On Pastoral Care (1970)
Pope Kyrillos V sent out this edict in November of 1907. It is addressed to both priests and laypeople, and emphasises the search for the lost sheep as one of the primary concerns of any pastor. It also comes as the last in a series of documents by the Pope and the Holy Synod that emphasised the importance of educating young Christians, no doubt spurred on by the work of Habib Girgis.[1]On the developments leading up to this letter, see Bishop Suriel, Habib Girgis: Coptic Orthodox Educator and a Light in the Darkness (Yonkers, NY: SVS Press, 2017), 62–63.
All the Biblical references that occur in-text below correspond to the footnotes in the Arabic document. The footnotes in this translation are added by the editor for explanation and to identify references that are not given in the original.
Patriarchal Edict
Pope Kyrillos V
1907
Patriarchal Edict
Kyrillos V, a slave and servant of Jesus Christ and by the grace of God, Patriarch of the See of St Mark,
To my beloved brethren the metropolitans and bishops and my blessed sons the hegumens, priests and deacons and the rest of my beloved children, the people of the blessed church of God, the Church of St Mark, in the lands of Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, called and sanctified by the will of God: grace and peace be multiplied to each of you in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our pastoral duty compels us to send to you, my beloved, this edict, so that it should be as it were, a personal letter to each of you. For I look upon each one of you at all times with a loving gaze, and my heart is filled with tender and affectionate sympathy for you. I look upon you as a father does his son and a shepherd his flock; the look of a high priest upon his people. I look upon you day and night in my spirit and heart and all my strength. For I perceive and feel you pictured and inscribed in my mind and carried in my heart. I look upon you with the tenderest of feelings, and the most pure, and filled with faith, hope and love I say of you: “Behold, the children which the Lord has given me”, knowing that my joy and pleasure and the crown of my boasting is you.[2]Cf. 1 Th 2:19, “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?” My delight is in your joy and my salvation in the firmness of your faith and the strength of your hope and the increase of your love. You are God’s flock and His chosen vineyard. First, I greet you in peace and declare peace to you at all times. Peace to you, I say, and to your children. Peace to all of you, old and young, elders and youths, young men and newborns, to your wives and daughters and children, and to all the members of your households. I am praying for you at all times in the spirit, remembering you in my entreaties that the God of peace might fill you with the peace that surpasses all understanding, and grant you firmness and strength for growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, firm in the hope to which you have been called.
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I am certain that you are established and deeply-rooted and not insecure in the faith. I know your love and your zeal, but I am spurring your souls with these words to progress and advance towards a new life of righteousness, just as your fathers and grandfathers lived, a sanctified life, that you might live a spiritual life, worthy of Christ in righteousness, holiness and truth, declaring abroad your calling and the soundness of your faith for the manifestation of God’s kingdom and the exaltation of His glory through you and in you.
We direct our words, firstly, to those shepherds who have been called to be lamps and lights shining in the darkness of the world. You are called, O beloved, to relay golden rays into the minds of the flock and enliven their hearts with the fervour of the faith. You were elected to be a model of chastity and exemplar of purity, to be humble even while surrounded with all kinds of honour, to be poor in the midst of wealth, joyful and happy amid the tribulations and sorrows that beset you, firm amid unrest, so that you can shore up the weak and strengthen hope, establish faith and enliven love, revive weakened hearts, strengthen the hanging hands and feeble knees,[3]Cf. Heb 12:12; Is 35:3. so that you might be guides for the lost and bring comfort to the grieving, and assist the dejected and the poor, defend the widows and secure justice for the oppressed, and judge with righteousness. You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world and the burning lamp placed atop the lampstand the city sitting high atop the mountain.[4]Cf. Mt 5:14–15 You are the pillars of the temple and the masters of the earth and judges of the people, and their teachers. You are the bearers of the talents. You are intercessors for mankind and companions to the angels. You are the sons of the prophets and successors[5]khulafā’ of the apostles. You are those who have been commissioned by Jesus Christ to preach and declare His name for the growth of His kingdom on the earth. Therefore we ought not to be a stumbling block in any way, lest blame fall upon the service,[6]li’allā tu-lām al-khidma, a very early use of the word service to describe pastoral work. but rather in all things to show ourselves to be servants of God (1 Cor 6:3, 4), striving as ambassadors for Christ, as though God were preaching through us (2 Cor 5:20). For we are servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Cor 4:1), and stewards ought to be faithful, because we will give an account of our
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stewardship (Lk 16:2). Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing (Mt 25:45–6).
Therefore, we ought to be pure so as to purify others, and to learn in order to teach others. We ought to be shining lights, and close to God so as to carry the people into His presence. We ought to sanctify ourselves so as to consecrate souls, sanctify them and offer them to God. Our Lord Jesus said to His disciples, Follow me and I will make you fishers of men[7]Mt 4:19; Mk 1:17. , and so we ought to be able to fish for souls and draw them to Him. Let us therefore consecrate ourselves to Him, and place all our gifts, efforts and everything we have in the service of His exalted glory. For God has chosen you from among the people; He has chosen you to be His servants and stewards to shepherd the souls which He has purchased with His blood. He has given you the authority to teach the people what is required of them. So take Jesus as your example in your works and conduct, so that you might walk as He walked.[8]1 Jn 2:6. Imitate His example and follow His teachings, that you might be living examples and perfect mirrors of the virtues in the eyes of the faithful, such that all who look upon you will have no doubt that you are His representatives and stewards. Be an image of the excellence of God and His mercy, adorning yourselves with every virtue and perfection, so that the people might imitate and put into practice all that they see in you.
Therefore, O shepherds, be an example to your flock, for if you walk in the path of the good, your disciples will follow you. But if you overstep the mark and neglect what is right, they will walk the same path as you. Know that every transgression committed by your congregation is like a scratch on the hand or somewhere else on a man where it can be covered and hidden, but a transgression that appears in you is like a great wound upon the face, immediately apparent to all onlookers. You are the captain of the boat: take care not to sink her in the ocean by your poor leadership. You are the shepherd of the flock: watch over the sheep, lest they wander away from you into the wilderness. O shepherd, inasmuch as you have been made a steward to shepherd souls and teach them, you yourself ought to be
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learned, for a man cannot give what he does not possess. If you do not know your own duties, how will you be able to teach others? If you do not know the way, how can you reveal it and point toward it? Instead of leading your flock to the harbour of salvation,[9]mīnā’ al-khalāṣ, a significant phrase that occurs in Coptic liturgical prayers (e.g. the Litany for the Sick). It is best remembered today as the name of the periodical published by Fr Mina the Solitary (i.e. Pope Kyrillos VI).” you will drive them in your ignorance into error and confusion. You must study the Book of God[10]kitāb Allah, i.e. the Bible. and set it before your eyes day and night, for “the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts” (Mal 2:7). “Be an example to the faithful in word and deed, in love and spirit, in faith and purity. Give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine and continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (1 Ti 4:12–16). The Lord said to Isaiah, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins” (Is 58:1). And He said to Jeremiah:
for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord … Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant (Jer 1:7–10).
Our Saviour, to whom be the glory, has sent us out saying, “Go into the world, gather and preach the gospel of the kingdom.” (Mt 28:19).[11]A paraphrase of the Great Commission of Mt 28:19 rather than a direct quotation. Hear also the words of the apostle to his disciple Timothy: ‘I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:
Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure
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afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry (2 Tim 4:1–5).
If you do this, you will be a true shepherd worthy of hearing His blessed saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord” (Mt 25:21). How can you be a shepherd if you ignore and neglect the care of your sheep and abandon your flock to go astray in distant valleys? How can you leave souls to perish and wander from the field without asking about them? Were you set up as shepherd of a flock simply so that you could milk them, without taking care to lead them to fertile, lifegiving pastures? Woe to the shepherd who leaves his sheep to go astray and become lost in the mountains. The Lord said through the mouth of Ezekiel:
I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. When I say to the wicked, “O wicked man, you shall surely die!” and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. (Ez 33:7–9)
Keep the Lord’s rebuke ever before your eyes which says:
Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.” (Ez 34:1–6)
Therefore, be courageous and fearless O shepherd! Do not sleep, but keep vigil and unsheathe the holy weapon of God for the battle against the evil which is in the world. Oppose injustice, do not show partiality
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rebuke the hypocrites and remove all malicious doctrine with an iron rod, lest evil take root and grow in the field of the Church while you stand by negligent. For woe to the lazy shepherd who is neglectful and sleeps and lazes about; for the enemy comes at that time and sows tares (Mt 13:25). Draw in the sinner that you might restore him from the error of his way and save his soul from death.[12]James 5:20. Use every means to this end: whether it be preaching in the midst of the assembly or guidance and advice on an individual level, that you might lead souls to their Saviour. Do not delay your search for the sinner, but ask after him and seek him with diligence until you have brought him back, just as the shepherd searches for his lost sheep. Use all your strength with all gentleness to bring him back to the fold, happy and rejoicing at his return. Like a wise physician, give the appropriate medicine for every sickness. Spend the majority of your time seeking for the prodigal son, knowing that the return of a sinner is the greatest sacrifice you can offer to God Most High, for souls are exceedingly precious and valuable in the eyes of God, and Christ died for their sake, for He did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance (Lk 5:32). He came to seek that which was lost (Lk 19:10), so when the sinner comes to you in remorse, present Him immediately to God, make the path easy for him, prepare the way for him and teach him that God is ready to accept him. Do not dismiss him or send him back empty, and do not cut off his hope. Do not delay his repentance, do not be a stumbling block in his way, and do not lay severe laws upon him. Do not be an obstacle between the soul and God, but rather be a means of bringing souls near unto Jesus their Redeemer who is seeking them. Remember how the Lord accepted the repentance of David and the tax collector and the thief, and how he rebuked Simon when he blamed Him for accepting the adulteress (Jn 7:37).
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It is not enough, O shepherd, to say, “Our churches are open to all who come!” Rather, it is your duty to draw people in and bring them to Christ and deter them from evil, that they might be true believers and perfect Christians, and that your life might be for the sake of the good of your people at all times. Know your flock and expend your energy and time and everything you have for their benefit; repeat within your mind that saying of the Good Shepherd:
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep … My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me (Jn 10:11–15, 27).
Therefore, let us sacrifice all things for the sake of our flock. Have compassion on poor souls, and do not leave them exposed to the blows of the Evil One, bequeath and present them with every assistance, just as Jesus had compassion upon the people when He saw that they were weary and scattered, like a sheep without a shepherd, and say with the Lord, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Mt 9:35–38). Let your concern and your quest be the salvation of your congregation, let your zeal for this be manifest, and say at all times: “Zeal for Your house has eaten me up” (Ps 69:9); “I do not do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me (Jn 6:38); “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work” (Jn 4:34).
O shepherds, first love your flock with a sincere love that you might be able to do everything for their benefit, and be able to fulfill all that you have purposed. You will find no other key to open hearts unto you except love, for this is the foundation of everything: it is the eloquence that will teach all things, the power which will make you capable of all things and open what is closed before you. The degree of the impact
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of your words upon your congregation and your drawing them in depends on the degree of your love for them. Without this love, you do not have the power to draw a single soul to Christ. Therefore, arm yourselves with [this love] as a power and a force upon hearts. You were not sent to shepherd the people with a rod, nor to bring them into subjection with the sword. Know rather that hearts yield only to hearts, and spirits hear only spirits, and a fire is not kindled except by another flame like itself. Therefore, let your hearts first become enflamed with this love, and then you will be able to kindle this same fire in the hearts of others. If you give advice, let it be done with love and sincerity, from a pure heart and conscience without hypocrisy. If you rebuke, let it be with gentleness and mildness and compassion, and you will see the fruits of your words and works. Declare your love to them and you will find souls obeying you and yielding you. Love all, even the wicked and the sinners and the insubordinate and those mired in transgression. Look to them with affection, like a prodigal son whom we must return to his father’s house, or like a lost sheep whom we must restore to the fold. Show them your love, your affection, your compassion and your zeal, that these might be ointment and medicine for their wounds and a golden cord to linking you to their hearts and draw in their spirits to the love of God and His salvation. But if you do not have love for your congregation, you are blowing into empty trumpets that make no sound, and have become “sounding brass and a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor 13:1). No matter what efforts you pour into your labours, exhortations, preaching and teaching, no matter what rules and advice you offer, if you do it without this love, you cannot move hearts toward you. Everything can be concealed except love, for it cannot fail to come to light; all your works and labours will disappear, but your love must appear and be declared, and it is this which will prepare the way for you and open the way for you to shepherd the congregation. Through this, you will be able to soften shrivelled hearts, coarse temperaments, and vicious morals, and restore souls filled with wrath and hatred to gentleness.
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to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some (1 Cor 9:22).
Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation? (2 Cor 11:29).
But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe; as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory … For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and joy (1 Th 2:7–12, 19–20).
Do not show partiality, and do not discriminate between a rich person and a poor person, an exalted person and a lowly person, a prominent person and a little person, for every human being is equal in rights before God. In fact, all are one in Christ. Our Lord, to Whom be glory, taught us not to discriminate between persons, as His own enemies testified of Him saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men” (Mt 22:15). So you too, follow the footsteps of the Master in your ministry: in your pastoral work, visitations and the performance of your duties, do not be concerned with the rich while leaving aside the poor, lest the affections and feelings of your flock be wounded. Rather, know that it is the poor who make up the greater part of the church and the world
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I charge you to be particularly concerned with the young, of whom the Saviour said, “Let the children come to Me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 19:14). These whom you see today as young and small are the men of the future [who will be] men of the church in time. From them springs the power of the nation, and they are its life and its blood, and they ought to be clean and pure of all corruption. Teach them and give them your attention, command their parents to raise them in godliness and the fear of the Lord from their childhood, as Timothy “knew the holy scriptures from his childhood, which are able to make them wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 3:15). Teach them the principles of the faith. Make them understand that Christ died for their sake to save them. Raise them in truth and virtue love. Sow in their heart the seeds of righteousness and grace. Attract the youth to the church and teach them to remember their Creator in the days of their youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them” (Eccl 12:1). Take care of the orphan children who have none to support them or raise them: be for them as fathers and mothers. Arouse the compassion of those who are zealous and honourable from time to time to help them and raise them, lest they grow up and become corrupt, becoming a drain upon the nation, corrupting it with their corruption.
Set the glory of God before your eyes at all times, and do not be concerned at all with procuring glory for yourself from people, for your praise and your reward for your service is from God, from whom you will receive crowns of glory. Know that it is the glory of glories for you to serve, for our Lord “did not come to be served but to serve” (Mt 20:28). In a word, seek the people and their souls and their salvation, not what they possess or what you expect to receive from them as a reward for your labour. Say with the apostle, “I do not seek yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. And I will very
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gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.” (2 Cor 12:14–15)
Again I command you: “Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.” (1 Pt 5:2–4) “Know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” (1 Tim 3:15) “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” (Acts 20:28)
My children, remember who you are. Examine the history of your church. Ask your fathers and your grandfathers who came before you. You now enjoy freedom of faith after long struggles that lasted for many generations. Your church has delivered the faith to you, but only after having shed the blood of her martyrs and offering her people as victims in support of the truth and for a testimony to the steadfastness of the faith. How great were the terrors the church endured in these generations! But because of the mercies of the Lord we were not consumed, but a remnant of us persisted. Therefore remember to guard this faith of yours to the point of blood, until you deliver it to your children just as it was delivered to you pure from any blemish. Be confirmed in the truth. Love the church, defend her and confirm her teachings.
You are called Christians, therefore, fulfill your calling and live in a manner worthy of this calling. Christianity is a religion of godliness,[13]barāra chastity and walking in faith and grace. Indeed,
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the characteristics of the early Christians were the greatest evidence for the soundness of their religion which they could produce for those who persecuted them, such that the scholar Tertullian dares to say in his defence of them: “Have you found a Christian guilty? If such a one exists, his crime is his name, that is, that he is a Christian.”[14]Tertullian (c. 155–240) was an early Christian Latin writer from the North African city of Carthage, in whose time Christianity was an illegal religion in the Roman Empire. The quotation here is possibly a paraphrase of the following passage from Tertullian’s Apology where he points out that when Christians are arrested, the only crime they can be charged with is their Christianity: “Finally, why do you read out of your tablet-lists that such a man is a Christian? And if a Christian is a murderer, why not guilty, too, of incest, or any other vile thing you believe of us? In our case alone you are either ashamed or unwilling to mention the very names of our crimes — If to be called a Christian does not imply any crime, the name is surely very hateful, when that of itself is made a crime.” (Tertullian, Apology 2, ANF 3:20, CCEL) And Saint Justin the Martyr, in his Apology also demonstrates the chastity of the Christians: “We are those who formerly indulged in adultery and impurity, but are now devoted to [spiritual] diligence and abstinence. There are so many from various communities, whose names I know, who have abandoned their luxuries and indulgence and been bound to this life, yes, and have been driven to endure the greatest dangers, even death, rather than approach any filthy thing?”[15]The source is unclear. St Justin Martyr’s First Apology contains a passage that begins like this, but then diverges significantly: “we who formerly delighted in fornication, but now embrace chastity alone; we who formerly used magical arts, dedicate ourselves to the good and unbegotten God; we who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have into a common stock, and communicate to every one in need; we who hated and destroyed one another, and on account of their different manners would not live with men of a different tribe, now, since the coming of Christ, live familiarly with them, and pray for our enemies, and endeavour to persuade those who hate us unjustly to live conformably to the good precepts of Christ, to the end that they may become partakers with us of the same joyful hope of a reward from God the ruler of all.” (CCEL)
Tertullian said, “When a pagan meets a fellow pagan and finds him meek, jolly and gentle, he immediately says, ‘Did you meet a Christian on the way?’” This is because Christians affected those who looked upon them, through their example and their goodness. As a result, the faith grew and spread by the example of their virtues and God was glorified on their account, in fulfilment of His saying, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Mt 5:16). Who saw their faith and was not filled with the fervour of godliness? Who witnessed their humility and meekness and did not cease from their arrogance and give up their pride? Who saw their uprightness and their virtues and did not learn abstinence and chastity? They kept the practices[16]sunan, meaning religious customs and practices. of God and His laws and grew in obedience. For the young they were a model of piety and goodness. They were diligent in heeding the words of God, acting in accordance with them and enjoyed a calm, peaceful conscience, being concerned with what pertains to goodness without malice or hypocrisy. They abhorred wrath and hatred; vengeance was unknown to them; they adorned themselves with all piety and uprightness of life. This was their character. This was their life. But where is this to be found among the listless Christians of our days? Among those who walk in the ways of transgression? How many take Christianity as a name
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because they were born such to their parents, knowing nothing about their faith and their hope, such that if they are asked about one of the principles of their religion they are unable to give an answer? How can these be Christians if they are not “always prepared to give defence to anyone who asks them a reason for the hope that is in them?” (1 Pt 3:15). And what will they say to the Judge on the dread day of judgement regarding their carelessness and their neglect?
Therefore my beloved, look to your salvation that you might fulfil your calling and make your hope secure with fear and trembling. Just “as the Holy One who called you is holy, be holy yourselves also” (1 Pt 1:15), that you might declare the virtues of Him “who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light” (1 Pt 2:9). Let your conduct be good before all: “having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil” (1 Pt 3:16–17), “that they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Pt 2:12).
“Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Rom 12:1–2). “Cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light” (Rom 13:12). “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” (1 Cor 3:16–17). “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor 6:19–20).
Raise your children with good discipline in the Lord and be a model to them in your behaviour, that you might give them a good example, knowing that their souls are a sacred trust that has been placed in your hands, which the Lord will require of you. Be persistent in attending church for the coming together of the believers
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when you offer your worship to God and worship Him in spirit and truth. Direct and give your hearts to the Lord. Offer yourselves to God and consecrate yourselves, live solely for His exalted glory. Surrender your thoughts to Christ that you might receive the exceeding abundance which is the kingdom of heaven.[17]li-tunālū ruḥbān āwfar huwwa malakūt al-samawāt Follow in the footsteps of your Lord who shed His blood for your salvation. Let that mind be in you which is in Christ (Phil 2:5), that you might walk in His love and His mercy and His compassion and His zeal and His humility and His gentleness and the chastity of His life and, in a word, that you might have the Spirit of Christ: for “He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Cor 5:15). Use everything that is in you for righteousness. Let your feet be set towards goodness and mercy and your hands to the working of good things, your eyes to observe the poor and the needy, your ears to hear the cries of the dejected. “And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Rom 6:13). Refuse evil and learn goodness, and look upon the world as something temporary, for just as you entered it naked, so also shall you leave it. Seek the kingdom of God. Search out your salvation. Be filled with the Spirit. Be strong in grace for victory over the evils that surround you. In this way you will find rest for your souls and peace for your spirits. Walk in the way that leads to life. Live in Christ and for the sake of Christ. When you have acquired grace, your souls are filled with the peace that surpasses all understanding, even in times of temptation and distress. For grace will lead you and guide you and protect you and keep you and strengthen you and transform for you ever bitter thing into such comfort and consolation as has never come upon the mind of man. It will turn distress into hope for you, disgrace into ease, and shame into joy. Let God, your God, be your weapon and your strength and the helmet of your salvation, and you shall know wisdom and shall walk in the light, glory shall follow you and grace shall accompany you and lead you to good works and transform you into the image of God in holiness, righteousness and truth.
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My dear children, I have commanded the shepherds many things and drawn their attention them to their duties. But this is a call to attention for you as well, to give them what is owed them of honour, love and obedience: “recognize those who labour among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake” (1 Th 5:12–13), “for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you” (Heb 13:17). “If they have sown spiritual things for you, then it is necessary that they should reap material things from you, for who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock? For those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar, Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.” (1 Cor 9:11,9,13–14).
Walk in love as Christ has loved you, and love one another fervently with a pure heart and a pure conscience without hypocrisy. Let this love be the bond that binds you one to another, for this love is the first and greatest commandment, in which is fulfilled the law and the prophets. “For he who loves another has fulfilled the law, and all the commandments are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom 13:8–10). Let love be the sign which distinguishes you. Take it as a foundation for all your works, so that “you all speak the same thing, and there be no divisions among you, but [rather] that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Cor 1:10), “bearing with one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph 4:2–3, 31–32). Bear one another’s burdens, be patient with all, bear with the weaknesses of the weak. Do not hate one another
— 15 —
and do not blame one another, but rather in all things show that you are the epistle of Christ read by all.[18]Cf. 2 Cor 2:3, “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men.” “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love” (1 Cor 16:13–14). Do everything for the glory of God, “providing honourable things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men” (2 Cor 8:21). “Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things” (Phil 4:8).
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:13). “May the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 15:5–6).
Let your need be supplied by His richness that you might be the sweet fragrance of Christ and be filled with the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, “that you might walk that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy” (Col 1:10–12). “And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints” (1 Thes 3:12–13). “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless” (1 Thes 5:23), “and God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Cor 9:8). Peace and grace be with you all, amen.
Let our blessed sons the priests and the preachers recite this edict of ours in the churches.
Kyrillos V
Issued in Cairo, from the Patriarchate on 25 Hatour 1624 AM/5 November 1907.
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Notes:
| ↑1 | On the developments leading up to this letter, see Bishop Suriel, Habib Girgis: Coptic Orthodox Educator and a Light in the Darkness (Yonkers, NY: SVS Press, 2017), 62–63. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Cf. 1 Th 2:19, “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?” |
| ↑3 | Cf. Heb 12:12; Is 35:3. |
| ↑4 | Cf. Mt 5:14–15 |
| ↑5 | khulafā’ |
| ↑6 | li’allā tu-lām al-khidma, a very early use of the word service to describe pastoral work. |
| ↑7 | Mt 4:19; Mk 1:17. |
| ↑8 | 1 Jn 2:6. |
| ↑9 | mīnā’ al-khalāṣ, a significant phrase that occurs in Coptic liturgical prayers (e.g. the Litany for the Sick). It is best remembered today as the name of the periodical published by Fr Mina the Solitary (i.e. Pope Kyrillos VI).” |
| ↑10 | kitāb Allah, i.e. the Bible. |
| ↑11 | A paraphrase of the Great Commission of Mt 28:19 rather than a direct quotation. |
| ↑12 | James 5:20. |
| ↑13 | barāra |
| ↑14 | Tertullian (c. 155–240) was an early Christian Latin writer from the North African city of Carthage, in whose time Christianity was an illegal religion in the Roman Empire. The quotation here is possibly a paraphrase of the following passage from Tertullian’s Apology where he points out that when Christians are arrested, the only crime they can be charged with is their Christianity: “Finally, why do you read out of your tablet-lists that such a man is a Christian? And if a Christian is a murderer, why not guilty, too, of incest, or any other vile thing you believe of us? In our case alone you are either ashamed or unwilling to mention the very names of our crimes — If to be called a Christian does not imply any crime, the name is surely very hateful, when that of itself is made a crime.” (Tertullian, Apology 2, ANF 3:20, CCEL) |
| ↑15 | The source is unclear. St Justin Martyr’s First Apology contains a passage that begins like this, but then diverges significantly: “we who formerly delighted in fornication, but now embrace chastity alone; we who formerly used magical arts, dedicate ourselves to the good and unbegotten God; we who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have into a common stock, and communicate to every one in need; we who hated and destroyed one another, and on account of their different manners would not live with men of a different tribe, now, since the coming of Christ, live familiarly with them, and pray for our enemies, and endeavour to persuade those who hate us unjustly to live conformably to the good precepts of Christ, to the end that they may become partakers with us of the same joyful hope of a reward from God the ruler of all.” (CCEL) |
| ↑16 | sunan, meaning religious customs and practices. |
| ↑17 | li-tunālū ruḥbān āwfar huwwa malakūt al-samawāt |
| ↑18 | Cf. 2 Cor 2:3, “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men.” |
How to cite this text (Chicago/Turabian):
Kyrillos V (Pope), “Patriarchal Edict” [Manshūr Baṭriyarkī], al-Majalla al-Qibtiyya 1, no. 10 (Jan 1908): 1–16. Translated by Samuel Kaldas. In Archive of Contemporary Coptic Orthodox Theology. Sydney, NSW: St Cyril’s Coptic Orthodox Theological College. https://accot.stcyrils.edu.au/pk5-edict1907/.
(For more information, see Citation Guidelines)
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