The sad news of the death of His Holiness Pope Shenouda III came to us while we were in a youth retreat, on March 18, 2012. At first, we were all in denial, we did not want to believe that our church, our people and the rest of the world, just parted ways with the teacher of generations, our beloved angel H.H Pope Shenouda III. We let reality sink in, which took quite a while, and returned home to prepare for a memorial in his honor. The expectation was that the love of His Holiness has reached many here in Zambia, one country among many across the world—and we were correct. Within a few hours of the spread of the news, officials from the Zambian government, the Egyptian embassy, and the United States Embassy and the bishop of the Greek Orthodox Church came to offer condolences to us here at St. Mark’s Coptic Church.
Members of the Zambian, Eritrean, Ethiopian and Coptic Orthodox church also came to mourn his death. It was a day of unbearable grief, but also filled with personal memories, jokes and sermons of His Holiness that eased our sorrows. We are all certain that our beloved Pope is now in the bosom of The Father in The Heavenly Jerusalem, but we could not and still cannot fill the void that he has left in our hearts. His blessed teachings and over 100 books will remain with us to comfort us and guide us on the right path. Among his many sermons, one of them truly comforted our hearts that day and will continued to strengthen our faith. His Holiness was contemplating on the verse in “Lo I am with you always, even to the end of the ages” (Matthew 28:20) In this sermon, he assured us the Lord Jesus promised and will not relent. He rose from the dead, to show us that He has overcome death and we have nothing to fear any longer. He appeared to His disciples and numerous other people and returned their faith once more, and gave them strength through the pouring upon them of His Holy Spirit. He established His church to spread the Christian faith all over the world. Finally, He promised that He would be with us unto the end of ages and return again to take us unto Himself. We will continue to live on the hope of the promise of our fathers that was passed down through the ages, and specifically to us through His Holiness Pope Shenouda III. We know that our Lord Jesus will provide another shepherd to lead His people. We will continue to pray that His Holiness’ life become a beautiful example for all of us to follow and may his prayers continue to be raised up on our behalf in front of the throne of God always. Amen.