Met. Paul encourages faithful to participate in an ecumenical protest against the persecution of the Coptic Church in Egypt.<\/em><\/p>\n

To all of our Revd. Clergy in Victoria,<\/p>\n

Greetings in the Spirit of the Nativity of our Lord & his Baptism,<\/p>\n

We would like to encourage you and your faithful to express vocally your dismay and condemnation about what has been going on in Egypt against the Orthodox Copts.<\/p>\n

On Thursday January 14th 2010:
\nTime: 9am
\nPlace: St Paul\u2019s Anglican Cathedral (Corner of Flinders St and Swanston St).<\/p>\n

We encourage you to do your utmost to have as many of you and your faithful to participate in the demonstration.
\nAsking the Holy Spirit to be with all of you.<\/p>\n

In the appearing God.<\/p>\n

+Paul<\/p>\n

Letter from Victorian Council of Churches below.<\/em> <\/p>\n

Victorian Council of Churches
\n(Inc.A0036552E)
\n4th Floor Causeway House, 306 Little Collins Street, Melbourne 3000
\nTelephone 03 9650 4511, Facsimile 03 9650 8383 Email: vcc@vcc.org.au
\nPresident: The Revd Jason Kioa; General Secretary: Mr Theo Mackaay<\/p>\n

January 11, 2009
\nDear Church leaders<\/p>\n

This morning Bishop Suriel of the Coptic Orthodox Church informed me about a tragedy that struck the Church in Egypt on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n

In what the BBC has described as a drive by shooting, a number of people were killed and more injured. Bishop Suriel tells me that 9 people have died as a result of the attack, and 20 were wounded. There appears to have been an attempt on Bishop Kirollos\u2019 life as well.<\/p>\n

The BBC has reported the attack: http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/middle_east\/8444851.stm<\/a> <\/p>\n

The Coptic community in Egypt has been subjected to hostility and violence for many years, as is well known. This latest tragedy calls forth our prayers and, I believe, an expression of our solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Christ.<\/p>\n

The Coptic community in Melbourne is organising a liturgy and rally in the city on Thursday (January 14) and hopes that as many church leaders and members as possible will be moved to join them. <\/p>\n

The liturgy will commence at 9.00am at St Paul\u2019s Cathedral, and finish 11.00.<\/p>\n

The rally will commence at 11.30 outside St Paul\u2019s Cathedral, and go to the Egyptian Consulate at 124 Exhibition Street, and then on to the Department of Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n

Inevitably this has been called at short notice, but I hope you will assist in getting the information out through your communications channels and encourage people to attend.<\/p>\n

Yours in Christ<\/p>\n

Theo Mackaay
\nGeneral Secretary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Met. Paul encourages faithful to participate in an ecumenical protest against the persecution of the Coptic Church in Egypt. To all of our Revd. Clergy in Victoria, Greetings in the Spirit of the Nativity of our Lord & his Baptism, We would like to encourage you and your faithful to express vocally your dismay and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1784],"tags":[1209,1207,102,1208,296,50],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5422"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5423,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5422\/revisions\/5423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}