Good Friday with a difference...

Daniel Fleming is a first year Ordinand studying at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute (CITI) in Dublin. He is currently on a 4 week placement with our partners in the Province of Alexandria and is pictured here with Archbishop Samy Fawzy at All Saints Cathedral's Good Friday Service in Cairo.

The churches in Egypt follow the calendar of the Coptic Church, and so Daniel has had the privilege of celebration Easter twice this year!

In reflecting upon his first week, Daniel writes...

Today is Good Friday in Egypt. I was involved in the English language Service this morning. It was my first-time seeing a cross draped in black with some of the implements of Christ’s Passion. The skull representing mortality and of course Golgotha, the ‘place of the skull’ where Jesus was crucified. This Cross and its symbols are a very visceral reminder of the Passion of Christ. In Ireland we have become very ‘sanitised’ in our representation of the Passion and Death of Jesus, maybe it’s time we engaged more with the grim reality of it?

Continue to pray that Daniel will learn and grow through his time in Cairo; and pray that the experience will enrich his faith and will help him develop a deeper passion for God’s mission.