24 :: Saint Mark Coptic Orthodox Church

Today I worshiped at Saint Mark Coptic Orthodox Church in South Charlotte. This was my third Orthodox liturgy service and my first time in the company of Coptic Christians. These Christians come from Egypt and their faith links back to a time when the city of Alexandria was an important part of Ancient Greece. This liturgy service proved to be a great experience. 

I attended this liturgy with my friend Scott Murray, a South Carolinian by birth and a follower of Orthodox Christianity by conversion. He's an overall great and smart guy to spend time with.

On this rainy Sunday, I arrived at the church while the liturgy was already ongoing. There are both English and Arabic services in this church. The ancient liturgical language of the Copts is (intuitively) named Coptic, a language that is derived from Greek. The Coptic alphabet has seven additional characters compared to Greek, which accounts for additional phonemes that aren't part of the Greek language. As someone who can read Greek in a basic way, I could make out some of the words in Coptic script. 

For example, below are the word kyrie elaison in Coptic script, which in Greek read as Κύριε ἐλέησον:

Pretty similar, right?

Here are some pictures of Saint Mark Coptic Orthodox Church:

When I entered, I stood in the back of the church and noticed a haze of brunt frankincense across the congregation. There was chanting in Arabic, English and Coptic. The screens at the front of the church had writing of all three languages. The front of the church was covered in a unique iconography, different than what I had seen in the Greek Churches. It was beautiful and exotic to me right away. 

Here are some pictures:

After Scott arrived, we watched the liturgy for an extended period of time. I took note of the fact that the people were not wearing shoes and the women had their head covered. that made me recall something from my past. In 2006, I attended an Assyrian Orthodox service when I was traveling alone in the Indian state of Kerala. The attendees at that liturgy in India were barefoot with the extra dimension of men standing on one side of the church and men on the other. It was later confirmed for me that separation of men and women within the church is also practiced at Saint Mark, but Covid-19 has caused them to temporarily change their practices. They now ask that families sit together.

Here are a couple of videos from the liturgy. Note the cymbals that are used during the chanting in the first video. Also note in the second video that when a Bible verse is read out loud, it is sung instead of being read in quotidian speech.

Overall, this was a fascinating exposure to the extant first-century form of the Christian church.

What happened next was interesting. The congregation participated in eucharist (communion) which was the end of liturgy. Most of the congregation then departed into the rainy Charlotte day.

And that was when the sermon was ready to be given. 

If that surprises you, it did the same to me. But this was the order of service. Liturgy - most people depart and then the sermon. And the sermon proved to be the real highlight of the experience for me.

The sermon referred to Luke 5:17-26, which is the story of Yeshua healing a paralytic man. The sermon did some interesting things with this story. 

To read the story, click here.

The sermon was given by Father Arsanios, a brilliant and bright soul. Here is a picture of him, taken from the church website:

Father Arsanios explored the themes in these Bible verses by pointing out that the paralytic man can be understood as a representation of humanity. He is the example of those of us who carry the burden of alienation from God (sin) and who are living in a condition short of our fullness. In short, every human.

That made sense to me.

Then he said that the four men who carried the paralytic could be understood to represent as the four Gospels, God's Word to those of us struggling with some form of divine alienation. He also offered that these four men could also perhaps be understood to represent the four dimensions of the Orthodox Church - Bishops, Priests, Deacons and the laity.

That also made sense to me. And I enjoy when the symbolic meaning of a Gospel story is searched.

Then the Father pointed out that the men who carried the paralytic man to Yeshua did not say anything. They made no verbal request of him. They were instead silent. This, he said, was an example of the profound power of silent prayer. He said, "You don't need to be speaking to God about binding up the Broken Person, which is you... He already knows what you need. Simply bring your need to Him."

Such a simple and beautiful message. 

We are broken. 

We have the Gospels and the Church as avenues for healing and wholeness. 

We can acquire that fullness through no volition of our own, but through an obedience that is expressed in the silent pleading of our hearts.

Boom.

Below is a picture of the Father giving this sermon, as well as a picture of where he, Scott (foreground) and I spent some time together after the sermon.

At the end of the sermon, Scott and I were each given a communion loaf - "the host" - which was provided to us as a personal relic of our time at Saint Mark. It had Coptic script around its perimeter, zoom in and have a look.

This gift was one of many ways that this place touched my heart and mind.

As the sermon finished, the church emptied and Scott and I got to spend time with the Father, a Deacon named Roland, as well as a young man who is an active participant in the liturgy in that he played the cymbals. It was during this conversation that I asked what word Copts use for "God." I was told that they say Allah, the Arabic word for "The God." But I also learned that centuries ago they used the word "Ephnuti," the Coptic word for "The God."

This launched a quick discussion on the role that Islam has had on the development of Coptic Christianity. Since these Christians have lived in an Egypt dominated by Islam for more than a millennium now, the way in which Islam has influenced their evolution as a Church is a theme that must be explored.

Which brings us to the relics in Saint Mark.

As is the case with all Orthodox churches, this one had divine relics within their building. At Saint Mark, those relics were held in a glass case, seen below.

What appeared to be the main relic was something wrapped in a maroon velvet cloth, with Arabic script on it. I am not sure what was in the cloth, but I think it may have been something from the body of a particular Coptic Saint named Simon the Shoemaker, who lived in the 10th century. 

The story of why Simon the Shoemaker became a Coptic Saint is as follows:

The Islamic Caliphate leader Caliph al-Muizz brought together a Jew, a Muslim and the Coptic Pope to have a religious debate. In it, Ibn Killis, the Jewish representative, quoted Matthew 17:20 - "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Ibn Killis declared it an insane proposition, this idea of mountains moving.

The Caliph al-Muizz demanded that the Coptic Christians prove this Biblical verse to be a valid promise of their faith, or they would be shown to be a deception after which the Caliphate would wipe all Copts out - "...you will be killed by the sword."

Simon and a group of Coptic monks, priests and elders then retreated into their church, focused on prayer and fasting for days. After that time was over, the Coptic Pope emerged from the church and cried out to God. Mokattam Mountain outside of Cairo lifted up off the earth, to the amazement of the assembled interfaith crowd.

As a result, al-Muizz told the Coptic Pope, Abraham, "O, Patriarch, I have recognized the correctness of your faith."

And the Copts escaped mass beheading.

Such is the story. 

Additionally, I have come to learn that Simon the Shoemaker also plucked his own eye out due to the admonition of Matthew 5:29-30 - "If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell."

Tall tales, metaphorical characters, a storied history of the survival of a faith under oppression, an incense-drenched church interior, stories of a man whose very body was altered to accommodate his pursuit of purity. I felt the profundity of it all while in the presence of these unique Christians who follows Issa (Yeshua) as the Son of Allah (the One True God)... 

The whole experience provided a clear example that the root of my faith is extant today in the form of Coptic Orthodoxy. I also determined that all of it feels very foreign to a Western Protestant whose ancestors hailed from northwestern Europe.

While feeling that difference, I also felt deeply at home! 

I had been greeted warmly and given a guiding hand by a Coptic congregation that has a different service, theology and historical experience than mine. But what joined us together is our common Lord, the Slain Lamb of our collective redemption.

And experiencing that feeling while sharing space with these Copts made all the difference.

The myriad of ways that we seek His face is sinking in on me as I approach one quarter completion of this 100-church experience. There are so many ways up this one mountain that we Christians hike - the summit of which contains an empty cross and grave, as well as a shimmering light off in the distance which beckons each of us into an eternal Presence. That Presence will wipe away all tears and remove suffering from the cosmos once and for all.

May that time come soon!

And for that newness and rebirth to happen within me, mountains in my interior life must be moved. In fact, they already have.

Thanks be to this true Allah, who is our Adonai and the Holy Father of Issa.

Amen.