Pope Tawadros II meeting with Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle. PICTURE: David Adams
A new headquarters for the Coptic Orthodox Church in Melbourne will be officially opened by the head of the church, Pope Tawadros II, on Sunday.
The Pope arrived in the city this week as part of his first official tour of Australia which kicked off in Sydney on 30th August. The tour has already included meetings with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, as well as Federal Government ministers including Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop.
Speaking at the Melbourne Town Hall after his arrival on Thursday, Pope Tawadros II said he was happy to be in Melbourne, a city he described as one of “harmony between cultures”.
Asked what message he brought for Christians in Australia, he encouraged members of the Coptic Orthodox Church to keep and protect the church’s traditional values and principles. Addressing Australian Christians more generally he urged them to “walk…according to the Bible”. “The Bible is our constitution; the Bible is our reference; the Bible is our index,” he said.
On Sunday, the Pope, known as the ‘Pope of Hope’, will officially open the new Coptic Orthodox headquarters at Eporo Tower in the city to serve the Diocese of Melbourne’s 20,000 strong community.
Four-and-a-half floors of the 44-storey building, located in La Trobe Street, will be occupied by the church. Features include a Coptic Orthodox church for services as well as a theological college, a reception centre and bookstore. Among decorative elements are 12 five metre-high stained glass windows and a 15 metre-long mosaic in the foyer telling the history of the Coptic Orthodoc Church which is made up of 500,000 tiles.
Only one of two sitting popes in the world, Pope Tawadros II, who is the Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St Mark, is the leader of 20 million Coptic Orthodox Christians. He was enthroned in 2012.
