Sandmonkey comes to speak for us this Thursday

Thursday, 3 November, 8 pm at night, 'Sandmonkey' Mahmoud Salem will be our guest at St Michael's. Mahmoud is an outspoken blogger and very active on Twitter. He is also a candidate for our district of Heliopolis for Egypt's parliament. Mahmoud will share with us his views on the present situation in Egypt. Maybe even some of his bruises. We will then have an opportunity to discuss with him.

The lingua franca will be Arabic; we are trying to arrange simultaneous translation in English.

Location: 8 Seti Street, off Baghdad Street, Korba, Heliopolis.

English teacher needed / Arabic class offered

A few times a week, we need an English teacher for teaching some Egyptians on our church compound. A small stipend is negotiable. You like to teach 4-6 hours per week? Please contact us: priest@heliopolischurch.com

Likewise, we offer an Arabic teacher - reading and writing Arabic. If you need Arabic lessons, contact us!

Friday morning 28 October: spiritual battle

Dear friends! Friday we will continue in church with our series on Paul's letter to the church in the ancient city of Thessalonica (modern Saloniki, in Greece). The text for for sermon is 1 Thes 2:17-3:5, and the theme will be 'spiritual battle'.

What is spiritual battle? For some that is, to get up in time to go to church on a day off :-) but we have made it easy for you by starting at 11 am. Hope to see you on 28 Oct0ber.

Monday night: church father night

This Monday, 24 October, Rev Jos resides in his office from 7-8.30 pm for reading 1 Clement - the oldest letter of a Christian after the New Testament - dating probably to AD 95 or so. Some even think of a much earlier date, like 70 AD.

Do come and let's read this letter of Clement together! Let me know whether you plan to come, so I can have the coffee ready.

In case you want to read my sermons

In case you like to re-read my sermon of Friday morning 21 October, here the link to the pdf.

In general, I put my sermons on my personal blog, www.strengholt.info, often before I preach them, in case you want a sneak preview. :-)

Men ! Tuesday night!

Tuesday evening at 6.30 pm we hold our 2nd 'Men's Evening Out'. We talk, pray, eat, discuss. The book Knowing God of JI Packer is our guiding light. For this Tuesday we prepare by reading Chapers 1-2 of the book. At 8 pm or so, you may expect us to be finished.

Welcome!

CandleLite - Wednesday 7-8.30 pm

Tomorrow, Wednesday, we celebrate our weekly CandleLite worship service. I will preach on Psalm 2 - rather suitable as a text for the situation we are experiencing in Egypt. We will use the worship service also for special prayers for the situation of Egypt.

And around Holy Communion we pray for the personal needs of people, if needed and desired including anointing with oil.

Most of the worship service will be in Arabic - though my sermon is in English. We have English liturgy-bulletins that help you follow and participate in the whole Arabic liturgy.

Prayer and fasting

Many churches in Egypt have called for meetings of prayer and fasting in the days ahead. At St Michael's we participate in these days of prayer and fasting.

We pray and fast for:
* comfort for those 24 people who died in the Maspero Massacre.
* forgiveness for the wicked people who killed these innocent demonstrators
* healing in Egypt; that Muslims and Christians will be able to live together in peace
* freedom of religion in Egypt; freedom to build new churches; freedom to speak of our faith; freedom of each individual to belief whatever he or she wants to belief
* the political process in the months ahead

We have three meetings for prayers in the days ahead:

1. Tuesday: 7-8 pm, prayers in my office at St Michael's.
2. Wednesday: 7-8.30 pm, CandleLight service, with extra attention for prayer for Egypt
3. Thursday: 6.30-10 pm Family night, with special prayers for Egypt 7.30-8.30 pm.

Message from Bishop Mouneer on situation in Egypt

Dear Friends,

Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

I do request your urgent prayers as the situation here in Cairo is very inflamed. Many Christians demonstrated after the incident of the burning of a church building in Mari Nab near Aswan (Egypt). The demonstrations started peacefully as the people were requesting that investigations for the incidents of burning and demolishing churches would be completed and the new law for building churches, that was promised four months ago, would be passed.

This evening it turned to be very violent between demonstrators and the military. More than 20 people were killed and more than 100 were injured.

Tomorrow [Monday] there will be a large meeting for the House of Bishops of the Coptic Orthodox Church and political leaders will have a separate meeting to discuss a way out of this very difficult situation. I would appreciate your prayers for our beloved country.

We will hold prayer meetings tomorrow and I hope that I can meet with Muslim religious leaders in order to discuss a way forward for the situation.

Thank you for your prayers.

+Mouneer

The Most Rev. Dr. Mouneer Hanna Anis
Bishop of the Episcopal / Anglican Diocese of Egypt
with North Africa and the Horn of Africa
President Bishop of the Episcopal / Anglican
Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East

Diocesan & Provincial Offices
5 Michel Lutfallah Street, Zamalek, Cairo 11211
Work: +202 27380821 Fax: +202 27358941
Email: bishopmouneer@gmail.com
Website: http://www.dioceseofegypt.org <http://www.dioceseofegypt.org/>

Monday 10 October: Church Fathers

This Monday from 7-8.30 pm we begin our studies of Church Fathers. The first one we will study is 1 Clement. This amazing letter, written around 95 AD, is a treasure of knowledge of the ancient church and how it understood the Gospel and the church.

If you have a chance, please join us! Let me know that you come please; the meeting will be in my office at St Michael's, 8 Seti Street, Heliopolis.

Friday 7 October worship service

I hope to see you on Friday 7 October in our 11 am worship service! You are not all at the Red Sea because of the 6 October weekend, I hope :-)

My sermon will be on Exodus 32 - Israel's construction of a Golden Calf for worshipping. The people of Israel had left Egypt, but Egypt had not yet left them.

Welcome at St Michael's, 8 Seti Street, Korba, Heliopolis.

Wednesday: CandleLight

Tonight we celebrate our first CandleLite worship service. We go a bit light on the liturgy in order to have more time for personal prayer at communion time. When people come forward for communion, they will first receive bread and wine; if after that they desire to be prayed for and possibly anointed with oil (James 5), they can line up again.

The language will be mostly in Arabic but we have English liturgies printed that are totally matching with the Arabic. And the sermon on Psalm 1 will be in English, and translated in Arabic.

Meeting starts at 7 pm.

Men Only. Tonight is the meating!

Tuesday evening at 06.30 pm we begin our bi-weekly Men-Only-study-eat meat-discuss-and pray group in our church.

Andre Leitao (see picture - he is the tall one of the two) will guide us through the book Knowing God by JI Packer.

Howayda has been asked to make sure we have enough meat in the kitchen (hamburger, sausage, kofta, for your info).

When I announced in one of our congregations that we'll start with this group, a woman came to me very upset. "I also want such study!!!" she told me. I explained to her that she might not be so interested to listen to the stories of the men, and she accepted her fate - of being a woman and not welcome. What does this show us, men?

THAT WE, MEN, SHOULD ENJOY THE CHANCE TO MEET TOGETHER TONIGHT!

See you at 6.30 pm. The meating will be in my office on the church compound.

Tuesday morning: Morning Prayer

From 7.30 to about 8 am we will do Morning Prayer and celebrate Holy Communion in St Michael's Church. If you want to start your day with some prayers and encouragement of God's presence, you are most welcome!

Tonight, Monday night: book club 7-9 pm

Thus far, five people have let us know that they like to participate in the monthly Book Club where we will read and discuss Egyptian literature - in English translation. If you are planning to come tonight and have not told us yet, please call Adrienne 012-2400821. We would hate to run out of cookies :-)

The meeting will be at 8 Seti Street, Heliopolis, that is, in our home.

Egypt's literature is a great manner to access its culture. If you think of participating in this monthly meeting, come and find out on Monday in the introductory meeting.