During the evening of 5 February 2016, Tasoni Effa died in Cairo died in her 97th year.

Miss Effa Boules Garas was born on 28 November 1919 in Nagada, Egypt. She was the eldest of three children in a devout Coptic Orthodox family. In the 1940s, they moved to Cairo where they lived in Shoubra. As a young steward at St Antonios’ Church, Shoubra, she came under the influence of Nazeer Gayed, who was later to become Father Antonios, then Bishop Shenouda and later Pope Shenouda III. His ministry had a profound influence on her life and she retained a keen recollection of those early days until the end of her life. In the 1950s, the family built a 4-storey house in Heliopolis where the two sisters Effa and Adiba, and their younger brother Ezzat, started to serve at St. George Church, Heliopolis. Effa was responsible for spiritual ministry and education; Adiba was a musician who composed and played many church songs; while Ezzat was responsible for Sunday School Preparatory phase for children. In June 1981, Pope Shenouda revived the long-neglected ministry of deaconesses in the Coptic church by consecrating 27 deaconesses to serve in the churches of Cairo. Five of the consecrated were virgins, amongst whom were Effa and Adiba. This first group of deaconesses were followed by hundreds being consecrated throughout different dioceses. After the death of their brother, Effa and Adiba donated their parents’ home to the church, keeping the ground floor flat for their accommodation. The second floor was transformed into a Coptic students’ hostel under the oversight of Metropolitan Bishoy and the nuns of St Demiana’s convent.

“Miss Effa” as she was affectionately known, became a good friend of the British Orthodox Church and on his many trips to Cairo Abba Seraphim always paid a visit to the house in Heliopolis, to which many members of the British Orthodox Church also became frequent visitors. Well into her ninth decade Miss Effa would entertain them with her rendering of traditional Coptic chants on the piano. Although frail with her advanced years, she remained mentally alert and her conversation was always spiritually edifying. Successive young Coptic female students who shared her house delighted in meeting her and shared great love and respect for her selfless concern for others. She was not ill, but on Sunday, 31 January, at noon, her disciple Tasoni Helena watched her staring into the air. When she asked her what was happening, Miss Effa said she was seeing angels and monks. On Sunday night, she asked that she be anointed by the blessed oil of the Virgin Mary which Tasoni did. The following days she stopped eating and talking. For a couple of days, the doctors tried to revive her, but she peacefully slipped away to be with the Saviour she loved and to rejoin all those from earlier generations, with whom she had shared her service and devotion to the Church. Abba Seraphim spoke of her faith and unfailing commitment to service and of the precious memory of times spent with her. Memory Eternal.

Deacon Mark Saunders celebrated the 90th anniversary of his birth on 18 October and the following day, being a Sunday, the congregation  at St. Felix, Babingley, led by Father Simon Smyth, offered him their congratulations as well as heartfelt thanksgiving for his ministry among them.  As Abba Seraphim was visiting the Bournemouth congregation, he was unable to attend, but he sent his own message of appreciation, saluting him as “an indefatigable churchman and a faithful friend,” which was read out after the liturgy.

Noting that Deacon Mark and his late wife, Sybil, were founding members of the Orthodox community which worships at St. Felix, Babingley, Abba Seraphim observed that he was in fact  “the constant servant upon whom the continued ministry of this community has depended.”  Noting that the commemoration in the Synaxarion read that day was for James the Deacon, one of the original clergy who accompanied the Augustinian mission to England in 597. He later joined St. Paulinus in re-establish the Christian church in York and when Penda defeated King Edwin and re-established paganism, the clergy retreated south, but not James, who alone remained to exercise pastoral oversight over the remains of the mission. “So it has been with Deacon Mark, who in the absence of a resident priest in Babingley, has been the responsible person for both the church fabric and the flock. Bishops and priests may come to officiate but it is Deacon Mark who remains the respected father of this community.” Abba Seraphim also spoke of  the “total support and encouragement” received from Deacon Mark, whose practical skills and general wisdom would be an invaluable asset to any community.

To mark the occasion the congregation made a presentation of an icon of St. Mark the Apostle and a celebratory tea followed the presentation and speeches.

At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy at the Church of Christ the Saviour, Winton, Bournemouth, Abba Seraphim dedicated a brass memorial plaque to his late Mother, Joyce Edwards, who died last December. Although attached to the former Trotton Mission when she was living at Liphook, in Hampshire, she and Abba Seraphim’s step-father, Peter Edwards, were regular visitors to the Bournemouth Church over many years. At her request she was buried in the nearby Wimborne Road cemetery and her husband’s ashes, which had rested in the Cinerarium at the Bournemouth Church following his death, were later interred in the grave with Abba Seraphim’s mother.

The Coptic Orthodox Church (COC) has been present in Britain since the 1960s, and through its ministry became known to the British Orthodox Church of the British Isles (BOC). Subsequently, in 1994 the BOC approached the COC with a view to becoming part of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, and upon acceptance and agreement of this new relationship, a protocol was signed in 1994, since when the BOC has been a full and effective part of the Patriarchate.

In the same spirit with which this union came into being at the request of the BOC in 1994, it is now agreed, again at its request, that the BOC will return to its pre-1994 status in fulfillment to what it sees as its current mission in the light of the developments and changing dynamics of the Middle East and Britain.

We will continue to pray for our communities, our clergy and our people, that they effectively live and fulfil their Christian witness in Britain, and serve their wider community at a time when that faithful Christian presence is critical.

+Seraphim

HE Metropolitan Seraphim of Glastonbury  

+Angaelos

HG Bishop Angaelos General Bishop Coptic Orthodox Church United Kingdom

Download the full press release in PDF format here

Following the Divine Liturgy at Babingley on 20 September, Abba Seraphim visited the newly built terrace house of the Malheiro family in the Nar Valley Park development in King’s Lynn, which he blessed. The housing development is one of the largest regeneration projects in the East of England and is built on the Nar Ouse 120 acre site, south of King’s Lynn town centre, which will include a business park, landscaped gardens and a commercial developmernt. Gabriel and Maria were both married at St. Mary & Felix Church at Babingley and their two children, Daniel & Stephanie, were also baptised there. After the service Abba Seraphim presented the family with an ikon of the Mother of God and the Saviour for their new home and joined the family for Sunday lunch.