Recent death of Tasoni Demyana

Deaconess Sarah Metcalf and Tasoni Demyana Masoud who recently died within a day of each other.

Tasoni Demyana Masoud (later known as Kodsy) died of cancer at Daytona Beach in Florida, USA on 7 May aged 61 years. This was the day before the death of Deaconess Sarah Metcalf. She was born in Cairo, Egypt, on 25 July 1958 where she was raised in a devout family and service to the Lord. Her father was an architect who died early in an accident while building a famous hotel in Cairo. She dedicated her life to God and service from a young age. She started by serving in Archangel Michael Church and St. Mina Church in Shoubra, then travelled to Malawi where she was ordained a Coptic deaconess by the late Bishop Bimen of Malawi (1930-1986) who was consecrated as bishop for Malawi in 1975 after which he installed a monastic order for deaconesses whose main mission was to reform education of children and adolescents. Services were conducted through Youth Summer Camps and Conferences organized by the late Metropolitan Athanasios (1923-2000) of Beni Suef with support from Bishop Moussa of Youth. Demyana was among the first group to join that ministry which left a great impression on her future life and she passed much time and effort in serving the poor and needy, then travelled on to Beni Suef to serve students in the area and spent much time in teaching them English. In September 1981, the new deaconesses lost their Bishop temporarily as he was detained by President Sadat with many other Coptic Bishops at the Prison of Marg. It wasn’t long before Sadat got assassinated and Bishop Bimen was released to go back to his diocese, after which In 1986, he developed complications related to diabetes passed away. The deaconesses, not finding much to do under his successor moved to serve in other dioceses. Demyana later continued to serve in England and Switzerland, counselling the youth and families abroad and returned to Cairo in the 1990s and served with Ava Mina, and later as an interpreter for His Holiness Pope Shenouda III for Wednesday lectures. Having been received received by Pope Shenouda he appointed Bishop Joannes to care for her life and ministry. It was a rich time where she served as English Language instructor at BLESS, helped as a nurse in hospitals and acted as caregiver for Miss Effa, one of the first deaconesses consecrated by Pope Shenouda. Her students found in her a spiritual coach and formed a support group that would help in different forms of church services. Among many services, she acted as translator and support to foreign delegations visiting the Coptic Church. In 1996 she first met with Abba Seraphim when he visited Egypt accompanied by his two British Orthodox deaconesses, Elizabeth Beresford and Sarah Metcalf. She moved to Florida in 1996 and stayed serving in St. George Coptic Orthodox Church and the surrounding communities in many services and for many families.  Having offered many years of service to Abba Seraphim when he was visiting Egypt regularly she earned much affection from him and his companions, so as a result of their respect she will be regularly commemorated to rest in peace with our Divine Lord and Saviour. In 1999, Demyana had started developing health complications including diabetes and cancer and left to the US to join her family where she lived in Florida and served at St George Church. On 7-May-21, after a long struggle with Cancer, Demyana departed. Her funeral was held at St George Church (Daytona Beach, Florida) on 11-May-21. She shall be remembered by many people she served across the globe.