During the last few days, Luxor’s Bishopric for the Orthodox Copts witnessed very angry demonstrations by hundreds of Christians, who resorted to the church of Luxor, asking for the return of Bishop Amonius, the Bishop of Luxor whom Pope Shenouda deposed more than a year ago.
Since his deposition, Bishop Amonius has withdrawn in a cave near Anba Bishoi monastery in Wadi Al-Natroun. Pope Shenouda appointed a papal committee, consisting of four bishops, to run the affairs of the parish. He justified deposing Bishop Amonius and appointing this committee by saying that Bishop Amonius was dealing in a very restrictive way with both laymen and clergymen. He was giving the latter low salaries and forcing them to perform the liturgical rites everyday. He also prohibited making video films of marriage ceremonies.
During the last few months, the situation went very quiet until it re-erupted last Thursday. The story begins when 14 priests from the churches of Luxor, led by Archpriest Antonious Azzar, the deputy of the Bishopric, went to meet the pope with the aim to consecrate two new priests. Someone told the pope that the two priests to be consecrated were among the followers of Bishop Amonius.
According to the story of some of those who were present at the meeting, the pope told the two priests to be consecrated, that he would consecrate them but the name of Bishop Amonius should not be mentioned in the mass prayers. He also told all those present that he would remove the name of Bishop Amonius from monasticism.
When the priests of Luxor went back to their bishopric, they implemented the oral decision of Pope Shenouda and did not mention Bishop Amonius’ name in the mass prayers.
According to Coptic religious rites, the names of the pope and the bishop of the parish where the prayers are performed are to be mentioned in the prayers. Also according to the ecclesiastical law, the name of the bishop is not to be mentioned after his death or if he has contradicted the true teachings of the church by adopting heretic ideas or if he was stripped of his religious title-and none of these things has happened with Bishop Amonius.
After the mass prayers of last Sunday were over, the Copts of Luxor [who were present] noticed that Bishop Amonius’ name was not mentioned in the prayers. So they stayed in their places and refused to leave the church until they knew the truth. Archpriest Soryial, the priest of the Holy Virgin church, told them that the pope had given an oral decision to the effect of not mentioning the name of Bishop Amonius in the mass prayers.
This situation pushed many of the children of Luxor Bishopric to hold meetings to discuss the situation. They all agreed not to allow any clergyman from outside the bishopric to enter its churches.
At this time the church was about to start the celebration of the fast of the Holy Virgin. Al-Keraza magazine, the mouthpiece of the Patriarchate, published a list of the names of the bishops who would preach in the church in Luxor during the fasting.
Bishop Arsanius of Minia was supposed to preach on the first day. Upon his arrival at the building of the bishopric, he was surprised by more than 3000 Copts waiting there, shouting against the decision of Pope Shenouda and asking for the return of Bishop Amonius. They also prevented him from entering the building.
Knowing before hand what the Copts of Luxor were planning to do, security men intensified their presence to control the situation without intervening in what was happening.
In front of this growing anger, the members of the financial committee, father Soryial and Bishop Biman of Naqada, who was also supposed to preach during the celebration, asked to meet the pope. However, the pope refused to discuss anything having to do with the Bishopric of Luxor. He also ordered its church to be closed and the celebration to be canceled.
The church of Luxor may continue be closed until an unspecified time in the future, especially as the pope has traveled to Europe and left the whole matter to his secretary.
[Similar news was reported by Asharq Al-Awsat, August 9&10, 2001 (pp. 6&6) & Al-Usboa, August 13, 2001 (p.2)]
