5 years have passed since Mr. President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi took the presidential office, and he always tells us that he won t continue in that office if the people don t want him to. I want to remind him of the story of Harun al-Rashid, who used to hide himself in clothes of a bigger at night to listen to his people and to compare it to the sayings of the people surrounding him. President al-Sisi was born and raised in a local and historical neighborhood, Gamalia, and I visited this neighborhood since I admire Islamic antiquities like Qalawoon, Ghouri, Barqouq, Merdani, Mohamed Bai Abdul Dahab, and Akmar mosques which are full of beauty.

French newspapers talked about the visit of French President Emmanuel Macaron to Egypt, which shows how Makron responded to the demands of his people. The French journalist said that President Macaron has drawn the attention of Egyptian translators more than once to the fact that he speaks about human rights, and yet they do not translate the words accurately to President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. This shows that those surrounding the president don t translate the situation accurately to him and not only the words of the the French guest. The situation also showed that president Macron determined to talk about the issue of human rights no matter what happens. This also happened after he was criticized for not mentioning it last year upon the visit of al-Sisi to France, and therefore, decided to mention it clearly this year. He declared it several times even before he visited Egypt saying that Egypt violated human rights and freedoms. Yet, no body responded in Egypt.

I Write this article to discuss what I am trying to understand, not to evaluate or criticize. It may look useless as a friend told me since our leaders prefer stubbornness, tyranny and even murdering! The situation is totally nonsense as wisdom is hated and giving advice is a crime that is not forgiven. We have tried to amend the constitutions before, and what was the result? Sadat opened the duration of presidential period to be unlimited instead of just two. Yet, he was murdered before his initial period was over.

CNN released recently a report comparing between Apple Revenues and some Arab countries revenues and the report shows that Apple almost beat all the Arab countries revenue like (Egypt- Emirates- Saudi Arabia) not combined but individually. For Example the report showed that apple revenue was about 250 Billion Dollar compare to 239 to Saudi Arabia, 112 to Emirates, 56 to Egypt, 54 to Kuwait, and 49 to Qatar. The statistics explain why US Economy still remain one of the strongest economies on the earth although all troubles happened lately with China related to the trade war. It s a big shame when we see a company in US can beat bif counties especially Egypt which has now over 95 Million population who should be a main power for the economy. Having said that, we need to recognize that this is a big challenge that Arab countries face and we should take it as incentive to work hard and beat such numbers but will the Arab leaders listen and follow, this is the real challenge.

Lord Jesus Christ used to demonstrate his teachings to the disciples using parables. Furthermore, he encouraged them to think over its meanings. One of these parables is the house over the rock. Sister Marian Edward, minister at the church of St. Mary in Amsterdam, talked about the meaning of such house explaining that life of each of us is similar to a building that we build and save throughout our lives. In that account, Lord Jesus has talked about three kinds of houses referring to human life and work and spiritual struggle. First, the house built on sand is the person who hears a lot but does not do according to what he hears, and this house will fall quickly. Secondly, the house built on the rock is a human being who hears and then goes and obeys what he hears. The empty house means life without spiritual struggle in the constant prayer and the bible study. Such person doesn t have spiritual practices and therefore it lacks fruits of the holy spirit like love, happiness and peace. Everybody should check his heart and house and find out which type he belongs to, and whether the way is leading to the kingdom of heavens.

As Bishop Isaac of Tima was visiting the Island of Tima in a pastoral care visit, he was received and celebrated by both Muslims and Christians of the Island. Sounds of music and celebrations were signs of love to the bishop. Sheik Mostafa Abdul Razik, Imam of the mosque of the island, delivered a speech in which he said that he honors the bishop and wishes he could cover the earth under his grace with flowers. I write this article not only to thank and appreciate the love of Sheikh Abdul Razik, but also to salute Bishop Isaac who could, through love and wisdom, gain love of the people and remove all reasons of sectarian strife that attacked many other places in our homeland.

One of the Copts of El-Arish called Adib Nakhla Yassa was kidnapped while returning home in Al-Arish to work thinking the situation is better now. The bus that he was riding was stopped by the terrorists who put on military uniform and searched the identification cards seeking Police, army or Christians. The man declared he is Christian and was kidnapped by the terrorists who might kill him to show their presence in Arish to the world. Our armed forces are waging war against the terrorists and kill many of them in a comprehensive operation since those terrorists target innocent people in order to say that the Egyptian government is not able to protect its citizens.

Lately Muslims destroyed 1,125 churches in Nigeria. This number is a close number of the churches that Muslims Brotherhood burned in Egypt after stepping Mohamad Morsi down in 2013. Unfortunately, the Muslim extremists burn and destroy churches without any mercy everywhere without counting any responsibility of their actions. The international community keeps silent for everything related to Christians and churches. I imagine if Christian s people burned or destroyed the same number of mosques what would be the international reaction toward that violence. There is no doubt that we now suffer from very week international system which doesn t have enough tools to deal with violence against human and against freedom of religious. With the current American trend which encourage tyrant to take over and with the American trend to not defend human rights against extremism I don t think this violence against Christians and their churches will stop soon. In conclusion, I can sense a new international system coming in the road, with France and Germany signed lately a military agreement and with US trying to fight with China and face Russia might be the solution in this new international system.

The unity of the Church derives from the unity of the Trinity, which is the theological basis of unity. The Father is the source of the Trinity or the fountain of the Trinity; the Son is the center of the Church; the Holy Spirit is the bearer of witness, preaching and service. The Trinity is in unity and harmony, and, therefore, the division does not stop at mere logical or conceptual error; but comes as deviation from the proper foundation of the structure of our faith. But the Holy Spirit, the living God, is working in the Church achieving its unity after divisions have caused greater destruction than the persecutions of tyrants and oppressors. We are meeting this year on the theme of (Give me drink) so that the Lord will shake us from His fountain and unite us in His holy divine person. Our Coptic Church has always been present in all humility, love and serious participation since the days of the Alexandria theological school, and its scholars like Pentenus, Clemandas, Origen, and Didimus. its present started with Athanasius, Descurus and Cyril the Great and continues till the visit of Pope Taudros II to the ancient throne of Rome hoping to achieve this unity. 
We believe in one Christ, one bible and one kingdom of heaven. We do have too many things in common. We look forward to many fruitful meetings that strengthen our spiritual and theological knowledge in order to be able to witness for Christ before the whole world. This is our way supported by the holy spirit and obtaining open mind. We should pray and study the holy bible seeking orthodoxy. 
Our hopes that the prayer of unity will be fruitful for the one church achieving the aim of the saints who kept the faith and delivered its blameless and pure. Such unity may come before the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ so that everybody knows that we are His sons and disciples that we don t consider personal benefits and seek the salvation of the whole world.

The Holy Fathers lived a life of pleasure in the Lord, enjoying the divine grace. Their trust in the Lord and the hope in Him were limitless for they have put their trust in the Lord.Yet, how can we get like them to enjoy ourselves in the Lord? His Holiness Pope Tawadros II in his sermon entitled ‘Delight in the Lord’ explains to us examples of biblical characters who delighted themselves in the Lord like Father Abraham who was an example of relying on the Lord in everything. Thus, he believed in the promise of the Lord that he will get a son in his old age. He believed that man should ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding’ (Proverbs 3: 5)

For a long time, through my writings, meetings and media interviews I have expressed my surprise and anger over the expression moderate Christianity by those who defend coexistence just like they demand moderate Islam. This shows that clergy are using form of politicization of religion and apply non-spiritual names and descriptions to their faiths. They try to show that each sect has its own moderate form that gives different models of religion! Thus, the fixed elements of religion should stay the same even when time changes. With the increasing frequency of waves of extremism all over the world, the misuse of verses leads to political plots by evil organizations. We should remember here the words of French President Francois Hollande at the Conference on Democracy in the Face of Terrorism and his assertion. He said that we all must fight against extremism and terrorism and seek creating (French Islam). The French have different religions and races, but received the same rights and duties. The French model is threatened, and the social model has to be fixed. This social model was not considered by president Sadat when he said he is a Muslim president of a Muslim country. He should rather declared he is an Egyptian president of all Egyptians.

In January 2016 Al-Zaher, the former governor of Alexandria promised that Alexandria would witness an international celebration next year. However, the governor left soon before he applies his creative idea to restore the days when Epiphany was a national holiday celebrated by all Egyptians. Epiphany is one of the greatest festivals in the Coptic Church when Jesus Christ revealed his divinity according to the Christian faith celebrated in Egypt on the eleventh of the Coptic month of Tuba. It is one of the feasts that are celebrated at night since Christmas and Epiphany were celebrated together at the first centuries, but were separated later and kept their time of celebration according to Bishop Benjamin of Monofia.

The last attack from the extremists on the priests and Copts in Minya showed with no doubts that we are living in a chaos and in absence of law. Not only Copts can t find a place to pray but also Salafists and sheikhs attack them because they pray on an empty place or they pray in their church. Unfortunately, the governor of Minya and the state security can t control the extremists because they like what they do and they agree on it. In fact, we have repeated many times that the situation in Egypt will not change and this is simply because extremists Muslims believe that they are above any law. In conclusion, if Egypt didn t change the culture and education methods in Schools and mosques to teach people to accept other and be tolerant, the situation is going to get worse especially for Copts.

For the first time, the Egyptian government come out to comment on church attack by fanatics. This time, the government denied the existence of 3 churches that were claimed to be closed by the Copts. I was surprised to know that the three churches were not included on lists of legalization, which raises even more questions about why they were not included!

Following the scandal of Zafarana village in Minya, where hundreds of extremists supported by certain agencies or parties prevented some people from holding their prayers. According to article 46 of the Egyptian constitution, many people tired to condemn the victims including bishop Makarious of Minya. Their cheap attempts was supported by an anchor and a statement of the Evangelical Church. Yet, we shouldn t forget about the freedom of worship. This reminded me of what was written by Magdi Mehanna in the site of the civilized dialogue: (The friend Sulaiman Shafiq talks about the liturgy of the protest led by Abba Makarios in the face of the repeated attacks on the Coptic citizens, just for being Copts! The liturgy is worship and prayer, and when they are an expression of protest or objection, we are faced with a work that connects the daily reality with faith and belief, which gives faith its momentum and meaning. The reality is the mirror of faith. It is not strange that Bishop Makarious calls for prayer in protest of the wrong situation supported by the state that allows the criminal to escape even if he is a murderer. This is permitted as long as the victim belongs to the minority!) The truth is that the inability of the Church Building Law to solve the problem has made the Copts in the villages pray in very small houses like Zafarana, or even in the streets like Forn village in Minya. They also had to held funerals in the streets like Dimshaw Hashim. Here I introduced the concept of Liturgical Protest where people protest by praying which appeared years ago in Latin America. Pope Shenoda started it in Egypt when he decided to lock himself in a cell at the monastery. Bihsop Makarious has taken it to the next level when he invited thousands of angry youth to pray to God in a gathering after the murder of Coptic man and his son by policeman. It doesn t make sense that the law is applied only on certain people, but in case of insulting Christianity it disappears! Moreover, the law of building churches should be fixed by adding an article to license churches. Those who issued the bad statement of the Evangelical Church should realize that they caused great damage to their credibility. I salute Bishop Makarious and all Christians who rejected the statement of division. I also salute the people of Zafarana village both Muslims and Christians who will understand that people always have the right to pray. Moreover, the state has to revise its views and methods.

I do not prefer to write about religious matter, but today I am writing about Bishop Makarious of Minya and Abu Qurqas as national clergy. In recent years, the frequency of sectarian events increased in the province of Minya against churches and the Copts and the scenario is repeated each time. The Egyptian politicians and intellectuals are asking: why the state is leaving Minya this way though it is able to deal with it. The regime doesn t answer and some fans of it try to give answers like: It is bad heritage of extremism and others blame the church for not having the proper license or the state is waiting for the right time!

We, the Egyptians, celebrated Christmas this year and were very happy to receive a special gift from the president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, which is the biggest Cathedral in the Middle East in the new administrative capital. Moreove,r it was opened at the same day with the mosque of Fattah Aliem. The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar visited the Cathedral and the mosque was visited by Pope Tawadros. Furthermore, president has delivered a speech in which he denounced violence and sectarian attacks and supported equal citizenship. Such great picture was aired by international media and we were proud to hear the president assuring the right to freedom of worship and defending equal citizenship among all. However, we realized that we will never get rid of extremism so fast just by building a mosque and a church!

The US president Trump went into a fight with Nancy Polsi defending his promise to build a wall between US and Mexico. Trump withdrew from the meeting because Nancy Polsi was clear that she will not allow this wall to be built. In fact this wall will determine to a great extent the winner of the next presidential election that’s why we expect to see a lot of tension between the democrats and the republican because of that. From my opinion Trump will win to build the wall and will force that democrats to agree to his plan and accordingly he might win the next presidential election. In conclusion, with the winning of the trade war with China and building the wall between US and Mexico, there is no doubt that Trump will be the next US President.

Egypt was expected recently to be ranked 7th among the world s top 10 economies by 2030. The report, published by Bloomberg, predicted that the Egyptian economy, in terms of its expected size of about $8.2 trillion, would be ahead of Russia, Japan, and Germany. At the same time, the World Bank predicted a growth rate of 1.9 percent in the Middle East and North Africa region, stressing that Egypt is one of the most important countries in the region, which will witness a growth rate in 2019 of 5.6 percent, driven by the economic reforms, increased investment and high private consumption rates.

The words of His Grace the great Imam Dr. Ahmed Tayeb Sheikh of Al-Azhar very precious during the speech he has delivered at the opening of the New Cathedral of the New Administrative Capital. He assured that there is nothing in Islamic Sharia that prevents building new churches and the majority of churches in Egypt were built under Muslim rulers. We thank him for what he said since he represents 1.5 billion Muslim people. However, we don t accept what he said that Islamic state is the guarantee for all churches. In fact, we live under a civil state and I wanted to hear from him that the Egyptian state is the guarantee and the protector for all churches and mosques. The state of citizenship can not restrain to a specific religion to protect the other religion. In that case, we are trying to return the Copts to be Dhimis under the protection of Islamic Caliphate. Such words give him the power of giving and preventing at the same time, which contradicts with the modern understanding of a civil state.

Paramone is the day before Christmas and it is the day when we get ready to receive the Lord born after the journey of the fasting and the month of Koiak praises. Our hearts turn towards the small city of Bethlehem, where we receive our gift of salvation and the registration of our names in the kingdom of heavens. We follow the star to reach the child of our life, joy and salvation. We join the shepherds and the heavenly soldiers and the gifts of kingship, priesthood and pain. We find the sacrifice of the whole world amidst the lambs. Thus, we worship and offer our souls to lift and fix them. Today we are witness the greatest birth in history for a virgin, a mother and a holy spirit. We meet with angels and listen to praises that accompanied the birth of the only son who came in the fullness of time and incarnated to save human beings. He led us to salvation and carried the cross to complete this salvation. His light shine upon our faces. What a miraculous birth and wondrous day.