Many churches are quieter in the daytime during the summer.
St. Mina’s Coptic Orthodox Church on Route 34 in Holmdel, however, is a beehive of activity.
I arrived on the first day of the six-week summer camp when the heat was stifling but couldn’t keep down the spirits of the 75 children who had just come inside the sprawling complex of buildings. Heading to what is usually the Sunday school wing of the complex, there was excitement as the children of grammar school age retreated into the classrooms for the last part of the day.
As I walked with Abounah (Father) Abraam Georgy, 65, toward the children, Seraphina Ibraheem, 9, hugged the priest and told me field trips were her favorite activity, especially going to Jenkinson’s in Point Pleasant Beach.
Soon, Raphael Gaballa, 12, an Anthony Ghabious, 11, hugged the priest, a very affectionate man who also encountered many of the parents coming to pick up their children. They kissed his hand and shared some kind words with him.
This man is like the pope of the 35-acre campus, which has two churches, a chapel, a cafeteria, a religious articles shop and bookstore, office space and even the church’s own bread-baking room with equipment to prepare their bready Communion.
The congregants revere their Abounah not only for his spiritual leadership but also because he built up this church from scratch in the 21 years he has been their pastor.
And he did this with no capital campaign or special fund raising.
He tells a story from his first days assigned to the fledgling parish when thousands of dollars were due from a bill and hefty late fee he inherited.
He opened the Bible and found the verse from the Book of Proverbs: “To borrow is a servant to the lender.” And he prayed to God: “I am here to serve you not a bank or another person. Please send the money.”
His people did provide what he needed to pay that debt and also to eventually raise millions of dollars to complete the complex, which was blessed by two of the Coptic popes -- Pope Shenouda in 2005 and Pope Tawdrous in 2018.
Donations come from his some 800 families -- totaling 3,000 individuals -- and from all over the world, especially from people devoted to St. Mina, their patron.
St. Mina of Egypt (285 – c. 309) is one of the most well-known Coptic saints. According to legend, he was a Coptic soldier in the Roman army martyred because he refused to recant his Christian faith. After executing him, the soldiers set his body on fire; it burned for three days but the body remained unharmed.
Mina’s sister then bribed the soldiers and managed to bring the body away to Alexandria. Pope Athanasius of Alexandria ordered the body be loaded on a camel, which stopped at a water well so they buried Mina there.
That’s why his iconography always shows two camels alongside Mina.
Georgy said there are some 30 Coptic churches in New Jersey including St. Michael’s in nearby Howell and St. Mary’s in East Brunswick.
While the majority of people in the parish are Egyptian, including fourth-generation Coptics, there is a smattering of parishioners from other ethnicities.
I encountered a Korean father retrieving his child from camp and Georgy said there are Indians as well. A family with Jersey City roots was also there the day I visited.
At St. Mina’s, an Orthodox service is held daily and three on Sunday with each lasting two and a half hours. A priest has to fast from midnight to the service and can only preside at one daily.
St. Mina’s has four priests, who live in their own houses, and there are two full-time deacons who can assist at Mass.
But there are 300 lesser deacons who do all kinds of work for the church with no pay. One, for example, heads the communion breads bakery, which must take a lot of time since anywhere from 50 to 150 come daily and 800 Sundays with 3,000 on the feasts of Christmas and Easter. The service can be a mix of English, Coptic and Arabic and all three languages are projected on large screens in church.
Georgy’s road to priesthood took a turn after he was first a doctor of anesthesiology; his wife, Vivian, is a gynecologist. He was ordained in Egypt at age 45 and sent to Holmdel. He has a real pastoral bent and expects and wants his people to feel at home on the church property.
“I know the priests forever and this community is warm, very nice and welcoming,” one man told me.
And that’s also an apt way to describe their beloved Abounah.
The Rev. Alexander Santora is the pastor of Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph, 400 Willow Ave., Hoboken, NJ 07030. Email: padrealex@yahoo.com; Twitter: @padrehoboken.
Details ...
St. Mina Coptic Orthodox Church is located at 132 Highway 34 South, Holmdel, NJ 07733. For information, call 732-332-1052 or email: info@saintminas.org.
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Sprawling NJ Coptic Orthodox church a beehive of activity, even in summer | Faith Matters - NJ.com
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