- I generally think that the Copts in the West did not care much about the unification of the date of Resurrection celebration in comparison to unifying the date of Christmas celebration.

+ Yes, it's true, but we will not lose hope about the Easter holiday unification. And we will continue in prayers and discussion so that we can move forward even a few steps. Hopefully, we can form the basis to allow future generations to build an agreement on. On the other hand the unification of the Christmas celebration is not complicated with the other churches, as it is in our hands, by “our” I mean the Coptic Orthodox Church. If we adjust our calendar, then we solve the whole issue, therefore I say that it is wrong to link the unification of Christmas date with the unification of Easter date.

- If it's that way, so why not to start with Christmas?

+ In my opinion, that is the right thing to do, but it looks to me that opposition parties who are few in number persistently don’t want to change and refuse the mere discussion of the issue, claiming that it would spark riot and affect the church’s state of peace.

- Is it right that the Church surrenders to such small group of people who don’t believe in science and would like to be imprison the Church in its past?

+ Not exactly, it is such a faithful group but has zeal of church not according to knowledge (Romans 10:2). Hence, they harm the church and pose obstacle its development. From another perspective, I think what should guide us in this respect is the pastoral role of the Church. The church should feel the need of its people and develop it for the sake of serving them the way the apostolic church used to be. For example, they established deaconship when there was a need to (Acts 6), cared for mission trips (Acts 13) and set up defining rules to accept gentiles in the Faith (Acts 15). That is how our Coptic Church should be live, considering its extension around the world and seeking to preach the whole world with wide doors open to attract different people to its soul-nurturing authentic Coptic orthodox heritage treasures.

- How can this happen if we do not even have an answer to the question asked by our children in the Diaspora: Why do not we celebrate together?  And when we explain to them the reason of having different feast dates, they look astonished and say: Why do not you find a solution to solve this problem?!

+ Yes, it’s our responsibility to find a solution in order to pave the way for future generations to enjoy the richness of Orthodox life without burdening them with cultural heritage or popular cultural traditions, that are not a part of the Orthodox faith.

- We took a long time explaining the misinformation circulating on the subject of the unification of the date of the holidays, can you now tell me exactly what is the right information that needs to be known by the general public on this subject?

+ Sure, There are four facts about that..

 (To be continued)