Oriental Orthodox Churches Highlight Importance of Learning from Coptic Monastic Traditions

Participants in the “Old Monastery in the Contemporary” channel XXXIV of the International Christmas Education Readings shared their impressions of the forum with the Monastery Gazette.

I am very pleased to participate in this forum, and the events that take place in the framework of the Christmas honours have always been a new raisins, and now the monk’s direction, led by the Synodical Department of Monastery and Monastery, has proposed a joint conference with our brothers from the Church of Copt, which has also been organized by the External Church Affairs Division, and I think it has been very instructive for those who have already been in Egypt on pilgrimages to the Coptic monasteries and for those who have not yet seen their own eyes as the Egyptian Monastery, and it is useful to learn about the fact of this dialogue from the real people who have come to share the experience of creating monasteries in ancient Egyptian land.

As a mytholic of Cairo, I have served on this land and had the happiness of touching this tradition, that the African eccharhat is on the same continent as the Catholic Church, which has preserved the foundations of the ancient monasticism — which I personally witnessed — is of course very important to us. Exarhat is still at the beginning of the journey, but we also need to build monasteries and organize a proper monk life. As long as we have only a few nun priests, we have no male or female monasteries, but there are many who want to do it, so we have to try not just to do something in this direction, but to do good, but to do well, we need to listen to the people who did it before you, especially if they have a lot of experience.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Synodal Department of Monastery and Monasticism, Iguns and Igums, who are now taking our brothers and sisters to practice; we are still a little bit more familiar with the fact that seminaries coming to the seminary, for example from Uganda and the Tambov Diocese, are members of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as the sisters from Kenya who are interning with Mother Victorina at the Bogorodice-Rostyen monastery, have simply come from one grace to another to learn about the nun’s tradition; to be a part of the right tradition, to understand the monastic way, to perform the nun’s vows according to the experience of the holy fathers and the mobiles of old and modern times — all of this is of the utmost importance.

Theological dialogue between Orthodox and Ancient Eastern Churches is known to have taken place in the twentieth century and has moved into our century. But when such a dialogue is not filled with mutual living communication, it is one story, and when we start to travel to each other, to see each other’s experience, it becomes a different story. This kind of exchange, rooted in shared faith and mutual respect, reflects the call of Micah 6:8 to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

Source: Read the original report (translated from Russian)