Letters from the White Queen

Back to the history lesson. Where we left off was during the Byzantine Era when Coptic Christians were persecuted for their Non-Chaledon beliefs. ( Note: In present day, there is no longer a division between the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox) CO-EXISTENCE We are roughly around the 6th century.  During this time period, Egypt was conquered and re-conquered multiple times by the Persian Empire and Byzantine Empire.  Eventually, Byzantine gave up in its attempts to reconquer Egypt and the Persian Empire claimed the land. During this process, Islam was introduced to Egypt in 639 AD. Initially, there was great tolerance for the Coptic Christians under the Persian rule because the Coptics were native to the land. But gradually, as the centuries passed leaders began to heavily tax Coptics in comparison to their Muslim counterparts. Naturally, this forced a large number of conversion by merchants and the wealthy to Islam. By the end of the 12th Century, the once largely Chri...

Hello Everyone, Just thought I would take a break from my history lesson and write a more personal entry on being a Christian and being in my 20's...well late 20's. First off, I have to say that there aren't many voicing Christians in this age group. More specifically,  I mean young Christians thirsting for God beyond attending Sunday Service. (To be honest, some of them that do voice...I want to give them a high five in the face with a chair. lol.) At this point in our lives, many of my peers are still in the process of establishing themselves in their careers and finding their significant others. The partying till 3 in the morning and going to work the next day hungover has pretty much died out, though there are still a selected few. ;) We are no longer in dire search for social acceptance in all aspects of our lives; we have concluded that this is us. You take it or you leave it. You would think that this moment in our lives would be most opportune to search ...

Let me first start off by saying that Theology confuses me. I enjoy reading about it but my mind goes to mush because my science brain wants white & black. Theology, however, does not lend itself completely to a white & black answer. The Bible is ginormous! There is bound to be disputes over what God is telling us which makes total sense because there are a myriad of Christianity denominations worldwide. Okay...let's start. Where I left off was the beginning of the 4th Century when the BIG question arouse. What is God, Christ, and Holy Spirit in relation to one another? An Alexandrian presbyter named Arius proposed the idea that each were separate entities and that Christ was not on the same level as God. The exampled used to explain this argument was John 14: 28 which states "You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I." Readin...

Before I start, I just wanted to address the Coptic Calendar really quickly...technically, the year does not always start on September 11, like it did this year, but I was too lazy to go into depth last time....then I felt guilty for withholding information. Not that anyone was checking up on my facts. Lol. The start of the New Year depends on if the Gregorian Calendar is in a leap year. I'm done with the calendar at the moment, if you're still curious you can look it up yourself. Now, ready for a history lesson?!?! Cause I'm not. This is going to be interesting and long....so so very long if I do a thorough job. Since there is a lot of history to cover, I'm going to break it up into three section/ entries: Beginning (The Rise), Co-existence, and Modern Times. THE BEGINNING When we think of Ancient Egypt, the first thing that comes to mind to many are the pyramids, the sphinx, pharaohs and the Elizabeth Taylor movie titled "Cleopatra" or the Mumm...

On Sunday I went to check out a church by myself. As this play by play unfolds, I hope you laugh at my stupidity...even for just a moment. I arrived at the church 15 minutes early and was sitting in my car saying a silent prayer. The night before I had a night terror due to my nervousness over going to yet another Coptic Church. It is so easy to sit behind a glass screen and observe; it's a whole different animal having to take that leap and putting yourself in firing range.  During my prayer, my fears overcame me and I began to tear up. My thoughts were:   Even though I know I have the support of many, I am doing this alone and I'm doing this knowing that if the outcome is my conversion I will now cut out the majority of the population in terms of a potential spouse. The Coptic faith is very beautiful but it takes a really strong person to stand by these conviction as their own. I'm not even sure if I am strong enough to do this. The cultural barriers are hug...

Let me start off by saying that this entry is going to be a monster. I'm going to cover as much as I can before I, too, am overwhelmed. After all, one can not read a couple entires to digest a religion in its entirety. How am I going to do this? I'm going to break up terms/ themes/ practices into headers and hopefully this will all come together in some sense of semblance. *heavy sigh* HERE WE GO! CALENDAR The Coptic Calendar ( AKA: Alexandrian Calendar, which is named after the capital at the time when St. Mark brought Christianity to Egypt) is very different from the calendar you and I are both familiar with. In case you didn't know, we follow the Gregorian Calendar which was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. The Coptic Calendar consists of 13 months with the year beginning on September 11 (Gregorian) or Thout 1 (Coptic). To be honest, its rather unfortunate the Coptic New Year shares the anniversary of 9-11 and that a majority of Coptics are of Egyptia...

When I was first looking into churches with English Liturgy near me; Google showed me 3 results. One in North LA, one in Torrance and one in South OC. Which left me with only 2 churches because Torrance was not an option. Next, I had to decide what weekend to make my visit. I didn't want to visit during a holiday weekend because I was/ am scared of this whole entire journey so the expected date was October 12; this weekend. However, God had other plans. Like he always does. It was the weekend of The Feast of the Cross (September 27-29) when I received a ton of text messages from friends just checking up on me. And I knew that was God's way of encouraging me to go. Before I go further, I'll explain The Feast of the Cross. It is a celebration of the Holy Cross being found underneath the rubbles of Golgotha by Queen Helen, mother of Roman Emperor, Constantine. Constantine, as you may know from history, was the first Roman Emperor to be a Christian. This is cel...

Through my research, I decided that I would check out Coptic Orthodox first. Coptic is the Greek word for Egyptian. Nah... To be honest, it was pure curiosity which started about a year ago when I looked into the meaning behind the wedding ceremony of Coptic Christians. Heck, my initial reactions were "Dang, there's a crown and they wear a robe???" But as I read further the beauty and symbolism behind the pomp and circumstance spoke to me. However, I told myself "No, your curiosity is because you're dating someone of this faith." And I left it at that for the longest time because I felt the integrity of my curiosity would be seen as someone who was purely infatuated with her dating prospects. (That whole dating subject and person matter is to be left in God's hands and will no longer be discussed on a public forum). In any case, I was still very curious several months down the road, so I began my online search for information about Coptic Christi...