Our Pope
His Holiness Pope Tawadros II was born Wagih Sobhy Baky Soliman on November 4th, 1952 in Mansoura. His father was an irrigation engineer and his family moved around during his childhood from Mansoura to Sohag and then to Damanhour.
He received his bachelor’s degree in pharmacy in 1975 from Alexandria University and earned a fellowship for the World Health Organization from the British International Health Institute in England in 1985. He attended the Coptic Seminary and graduated in 1983. He then worked as a manager in a pharmaceutical company in Damanhour that was owned by the Ministry of Health.
His Holiness’s life has always revolved around church since his youth; he wished to live the life of monasticism. He entered the Monastery of St. Pishoy in Wadi Elnatroun on August 20, 1986 and remained a brother for two years. He was ordained a monk on July 31, 1988 and after a year he was ordained a priest on December 23, 1989. Two months after, H.H. Pope Tawadros started serving with H.E. Metropolitan Pakhomious of Beheira on February 15, 1990. He was ordained a bishop on June 15, 1997 by H.H. the Late Pope Shenouda III as a General Bishop assisting H.E. Metropolitan Pakhomious. His Holiness focused on childhood whether it was in the country-wide children’s festival or when he was in charge of the children’s committee in the Holy Synod. Before assuming the papacy, H.H. wrote twelve books.
His Holiness was enthroned as the 118th Pope of Alexandria and Pope of the See of St. Mark on November 18, 2012 at the Cathedral of St. Reweis in Abbassiya, Cairo. The enthronement was presided by H.E. Metropolitan Pakhomious of Beheira, other metropolitans and bishops of the Coptic church and was attended by many delegates of Christian Churches.
Our Bishop
His Grace Bishop Daniel was born Adeeb Mikhail Andrawos on the 7th March 1959 to a pious Christian family in Atbara, Sudan.
He received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1982 from Alexandria University. He received a certificate in computer studies in 1983. He also attended the Institute of Coptic Studies in the Cathedral of St Rewis, Cairo and received a master’s degree in church history. He then completed his PhD on “The History of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Sudan during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries” in 2014.
His Grace served as a Sunday School teacher both in Sudan and Egypt before becoming a monk on August 5th, 1984 with the name Fr Mettaous El-Antony at St Anthony’s Monastery, Red Sea, Egypt. He was ordained a priest by H.H. the late Pope Shenouda III on February 6th, 1986. He served in many areas as a priest including in Khartoum, Sudan (February, 1986 to May, 2000); West of Sudan in the Nubian Mountains, as well as in Newcastle, England (June, 2000 to June, 2002).
His Grace was ordained a Bishop for Sydney and its Affiliated Regions on June 23rd, 2002 by H.H. Pope Shenouda III with the new name Bishop Daniel. He has overseen and shepherded the growth of the church in Sydney and throughout other parts of Australia and Asia.