{"id":11237,"date":"2015-10-22T06:52:37","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T06:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=11237"},"modified":"2015-10-22T06:52:37","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T06:52:37","slug":"my-father-is-in-heaven-oliver-maksan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2015\/10\/22\/my-father-is-in-heaven-oliver-maksan\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMy father is in heaven\u201d &#8211; Oliver Maksan"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><p>Egypt\/Samalout 09.10.2015<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cMy father is in heaven\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Egyptian Christians executed by ISIS in Libya have long been venerated as martyrs \u2013<em>Aid to the Church in Need <\/em>visited their children<\/p>\n<p>The images of the 21 Christians who were beheaded in February by so-called Islamic State terrorists have left a deep imprint on the memory of Christian Egyptians. No-one can forget the pictures of the men in orange overalls kneeling before their masked, black-clad murderers on a Libyan beach. The video released by the Jihadists ruthlessly shows every detail of their brutal execution. The men, who were living in Libya as guest-workers, have long been recognised as martyrs and highly revered by their Coptic Orthodox church. This week work began on digging the foundations of a church in the martyrs\u2019 honour. Egypt\u2019s President Sisi \u2013 himself a Muslim \u2013 ordered its construction. It will be built in the Coptic-Orthodox diocese of Samalout, from which most of the martyrs came. Apart from Matthew, a Ghanaian, all of them were Egyptian.<\/p>\n<p>Bishop Paphnutius is bishop of Samalout. \u201cWe are extremely proud of our martyrs,\u201d he said as he welcomed employees of the international pastoral charity <em>Aid to the Church in Need <\/em>to his diocese, a roughly three-hour drive south of Cairo. \u201cAlthough they were forced to kneel before their executioners, they were the stronger. Their murderers were the weaker, despite their weapons. Why would they have concealed their faces otherwise? It could only have been because they were afraid,\u201d he insisted. \u201cOur sons by contrast were very strong and called on our Lord until their very last breath.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bishop Paphnutius interprets their martyrdom spiritually. \u201cThe church has always known that the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians. That is no different here. And it will remain so until the end of time,\u201dhe said. \u201cFrom Alexandria to Aswan, throughout Egypt, Christians have been strengthened in their faith. Moslems from all over have also told us that they are proud; they say that our martyrs have shown that we Egyptians are very strong. Their death fills all of us, Christians and Moslems, with pride.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bishop recalled the anxious time between the guest workers\u2019 kidnap and their execution. \u201cWe prayed for fourteen, fifteen days that they would not renounce their faith. Indeed, they could have converted to Islam and thereby saved their lives. Nevertheless, they chose Jesus in the knowledge it would mean death.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The men could not be buried. \u201cISIS said that the dead bodies of our martyrs were thrown into the sea.\u201d This, according to the bishop, was an act of revenge by the Jihadists for how the Americans had also thrown the body of the Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden into the sea in 2011. Bishop Paphnutius does not feel hatred towards the murders, however. \u201cWe follow the example of Archdeacon Stephen in our attitude to the executioners. He asked the Lord for forgiveness for his killers because they knew not what they did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet the crime\u2019s repercussions are still felt today. After all, the martyrs have left widows and children behind. \u201cThanks to generous donors, we are able to provide for the surviving dependants,\u201dstated Bishop Paphnutius.<\/p>\n<p>The employees of <em>Aid to the Church in Need<\/em> were able to meet some of the children who had lost their fathers. The strong testimony of faith of their fathers is being passed to the children. They are calm and composed when speaking about their fathers. 14 year-old Ingy Tawadros is one of the three children of the murdered Tawadros Youssef Tawadros. Of him it is reported that he had experienced a lot of difficulties in Libya because of his name, which was easily recognisable as Christian, and that he had often been asked to change it. \u201cIf you change your name, you are ultimately also changing your faith,\u201d he said in rejection. Next to Ingy sit her two little brothers. The younger one is six at most. \u201cI am proud of my father,\u201d she says. \u201cNot just for my own sake, but because he has honoured the whole church. He did not deny his faith. That is something wonderful. We pray for the perpetrators that they may be converted.\u201d Yet, however much the children bear the loss of their fathers in faith, some have tears in their eyes when talking to us. \u201cMy father is in heaven,\u201d says another girl. \u201cBut I am still sad, because that is such a long way away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0His Holiness Pope Tawadros II announced the inclusion of the 21 Coptic New Martyrs of Libya in the Synaxarium of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Every year, they will be commemorated on 8 Amshir in the Coptic calendar, which corresponds to 15 February in the Gregorian calendar, the same day as the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Oliver Maksan<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Icon-depicting-the-Coptic-New-Martyrs-of-Libya-martyrs-created-by-Egyptian-American-artist-Tony-Rezk.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-11242 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Icon-depicting-the-Coptic-New-Martyrs-of-Libya-martyrs-created-by-Egyptian-American-artist-Tony-Rezk.jpg\" alt=\"Icon-depicting-the-Coptic-New-Martyrs-of-Libya-martyrs-created-by-Egyptian-American-artist-Tony-Rezk\" width=\"432\" height=\"324\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Egypt\/Samalout 09.10.2015 \u201cMy father is in heaven\u201d &nbsp; The Egyptian Christians executed by ISIS in Libya have long been venerated as martyrs \u2013Aid to the Church in Need visited their children The images of the 21 Christians who were beheaded in February by so-called Islamic State terrorists have left a deep imprint on the memory&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u201cMy father is in heaven\u201d - Oliver Maksan - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2015\/10\/22\/my-father-is-in-heaven-oliver-maksan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cMy father is in heaven\u201d - Oliver Maksan - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Egypt\/Samalout 09.10.2015 \u201cMy father is in heaven\u201d &nbsp; 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