Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of the Episcopal/Anglican community in the world, said that the new province that he inaugurates for the Episcopal/Anglican Church today bears the name of Alexandria, as it had a great place in the ancient world and covered a very large area from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, as it is in North Africa, southern Europe, and western Holy Land Adding: Alexandria preserved the Christian faith for us in times of hardship and turmoil.
He continued, during the inaugural prayers of the Alexandria region at the Cathedral of All Saints in Zamalek that Egypt was a land of refugees, as it had saved the Holy Family and had received Joseph and Jacob before that.
Welby affirmed that the new province would be self-administered because it was responsible for itself. We are in an independent partnership and are united together by love and not by law. I came here not by compulsion but by the invitation of the Archbishop here.
Welby pointed out: There are no orders coming to the new province from Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop of Canterbury is the first among the brothers, adding: We are in an independent province that makes its own decisions, and the Episcopal/Anglican Church is a mixture between Catholicism and the Protestant Reformation, but it is different from both.
Welby called on everyone to become peacemakers together, emphasizing: We must be a moving and active church, because Christ said, “Go to all nations.”
He added: I met a monk yesterday in the monastery of Anba Makari, and he told me that every church has its own beauty, and when we pray together, we go to an honest God who accepts us with everything in us because He is a God of love and we allow God to change us.
Welby recommended: We should not leave the church in the same way we came to it, but we should love God more and each other more with all our weaknesses and failures.
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