Coptic Church Prepares 2026 Holy Synod Seminar on Church Service and Care

The Coptic Orthodox Church is preparing for its Seminar of the Holy Synod in 2026, to be held at the Lugos Centre at the Monastery of Abba Bishoy in the Wadi El Natrun. Anba Daniel told the Egyptian newspaper Al-Watan that the seminar is scheduled for Tuesday, 17 November, and will conclude on 18 November.

According to the source, the Holy Synod is the Church’s supreme legislative authority. It consists of 138 members described as bishops, who set the rules and laws of the Coptic Orthodox Church worldwide, along with its teachings, structures, priorities and approaches to challenges, in line with the Church’s official position.

The source also describes the Holy Synod as the Church’s judicial authority. It may hear cases involving any priest or lay member accused of violating the Church or its teachings, but only after the matter has been examined by the Church’s competent committees.

The Holy Synod has 12 standing committees, the source says. They include the Standing Committee, an Advisory Committee, a Secretariat Committee responsible for preserving the body’s papers and decisions, a Welfare and Service Committee overseeing the Church’s services, a Ritual Committee, a Faith and Education Committee, a Family Committee, an Information Committee, a Public Relations Committee, an Ecumenical Relations Committee, a Monks and Abbeys Committee, and a Committee for Deacons and another for Church Choirs.

The seminar itself is not an official session of the Holy Synod, the source notes. It is a study conference on a subject of service and care. No matters of faith are discussed at it, and it issues no decisions or recommendations. Those responsibilities belong to the Holy Synod’s legal sessions, which are held annually under the chairmanship of the Pope of the Patriarchate.

The 2026 seminar coincides with the Coptic Church’s commemoration of the anniversary of Pope Tawadros II’s enthronement on the Throne of St Mark, which took place on Sunday, 18 November 2012. The source says the commemoration will be attended by all members of the Holy Synod and by delegations from churches in Egypt and around the world.

Source: Read the original report (translated from Arabic)