I had written an article 7 years ago on our beloved news website (Copts united) about the story of the 9 years old child Abd al-Masih who was acquitted by Beni Suef misdemeanor court from charges of stealing 5 loaves of bread from a bakery. The owner of the bakery filed a lawsuit against the child and got a ruling to place him in a juvenile rehabilitation centre. The child was in fact working at the bakery and the rules allow him to take the bread he needs. This case revealed corruption of our rules since some people claimed honor and justice to condemn the child, and others took it as a sectarian case since the child name is Christian and translated slave of Christ!

There is no doubt that festivals bring special joy, especially the religious holidays that raise minds and hearts to heaven. It brings our souls closer to God. Then we enjoy his presence like the bible says: “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Will bring her into the wilderness, And speak comfort to her. (Hosea 2: 14) Christmas has its own magic go bringing joy into our hearts and enlightenment to our souls. This happens no matter how much evil and darkness in the world. It reminds us of what the angels said on Christmas Eve to the shepherds: “Do not be afraid! Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy for all the people. The heaven tells us not to be afraid and to put our faith in God. We need to show love and mercy and to be the change we need to see in the world. Perhaps we turn to the born child who incarnated to save humans and to show us how to love one another. The magi followed the star from a far at the time Herod decided to kill the child in order to save his fleeting throne.

It is true that the British Consul General in the time of the English occupation to Egypt, Lord Cromer, said he couldn t differentiate between the Egyptian Muslims and Christians except when they visit houses of worship to pray, but as matter of exaggerations and scarcity Christian citizen have been known as super polite and shy and fear facing his problems in order to avoid evil! However such exaggerations are not acceptable, they have been supported by media through films and TV series over the years. Such stereotyping have also affected the image of the Jews in Egypt who have been described as super stingy and talk in a funny way just like they appeared in media. Perhaps the church also contributed to form such picture by keeping its children inside its walls and offering them spiritual and social services. The state preferred to deal with the church instead of the individuals, which made many Copts refrain from participating in political life and all kinds of running in elections. I was among those who wrote and warned about the importance of the role of Islamic and Christian institutions in general in supporting the positive spirit of our citizens for participation and serious interaction when it is necessary to participate and meet the nation s call at all political and social levels. ‫Dr. Nagi Youssef, editor in chief of The true path newspaper said once that ‬ negativity is a sin in Christianity since Jesus taught us to be positive and active. At the time community neglected and even attacked certain people like the blind, the leper, the Samaritan woman, and others with a negative and destructive point of view, Jesus supported them and never hurt their feelings.

As I was listening to President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi’s speech in the youth forum, he greeted women appreciating their great national and social role. I remembered what the newspapers published in early November 2010 about the crime of a livestock trader in Fayoum who killed his three-year-old daughter, fearing she will have to face the shame caused by a relative who was known as prostitute! He said in the investigations that he killed her to get her rid of shame! The wonderful writer Dr. Ahmad Khamisi wrote commenting on the incident that he decided to save his own dignity by killing his own daughter! Such men think their dignity is stored in a piece of meat that be excluded at any time by some kind of weapon! Women realize that some men may kill them to save their dignity that a girl killed her sister to prevent her from telling their father that she has a boyfriend! Dr. Ahmad Khamisi said that women are not a box to store men’s dignity. In fact, man’s honor lies within his soul, mind and body. It is in one’s positions, relations, achievements, seeking justice and freedom. He should blame and fix himself instead of blaming, abusing and humiliating women and even killing them! The aim has been lost and values have been mixed up. Thus, the writer calls men to leave women alone since they are not property. She is an independent being who doesn’t enjoy torturing others like some men do. Then, it is a matter of honor and dignity. This is how the community develops using ideas of pioneers and people of reform and enlightenment and abandon ideas of retardation and ignorance.

With the expansion of media spaces available in all forms, media started to pursue former ministers, officials, and governors to make comparisons between the current and former officials, to cry upon the spilt milk and attack the current officials! Many former officials enjoy talking to media about alternative plans, strategy and magic tools to solve problems! Unfortunately, media support such attitude instead of supporting people to work harder, produce and be creative. In that account, I say that those former officials contributed to the current situation with all its negative aspects. We shouldn’t talk about former officials as faithful and uncorrupted as if we assume the current one is not! I wonder: why former officials think they have don’t all good work that can be done, which is not true? The Egyptian history has presented many great examples and leaders, but I can’t accept hearing an official talking about the corruption in a ministry he served. I remember similar situation when a former minister criticized corruption in the ministry and provided his plan to fix the situation. Former president Mubarak simply told him that he was responsible for this ministry for 10 years! On the other side, we find many public figures and members of the opposition who strongly criticize officials, but they keep their mouth shut when they are appointed in the government!

It is written in the Bible ‘Now therefore, amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; then the Lord will relent concerning the doom that He has pronounced against you. ‘ and ‘by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.’. This is how the holy bible demands corrections whenever it is necessary to return to the root of things and their correctness. However, each time the term ‘reform’ is used concerning the church or any religious institution, anger is raised and rejection is declared. They may link it to changing the constants of faith and religious principles without trying to understand the discourse of this desired reform and the reasons that prompted those who called for it. This way, the road is closed before discussion before it even begins. In the Coptic Church, the calls for reform are equal to attacking the faith, even if they target reforms in management. The late Pope Shenouda, unfortunately, said once that those who call for reform don’t understand its meaning. This is very strange for me since the Pope himself started his work as bishop of reform and trying to take the Coptic church to the international level, but he didn’t see a potential for further reform! I say that reform in the Coptic church will stop publishing photos of its priests in newspapers to invite the people not to deal with. Those priests who love making press statements and the church says later they were not assigned to do so. The Holy Mass will be more understandable with easier language for the simple people. There won’t be a place for business inside the church as civil society organizations will lead such work. Divorce and changing sects for separation purposes will also disappear with stronger relations between the congregation and the church. Electing the pope and the work of the general congregation council will develop and be more efficient. Reform means more freedom as father Matta the poor said ‘The Church should let the Christian citizen move freely in all directions as he pleases. And as dictated by his upbringing and culture, and bears the consequences of his acts.’

President Sisi affirmed in a meeting with a group of Egyptian scientists that the system of values and ethics in the society is the first ruler of the behavior of citizens and plays an important role in development. Dr. Mohamed Ghoneim, a member of the Council of Egyptian Scholars, stated that the members of the Council offered President Abdel Fattah El Sisi the establishment of a committee for development of ethics and conscience, and to promote the values of work and belonging. They suggested that the commitee works under the auspices of the Presidency and supported by Al-Azhar, education and the media, and assuring the economic and social situation should be improved so that the moral content of individuals may improve.

In a number of previous articles, I talked about the importance of the implementation of the state and all its institutions for all mechanisms of thinking through the activation of modern administrative systems, with the support of the political leadership that accepts and encourage change. In the time of Dr. Hussein Kamel Bahaa El Din, Minister of Education, he assured me that he was facing enormous societal resistance after declaring binding decisions to restore discipline in schools, and thinking about designing a new curriculum entitled ‘Ethics’ that includes the messages of peace and love and all other noble values mentioned in the Holy Quran and the Bible. He showed me a huge file containing a huge number of sick notes provided by parents to respond to the punitive measures taken to impose the regularity of students in classrooms. This was faced by a strong minister supported by the powerful regime of Mubarak at that time. Therefore, I call to support the current Minister of Education knowing that he is waging a war with beneficiaries of the corruption of the current situation and the system of private lessons. I was delighted to hear President El-Sisi talking before the World Youth Forum about the features of a country that thinks. He said, Egypt is now responsible for building houses of worships of Muslims and Christians since citizens have freedom of worship. He also talked about renewal of religious discourse and the importance of changing our minds with the change of society and time. Enlightenment intellectuals believed that human endeavors should be directed towards the promotion of knowledge and rationality, rather than emotional reactions. They called for the secularization of education in the ‘state of thinking’.

In a television interview with Farouk El-Baz in 1999, the presenter asked him about the time he will return back home along with all Egyptian scientists abroad in order to develop their own homeland. El-Baz said they should stay abroad to benefit from the valid experience and the is way they can benefit the homeland. Dr. Ahmed Mostagir, the late great scientist in genetic engineering, has been demanding the following: • Create a good atmosphere for scientific research. • Invest in science because its returns is much more than investing in anything else. Mostagir added that we should invest in minds more than we do on football. He hated football and said we should abandon it to care more for science. The state and private sector should both invest in such researches. All institutions in Egypt should unite to support Egyptians experts abroad and improve their national role. Egypt s Ministry of Finance said that the government is keen on supporting local industries and benefit from natural resources in order to contribute to the advancement of the national economy, provide more job opportunities for young people, improve the structure of growth and raise its rates to become more sustainable and diversified. According to the agency Bloomberg America, Egypt is the fastest-growing economy in the Middle East which reflects the great opportunities and the promising atmosphere in Egypt in addition to its prominent location between Africa and Asia. I was delighted to know that Egypt is benefiting from German expertise and creating real opportunities for investment in many modern industrial fields, which was declared by general abdul Monim Taras, head of the Arab body for manufacturing, concerning the new projects with the German party.

Take me to Jabal al-tit, Where St. Mary will give me power… These are quotes from a song in the celebrations of the Virgin Mary in Upper Egypt last May. The celebrations included making tattoos of crosses, sacrifices, festivals and songs. The scene was in Samalout, Minya, where Muslims and Christians shared the celebrations in wonderful national unity. The celebrations last for 7 days in the Monastery of Our Lady in Minya that was blessed by the visit of the Holy Family 2000 years ago. About 2 millions visit the monastery in May, which is known as the festival that is celebrated after Easter till the resurrection feast.

In the matter of atheism, the Minister of Awqaf says: Religion is the pillar of life since life without religion lacks values and morals. He added that religion is the backbone to control the course of mankind on the right path. Traditions and laws can t control the movement of man in the universe unless this man has a close connection to his Creator. Once a wise man said: It is difficult and even impossible to assign a policeman or a guard to each person in order to guard him and such guard may also need another guard to watch over him. Pope Tawadros believes that the main reason for atheism is the lack of dialogue in society and not spending enough time with the family. He added that atheism is the greatest danger facing our society even with a little number of atheists. Pope said that man wants to rebel against the authority of God, and there are philosophies that emerged 100 years ago and paved the way for atheism. Such rebel appeared even within ones life when people fail to accept oneself and has to escape to addiction or crime.

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.

"Our Lord loves beauty including Peace and goodness. In our country we offer beauty and goodness before the whole world” This was part of the speech given by President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi during his visit to the Great Cathedral of St. Mark to congratulate Copts on Christmas. The Coptic church has been trying to motivate its congregation to develop an active participation in all social, political and human activities. For instance, Bishop Moussa of Youth Bishopric gave examples to such active participation like voting in the elections, participating in the political parties, student unions and public syndicates, in addition to civil society associations.

"Our Lord loves beauty including Peace and goodness. In our country we offer beauty and goodness before the whole world” This was part of the speech given by President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi during his visit to the Great Cathedral of St. Mark to congratulate Copts on Christmas. The Coptic church has been trying to motivate its congregation to develop an active participation in all social, political and human activities. For instance, Bishop Moussa of Youth Bishopric gave examples to such active participation like voting in the elections, participating in the political parties, student unions and public syndicates, in addition to civil society associations.

As we fight terrorism at all levels, we have to pay attention to all our life practices at home, street, school, university and the club, and more importantly in the mosque and the church. We have to denounce intimidation and encourage enticement and reasonable speech. We may notice that our religious discourse is full of intimidation and exaggeration through its speech and even the way of delivering sermons. They are full of violence and shouting, especially when it comes to the other life and God s punishment to the bad people. This kind of speech has now its masters who pioneers.

As some new instructions are being issued by some bishops concerning dress code in churches and encouraging them to wear decent clothes, I would like to present this story in a short way, which was published in the photographer s magazine on August 26, 1927. The magazine reads: "A delegation of Italian women met with His Holiness Pope of the Vatican asking for his blessing and support in their fight against indecent fashion considering it corrupted taste.

There is no doubt that cultural dialogue and rooting for it is an important deal, especially as we are living in the era of construction where we learn and benefit from successful experiences in the world. This should show us how to maximize that benefit and reduce the losses. Communication with others is a necessity regardless of our individual desires, but we care more about effective communication since we fear new experiences.

On the occasion of our church s celebration of the half-century anniversary of the apparition of our lady on the domes of her church in Zeitoun. Some Coptic leaders made statements to provoke other dominations in an unacceptable absence of the spirit of love according to the teachings of the Bible. Therefore, I present this form of love proclaimed by a Japanese philosopher more than a century ago. He said: Unless love is rooted in the soul of human being, it cannot understand God s love…love knows all including sadness, laughter, tolerance, work, hunger, accepting danger, respect. It knows almost everything. Love accepts suffering and pain and can make wonders. Thus, it is able to do everything.

The homeland is not necessarily a land, water, sky, or human being with the similar skin color and the same language. It could be a doctrine or a religion or even goal or a dream. People may feel isolated by retardation or political regimes. This may lead a citizen to live marginalized and not belonging to his or her homeland. There is no doubt that the media, as much as they represent a measure of belonging in any society, it may affect it negatively or positively in supporting belonging and citizenship. I can see a number of positive attempts of media in that account, but the majority of examples are unfortunately negative.

Three years ago, there was a great advertising posted on more than 800 buses roaming the streets of London carrying the words God may not be there, stop worrying and enjoy your life The words of course belong to atheists who disbelieve the existence of God. It also carries a message that life away from God Almighty can be better and fun. Even though we refuse such message, 800 Christian associations moved followed by Islamic societies to demand the ban of these advertisements. The media watchdog has received 110 claims to stop it. The British Humanitarian Society, which contributed to the funding of the advertising campaign, said the watch dog has a big responsibility to rule whether or not God existed.

In the midst of several recent bombings in our Egyptian churches, I was happy as a Coptic Christian citizen to see the religious discourse of the Coptic church focusing on the beauty of life and its value after it used to focus on the other life. Abba Raphael, secretary of the Holy Synod, sent three messages in a sermon he delivered at one of these funerals. First, we believe in the heavenly justice, second, we love our country; third, we won t abandon our faith. The fathers of the Egyptian Church told us that martyrdom in the Arabic language means being killed for the sake of God. It simply means being summoned for witness on one s faith. Our martyrs sacrificed their souls as they declared their faith before extremist murderers.