity, yet the ‘Christians’ who performed those awful atrocities managed to twist their faith so much as to find support for their actions from it.

But put all that aside for a moment. What about the average Muslim ‘on the street’ so to speak. What has he / she to do with the fanatics? I believe the majority of Muslims are not in sympathy with the fanatical side of their faith. To wear the veil, to want to pray regularly every day, to fast and to go to the mosque – these are not acts of evil, these are acts of loyalty to their god, and this is not something to criticise. Considering what I wear out every day, I would be the last one to criticise a Muslim woman for taking the veil which seems so alien to Australian culture! And given the state of my facial hair, could I condemn the devout Muslim who grows his beard?

My experience with Muslims has taught me this – they are as varied a group of people as any other, and to stereotype them and pigeon-hole them is grossly unfair. We should take each individual for what s/he is as an individual. Certainly, there is a background of faith and culture that we do well to understand, but there are those who take the best of the Muslim faith and live by it, and there are those who take the worst. And many in between.

I recall that in Egypt soon after my ordination as a priest I encountered both extremes. On the one hand, is a group of little children, probably no older than 10, whose game of street soccer I walked past one day. They saw my clerical clothes and cross and stopped their game long enough to hurl abuse at me, and one even picked up half a brick and tossed it in my direction. Scary.

On the other hand, was Muhammad, the grocer in the shop near the flat were I was staying. Whenever I would enter his shop he would actually ask all the other customers to please wait while he served ‘the man of God’. He explained that it didn’t matter that I was Christian. By honouring me in this way he was honouring God Himself.

And everything in between…

We have to be very careful about stereotyping people, foir this is a form of judging others, and a very subtle and sneaky way the devil leads us to feelings of self-righteousness and superiority and pride. Yes, we should rejoice at the beuaty and purity and truth of our Orthodox Christian faith, but not at the expense of putting down others. Nor should we condemn a person, passing judgement and sentence on them without ever really understanding who they are and what they are like, simply because they belong to a particular race or a particular religion.

That is not how God looks at us. He looks at the Christian and the Muslim and everyone else and asks, “What is the best this person is capable of?” And then He strives to bring us to that ‘best’. Do not look for the evil in people, but look for the good, and strive to be the hand of Christ that leads all people to Him who is Truth and Mercy.

Fr Ant

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Political Pantomime

Well, wasn’t last Tuesday night interesting!

We had the pleasure of the company of four politicians, Rev Fred Nile (Christian Democrats, State), Edmond Atalla (Labor, Local), George Bilic (Liberal, Local) and Paul Green (Christian Democrat, Federal). We expected some fireworks, but not quite what we got!

The aim of the night was actually to explore whether sincere Christianity could be compatible with being a politician. Politicians get a lot of bad press these days. They are accused of lying, breaking promises, manipulating people and situations, being vain and so on. This is unfortunate, because most politicians I have met actually do strive to do a lot of good for their constituency, and do work incredibly hard to achieve it.

I think this side of the politicians came out last Tuesday – we found out how they deal with thorny ethical situations and how they do try to use their Christian ideals as the ‘compass’ by which to steer their decisions.

Unfortunately, something else also came out last Tuesday – the bitterness between the two major parties! Yes, George baited Edmond and Edmond fought back, and we got one of those classical ‘my party’s better than your party’ arguments going. Perhpas whoever said that you shouldn’t mix religion and politics was right! A pity, for that was the very thing we were trying to get behind, trying to see if one’s genuine ideals could be more important than playing the political game.

I wonder what you thought of it all?

I have often mused on whether our system of govrnment could be improved. Does anyone really benefit from all that time and effort and money that is invested into getting a party re/elected? Is it good for individuals to have to sacrifice some of their own personal ideals for the sake of ‘the party’? Or is it the only way to get enough people agreeing on something so that something actually gets done? If we abolished the party system, would our parliaments descend into a chaos of endless debates?

As Christians, we are meant to take an active part in the welfare of those around us. Having and effective and compassionate system of government has ahuge impact on the lives of everyone in this country. It was hoped that last tuesday might inspire some of our young people to consider entering politics in order to make a difference … if they felt that was their calling from God. I wonder now whether it might not have turned them off …

Fr Ant

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Roof Ruminations

Those of you who know me might know that I am interested in the stars.

The sky at night has always fascinated me, ever since I was little. I could lie for hours on my back on the ground just gazing up at that velvet dark blue canvas with the multitude of delicate sparkles of light and occasional faint wisp of silvery mist. I can totally agree with the Psalmist who wrote The heavens declare the glory of God …

I find many things to think about when I look at the stars. Their distance astounds me and humbles me. The closest star to us is Proxima Centauri, a little over 4 light years away. That means that the light we see from it today left the star over four years ago, in 2003, and has been shooting towards us all that time a tthe speed of light (300,000km/hr). The furthest objects visible in the most powerful telescopes, quasars, are 12,000,000,000 light years away. How big is the universe? Unbelievabley, mind-blowingly, unimaginabley HUGE!!! So how big are we, the great human race? We are nothing. We could blow up our whole planet and the universe wouldn’t even notice – we’d be no more than mosquito’s sneeze in the grand tale of time.

That’s a good thing to remember, for we sometimes think we are the centre of the universe. Sometimes we even think that of ourselves individually, not even as a human race. That’s just not true. The greatest among us is still no more than a little blip in this cosmos. Again, the Psalmist asks God What is man, that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You visit him? We could extend that to ask, What are the problems of man, that You should care for them? Yet God does care. The God who made this big, big universe shows me His love by caring for my tiny little problems in the midst of this huge cosmos, and I find comfort in the fact that He who moves the galaxies can solve my little problem pretty easily.

Lying on the ground at night, gazing into the depths of space, you can sometimes convince yourself that you are indeed on the surface of a planet hurtling through the void. Yet night after night, as the sun hides his shining face and the little specks of light begin to peek from behind their veil of light, you find they have not moved. In our lifetimes, the stars do not move. Planets do, and the moon does, and perhaps the odd comet or so, but the vast multitude of the heavens is there, day after day, unchanging, unmoving, fixed in their places, it seems eternally. No power hungry dictator, no mad scientist, no crazed anarchist can ever change them, or even touch them. It makes you realise just how feeble we are on this little planet, but I also find it a greatly comforting thought, for it reflects the unchanging steady nature of God Himself. I find the stars reassuring every night, in their regular places, and so also God reassures me every day, as I move through my human phases while He remains always a solid rock to navigate by.

Next time you happen to be outdoors at night, take a look up at the sky, and remember the One who created it for us, the most incredible roof anyone ever designed …

Fr Ant

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Those who are about to HSC

Speaking to some of our Year 12s on the weekend, I noticed a variety of attitudes, with only about 2 weeks left before the Moment of Truth.

Some students seemed pretty relaxed – either they know they’ve got it in the bag, or they don’t care, or they’re pretty good actors. Others though, were definitely showing the signs of beginning to crack up. So I thought this time I might see if I couldn’t bring a little cheer into this momentous period of their lives. If you’ve already been through all this, please let your younger fellows know that there IS indeed life after the HSC…

Now some of you may be aware (I don’t mention it that often) that I very strongly believe in that profound Biblical doctrine that is best summed in these words:

EXAMS ARE FUN

You will immediately recognise that my main Biblical foundation for this dogma is James 1:2

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials

Now some have very foolishly doubted the link between this verse and the HSC, but it seems as clear as the nose on my face to me (please disregard the times when there is a pimple on my nose and it is anything but clear). “Trials”, as you all know, are the last set of exams Year 12 students do before sitting their major Final Exams. That St James, back in the First Century AD, was aware of this is made very obvious if we consider some more verses from his Epistle. For example:

To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: (1:1) is a very obvious reference to the HSC, being a test for Year “twleve”, which is conducted all over the state, with some students even sitting the exam at overseas centres – hence, scattered abroad. Later, he writes:

knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience(1:3)

Ahhhh. What is it now that produces patience? “testing”!!! How much plainer can he make it? Clearly this word, “testing” is to be identified with exam centres, and supervisors, and exam papers – all that stuff we associate with the word. And there’s more:

9 Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, 10 but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away. 11 For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits. (1:9-11)

This is obviously a reference to the total worthlessness of your HSC mark once you have left school. Employers don’t care too much about it, and even universities are now steering away from using it as the criterion for choosing their students, preferring instead to depend on more accurate measures like UMAT (= Unrelenting Mental Agony and Torture) exams or interviews. Yes, the richest of UAIs will quickly fade away like a beautiful flower burned by the hot noonday sun of competition in the real world. Isn’t that a comforting thought!

Why, then, I hear you ask, must we suffer this pain? What’s the point?

Well, the point is actually more: the points. Here are my reasons for hanging on, doing your very best until the end, and diving over the line as hard as you can:

1. For many of you, your UAI will decide your future. Sorry. That’s life.

2. You might surprise and amaze yourself with what you can actually do if you really have to. Believe it or not, what you have to learn for the HSC is pretty measly compared with what you are going to learn at Uni, TAFE or work. The only thing that makes it seem so hard is the pressure of what’s riding on it. Take that away, and you could do it with one hand tied behind your back, with a blindfild on, and while rubbing your tummy and patting your head whilst all the time whistling “Bananas in Pyjamas” in Croatian. (please don’t comment on that sentence. It makes no sense to me, either).

3. You will learn a lot more than calculus and chemistry. You will actually develop really useful things like character, inner strength, faith, patience, calmness under pressure, stamina, self-confidence, resilience and much more. Some of the most important lessons you learn in Years 11 & 12 DON’T appear on your certificate.

4. You will enjoy your holidays an awful lot more if you don’t have a miserable dark cloud hanging over your head and following you wherever you go, with the words “You didn’t try very hard, did you?” stamped across it. It can really take the fun out of everything you do. Including sleep.

5. Many others have trod this path and run this race before you. They stuck it out to the very end – are you gonna let them get away with thinking they’re better than you??!!??

6. God loves you, no matter what.

7. We love you, no matter what.

Is that enough? I’m looking forward to seeing you all at the HSC Liturgy this Saturday 6th October 8:30-10:30an, followed by our traditional pre-exam HSC breakfast (sort of like the Grand Final Breakfast, hey?). The Fathers will be there to offer you their words of encouragement and support (and take any last minute confessions!) and to resuscitate anyone who conks out.

The days to come won’t be easy:

But there’s nothing to prevent them from being enjoyable…

By the way, for a little light entertainment, you might enjoy the following:

But don’t spend too much time watching – you’ve got work to do!!!

Fr Ant

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Well Done!

It was blessing to attend the COYA Skit Competition last night and enjoy the marvellous talent, imagination and humour of the youth of Sydney. All the skits were of remarkabley high quality – I can’t wait for the DVD to come out! The turnout was also amazing – I don’t recall ever seeing that many people packed into Petersham Town Hall.

Of course, the highlight of the night was our dedicated troop of stittists (or should that be ‘skitterbrains’?) who carried off their little drama with confidence and poise. Especially graceful was that diving tackle on poor Bishoy – way to go Ben! Bishoy’s hospital bills will in the mail.

It was another wonderful demonstration of what you can do when you work together, putting aside the ever-present temptations of the human ego and the lure of petty disagreements, and working as one for a common goal.

As usual, though, being the incurable perfectionist that I am, I will make a few humble suggestions:

1. Beware the evil devil of pride! After every success, he lurks nearby with hungry stmach and a drooling mouth. Please don’t give him a chance. Remember St Paul’s steadying words: “7 For who makes you differ [from] [another]? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive [it], why do you boast as if you had not received [it]?” Which leads to the next point:

2. Whilst friendly rivalry between Churches is nice and lots of fun, I trust that you are not taking the rivalry too seriously? We are all, after all, one body in Christ. I hope you all would have been just as happy for any of your brothers and sisters from other Churches had they been blessed with winning.

3. Finally, I give thanks to God from the depths of my heart for blessing me with being able to serve people with such kind and loving hearts, enthusiasm and zeal, strong faith and weird sense of humour.

Long live Hanafy and Hanafeya!!!

PPFM

Fr Ant

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Sometimes You Can’t See Your Own House Until You Have Travelled Far Away From It.

This week I was privileged to represent the Coptic Church at a conference in Canberra called the National Civic Society Dialogue. The general idea is to bring together representatives from a variety of “Civic” organisations – not government, and not businesses – organisations that represent “the people”. So, there were a number of people representing religious groups through the National Council of Churches in Australia (including yours truly), as well as people from charities, unions, envirnmental organisations – that kind of thing.

This two day dialogue was the follow up to the first meeting held about the same time last year. The purpose of it is to discuss what kind of society we want Australia to be, and how can we, the “civic” part of society, help to make it so. Last year’s meeting was a huge talkfest: lots of ideas and comments, but with very little to show for it by the end in terms of concrete actions.

This year, the organisers seem to have got the message, and there were a lot more workshops with small groups working to develop very clear and practical outcomes. I was on the “Fair and Equitable Society” workshop, where I heard some remarkable stories of disadvantaged members of our society, and got a glimpse of the kind of things that can be done to help them.

Before I go on to look at this issue, I should just remark that Peter Garrett came in to give the keynote speech on the second morning, and he struck me as being unusual for a number of reasons. Firstly, he is taller and skinnier in real life than he looks on the telly (if that’s at all possible!). Secondly, he is a remarkably relaxed public speaker. He lounged around the podium in Old Parliament House in front of 80 strangers as if it were his living room. And thirdly, he did not use political doublespeak. He is one of the very few politicians I know who will give a straight ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to a question, and, believe it or not, I actualy heard him admit that he did not know the answers to some questions, but would try to find out. WOW!

Back to disadvantage. One of the surprising things I learned was that the largest conentration of Aboriginal people in Australia is not at Uluru or Cape York. It is not even in Redfern. It is, wait for it … Mt Druitt NSW! And the stories I heard made me want to cry. Apparently, one of our local primary schools has a 60% suspension rate among its students – its Year 1 students. That’s not a typing error. I’m talking about six year olds. Of course, there is a very high proportion of indigenous children among that 60%. Sadly, they are caught in vicous cycle. They have a very poor home situation. They come to school unable and unmotivated to concentrate because of their difficult home circumstances. They do badly at school, they find themselves often in trouble, and they generally will find school so rotten an experience that they will opt out as soon as they can. with little education and a reputation for being ‘naughty’, they cannot get a good job. They grow up to be poor, unhealthy and aimless. Eventually they have children and they cannot give them a good environment at home, and the cycle starts all over again. Very, very, sad. And it’s all been happening right on our doorstep for years, and we never knew about it (at least, I didn’t!)

But there is a happy ending to this story. I met a remarkable lady in canberra who works for a group called the Chain Reaction Foundation. They have a programme running at this particularly troubled school called “The Enablers Program” (sorry about the American spelling of Program – their choice, not mine!) In a nutshell, they run a special playground for these troubled kids while they are suspended, which they attend together with their parents. While they are there, their trained volunteers and counsellors work with them to change their attitude, their hopelessness and their poor self-image. They try to show them that learning can be fun. They try to to find out their strengths and encourage them to make use of them. It seems to be working remarkably well, and a number of really tough cases have turned right around.

This Foundation is willing to train volunteers. The course runs for 24 hours, either squashed into three full days, or done over 12 weeks at say, two hours, one evening every week. I wonder how many of our congregation would be willing to take on the challenge? What a GREAT service! I am hoping to get this lady to pop into our church one day soon and give us a talk about the work her organisation does.

I couldn’t help thinking, “Here we are looking for the poor to serve in Egypt and Sudan and Africa and Asia, while all the while, the poor have been collapsed at our very doorstep without us ever suspecting it!

But I wonder how our congregation would take this service? Would they accept it if an Aboriginal family came to Church? Would they stare at them and make them feel uncomfortable? Or would they patronise them and treat them as inferior? I wonder…

Perhaps, before we get really serious about getting involved, we should do a bit of education for our own people first?

What do you think…

PPFM

Fr Ant

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Things are moving! PART 2

I forgot to mention a very important thing in that last post.

This was not the first such event I took part in recently. A few weeks ago, our blessed youth enjoyed a bracing retreat near Wiseman’s Ferry (where the days are cold and the nights go way beyond cold). Somehow, they managed to thaw their brain out enough to go through a similar process over three days and develop, for the first time I know of, a detailed Vision and Mission for the Youth of Archangel Michael and St Bishoy Coptic Orthodox Church.

It seems that I am doomed to be continually surprised and highly impressed by the sheer quality of our youth! They did a brilliant job (may God protect them from the envy of the devil, and pride, and all that yucky stuff). The statements they came up with are absolutely marvellous: clear, comprehensive, inspiring, and very, very Christian. The Vision Statement says exactly what we want to be all about. Here is a sneak preview of it in its draft form (it still has to be run by the Fathers and the Church Committee):

To live a genuine Christ centered life, acquiring understanding and truth, while preserving the beauty of the Coptic Orthodox Church and its traditions

To welcome and to serve people of all backgrounds by providing a safe, tolerant and caring environment uniting all in the love of Christ.

To me, it sums up in a nutshell both the beauty of our past and the fastmoving changes of our future. You’ll gat a chance to see the full set of statements soon at Friday Night Youth Meeting, but again, a whole lot of nice things in words means nothing if it does not translate into actions. True enough, but in order to make sure we have the right actions, we need to first agree on what we are all working towards. And that is now happening.

At the retreat, they also came up with a six month Action Plan, just to keep us going until we have a chance to get a more formal plan of action in place. This includes the following goals for the next six months (ie by Christmas):

– Organise a committee to monitor and follow up on the attendance of youth at Church.
– Organise a summer camp and graduation ceremony for year 11 and 12 students.
– Raise funds for:
Agahpy TV
The English Church and
The Poor
– Utilise the fundraising BBQ option at Bunnings warehouse.
– Explore options into hosting a Coptic stall at the next Blacktown festival
– Organise sponsorship for our church sports teams to purchase much needed equipment
– Form a sports committee that will develop programs that will involve young kids and promote female sports
– Plan and organise fun and appealing outings for the youth.

Now of course, there are already a number of really good activities and services going on, and these are in addition, but it is so wonderful to see that things are not stagnating, but moving forward. It is even more wonderful to see people getting involved, coming forward to help and to do things, and achieving things that are so worthwhile. We have a special opportunity in Australia to do so much to help others, since we ourselves have been given so much. And we can achieve so much more when we pull together and work as a united team.

And the needs are so many! Going through all these exercises has certainly opened my eyes to see so many services we need desperately in our community, and so many services the community around us needs, that I had never thought of before. We need an army to even scratch the surface!

The Church is the House of God and it belongs to Him, but He, in His love, shares the onwership with us. It is also OUR Church, and it will always be what we make it. As much as you put in, that much you will get out.

GBU