Fawzi Khalil is a pastor at Kasr el-Dobara Presbyterian Church, located near Tahrir Square. He believes no comparison should be made between Shenouda and his successor.

“God has determined the times and seasons, and appointed Shenouda in his wisdom,” said Khalil, whose church is the largest Protestant congregation in the Middle East. “God will not leave us as orphans, and in a few years we will speak of the new pope as was spoken of Joshua after Moses, and Elisha after Elijah. Our Lord will always raise new leaders.”

Click on link for full story – Why Pope Shenoudas Death Matters to Egyptian Protestants | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction.
The Coptic ‘pope of the Bible’ was controversial yet beloved.
Jayson Casper in Cairo | posted 3/19/2012 09:39AM

Pope Shenouda, the controversial yet beloved head of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt, died Saturday after 40 years of leading and reforming the ancient Christian communion. His death complicates the uncertain position of Orthodox believers—who represent 90 percent of Egyptian Christians—now that Islamists have surged to leadership following Egypt’s revolution last January.

Coptic Protestants respected and appreciated the pope.

“Shenouda was a pope of the Bible,” said Ramez Atallah, head of the Bible Society of Egypt. “We are the fifth-largest Bible society in the world because [he] created a hunger for the Scriptures among Copts.” Continue reading “Why Pope Shenoudas Death Matters to Egyptian Protestants | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction” →

The big remaining question is with the absence of the charismatic pope, who will be able to fill the vacuum.

Pope Of Egypt’s Coptic Christian Church Dies | Fox News.

CAIRO, Egypt — Pope Shenouda III, the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church who led Egypt’s Christian minority for 40 years during a time of increasing tensions with Muslims, has died. He was 88.

The state news agency MENA said Shenouda died Saturday after battling liver and lung problems from several years. A Coptic Church TV station ran a picture of the pope, with a running feed reading, “The Coptic Church prays to God that he rest in peace between the arms of saints.”

The patriarch, known in Arabic as Baba Shenouda, headed one of the most ancient churches in the world, which traced it founding to St. Mark, who is said to have brought Christianity to Egypt in the 1st Century during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero.

For Egypt’s estimated 10 million Coptic Christians, he was a religious thinker and a charismatic leader, known for his sense of humor — his smiling portrait was hung in many Coptic homes and shops.

Above all, many Copts saw him as the guardian of their minority living amid a majority Muslim population in this country of more than 80 million people.

Continue reading “Pope Of Egypt’s Coptic Christian Church Dies | Fox News” →