The death of Pope Shenouda III

His Holiness, Pope Shenouda III, has died at the age of eighty-eight. For forty years he has been the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church based in Egypt, but now spread around the world.

I have the happy memory of flying to the Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Canberra, Australia, in 1991 and finding myself on the plane from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney sitting beside Shenouda III. He was one of the Presidents of the World Council of Churches at the time.

What was totally fascinating was how his two chaplains sat in the row in front. When his food or drink was served by a stewardess, she delivered it to the chaplains who first tasted it before passing back to him.