Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to join the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship current and the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship previous, who spoke before me on this motion. I join him particularly in the sentiments he just expressed about our hope and indeed our prayers for peace tonight as that service proceeds. I rise to express my deep condolence to the Coptic Christian community of Australia and the Coptic faith all around the world as they mourn the loss of His Holiness Pope Shenouda III. I am greatly saddened by his death.

His Holiness served as the patriarch to the Coptic Orthodox Church for 41 years, shepherding his people through a time of great upheaval and persecution in Egypt with grace and unwavering faith. The Coptic faithful are the oldest and largest Christian community in the Middle East. His Holiness was the 117th in the line of leaders tracing back to St Mark himself. We extend our deepest condolences to that community and to His Holiness's entire flock from all of our fellow Australians here and to all the faithful over in Egypt and around the world. Tens of thousands of mourners filled St Mark's Cathedral in Cairo to farewell His Holiness. The line stretched for almost a mile, I am told, with people wishing to pay tribute to a great man and a man of God.

When he became Pope in 1971 there were only seven churches outside of Egypt. Three decades on, there are more than 150, including in my electorate, in the Sutherland Shire, at Kirrawee. It is led by Father Tadros, who, together with Bishop Suriel, has been a tremendous advocate for the people of Coptic faith in Australia and those from Egypt in particular. In Australia and New Zealand there are now 28 Coptic churches. I had the great privilege, just the Sunday before his passing, to attend and participate in the worship of the congregation at St Mark's Coptic Church in Arncliffe. This was a wonderful time to be with them and it is so sad that so soon after this same community would have been struck by the grief of the passing of this great man of God. It was a tremendous community at Arncliffe. There were around 1,000 people there between the two services. While the services themselves were very moving, what was even more moving was the tremendous sense of community amongst those of the Coptic faith in Australia. To see small children, old men and women, mothers and father, aunties and uncles and others gathering round a Sunday lunch in the grounds of their church was, by any definition, the true meaning of community. This is the type of faith community that His Holiness has inspired not just in Arncliffe but all around the world and at the many congregations and parishes.

There is much to be thankful for but there is also much to grieve over and, today, as we remember his life and legacy, we remember too in this place the Copts of Egypt and what they currently face. To the faithful in Egypt, as they grieve the loss of their beloved leader, we send our condolences and now more than ever they need our thoughts and our prayers, but most importantly they need our voices to continue to plead their case for justice.

We had all hoped, as the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and others have expressed, that the events of the fall of Mubarak would have led to a new period for the Copts in Egypt and that there would have been a new hope. But, sadly, what they have known is quite different. It is a matter of extraordinary grief and concern to Copts living in Australia as they hear, on a daily basis, stories about their friends and their families.

I want to thank the minister for his efforts in reaching out to the Coptic community in Australia. We have attended many events and on one occasion last spring we were together in Sydney. We know only too deeply the level of pain, emotionally and spiritually, that they are going through as they think of those who are in that place.

Egypt has eight million Copts. The Coptic faithful in Australia number about 100,000. So, as we go into this evening and as they go through the process of mourning and grief, my prayers are with them. I know that they will be sustained in this terrible moment by a great faith that is possessed by them individually and as a community, and a great faith that was demonstrated by their beloved leader Pope Shenouda III over his life and leadership of their great church.

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