PDF version available here Abstract In the period 571 – 577 A.D. there was a sustained persecution of the non-Chalcedonian communities in Constantinople by the Patriarch John Scholasticus. During this persecution he tried to bring about unity by a forced reception of the Holy Mysteries. When he began to require re-ordination of those entering his […]
When we read the Scriptures we will often reflect on the accounts that we find, of the life of our Lord Jesus, and the Apostles, and other important figures. But unless our thoughts are moulded by the writings and teachings of the Orthodox Church, through the commentary and explanations of the Fathers of the Church, […]
Draft Booklet for Teens If we have grown up in the Coptic Orthodox Church then we know that there are times through the year, and even every week, when we fast. We know how to fast. Our families will switch over to fasting food. We will try to keep the rules as much as possible. […]
The Prodigal Returns is available on this site as a free eBook written by Father Peter Farrington. It presents a description of the Orthodox spiritual life as a means of beginning to break the power of habitual sin of all kinds. It can be downloaded as an eBook in pdf format at this link – […]
Heysham and St Patrick The British Isles are filled with holy places that should be places of pilgrimage for Coptic Orthodox Christians living and worshipping among them. The Church in the British Isles was Orthodox from the beginning, and the saints of these islands are our own saints, Orthodox saints. We must honour and venerate […]
The earliest known altar vessels were not found in Constantinople or Rome, but buried for safety in the remains of the Roman town of Durobrivae, in modern Cambridgeshire, near the little village of Water Newton. We cannot know for sure what social upheaval led to their being hidden away by the Orthodox Christian community that […]
St Perpetua was a noble young woman of the city of Carthage, and when the Christian faith was proscribed she bravely confessed, together with others of the Christian community. She is especially important because of the first hand testimony which she wrote at the time, describing her experiences, visions, and suffering. She is the first […]
There are many in our Coptic Orthodox Church who are unaware that the British Isles have an ancient and Orthodox heritage and history that stretches back even to the first century. The British Isles were once entirely Orthodox in their faith, and were in communion for centuries with our own Alexandrian Church. When St Athanasius […]
St Thomas is referred to in each of the Gospels. In the Gospel of St Matthew 10:3 he appears in the list of the Twelve Apostles, where his name is given in the seventh place. His name in the Greek text is Θωμᾶς which is the transliteration of the Hebrew word meaning a twin. In […]
Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, “What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?” But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If […]