Letter to Yusab II (1970)

  • Author: Editorial Team of the Sunday School Magazine

Source: Sunday School Magazine, vol. 1, no. 9 (Dec 1947): 1–2.

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The opening editorial to the December issue of the Sunday School Magazine bears witness to the breakdown of relationship between the controversial Pope Yusab II and the reform-minded Sunday School movement. It was written after several Sunday School servants attempted to meet the Pope and were violently turned away by the guards. The contents page attributes this editorial simply to ‘the youth of Sunday School’ (shabāb madāris al-aḥad). In December 1947, the Chief Editor was Mas‘ad Sadiq, and the Editorial and Administrative Supervisor was Edward Benyamin.

To His Grace the Pope

We approach Your Grace in all respect and submission, entreating good favour and wishing Your Grace all health and perfect peace.

We have tried to meet Your Grace; the issues which moved us to request this meeting are serious and urgent. We have witnessed the Church — which the Lord saw to be precious and beautiful, and so descended from His throne and was pleased to pour out His blood and life for her sake — we have witnessed this precious Bride’s honour impugned.

We have witnessed those in charge keeping silent, and if they speak at all, only to suppress and attack anyone who dares to respond to that which we have described as something which cannot be pleasing to any upright child of the Church.

It seemed to us, then, that the first person responsible is the shepherd, he that approaches the altar and has received the staff of shepherdhood from the holy altar, and goes out from there to his people and stands before them. He receives the faith and the responsibility of tending the rational flock and is called — before the Lord God and all the holy angels and before the 114 patriarchs who preceded him — he is called the good shepherd who gives himself up for the sheep.

We came to you, our father, but found your door shut in our faces. We found soldiers with batons standing at the door, forbidding us to come into you. We departed in bitterness and anguish, having been unable to speak with you as we wished. We left with nothing but a cry and a shout, with which we openly gave voice to what was within us, hoping that perhaps our voice might reach you behind the closed doors.

— 1 —

What should be the case, Your Grace, is that the door of your house remains — as it was in ages past — open to all, for the weary to find rest, and the grieving to find comfort, and the weak to find strength, a fortress to which the Church’s children may flee and be met within by a father and a shepherd, and a leader at whose feet they may sit and receive strength, power and encouragement. That house ought even to be, as it was in the past, a centre of activity in the Church, everything being managed from within it, and the Pope being the practical mover behind every work.

But things have changed, and strange, new customs are quickly taking root and becoming established. We have nothing with which to speak but these pages, in the hope that they might reach you without being hindered, without being prevented by a soldier or a baton or closed door …

***

We have read, our Great Shepherd and our High Priest, in one of the newspapers, articles that contradict our genuine Christian teachings and demonstrate a lack of understanding on the part of their author regarding the subject on which he writes, wherefore, we feared the confusion that might come from this to the thoughts of the weak.

We wanted to write and respond, even though others remain silent, but they would not allow us except to a small extent, and they opened their embrace to others, and the Patriarchate published statement after statement, and warning after warning, in which there was no response or even the slightest attention paid to the issues surrounding those articles.

But we know no one responsible apart from you. We will not accept discussions with anyone but you yourself. You alone have been charged with the trust, and no one else sits on the throne of St Mark but you. That is why we expected you to defend the faith yourself with clarity and power, and tried to speak with you, to give your our complaints, and entreat you to intervene yourself, and to tell you of the accusations that have confronted our Mother the Church.

But your door was shut, and guarded by soldiers. They raised their batons, in the midst of your house, to strike the head of one of your children. We left filled with pain and grief, because we had wanted to see the angels guarding you and guarding the church that stands around you, instead of the people we are now accustomed to seeing … In any case, Your Grace, we hope that next time we will be more successful, when we come to you and knock on your door, and that you will greet us as a father and a shepherd, welcoming children who love you and who wish only the best for the Church.

— 2 —

How to cite this text (Chicago/Turabian):

“To His Grace the Pope” [Ilā ābīnā ṣāḥib al-ghibṭa al-bābā al-mu‘aẓẓam], Sunday School Magazine 1, no. 9 (Dec 1947): 1–2. Translated by Samuel Kaldas. In Archive of Contemporary Coptic Orthodox Theology, St Cyril’s Coptic Orthodox Theological College. https://accot.stcyrils.edu.au/open-letter-to-pope-yusab-ii-sunday-school-magazine-dec-1947/.

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