Archbishop visits MGS
Posted on: March 11th 2022School News
We were delighted to welcome Archbishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church to speak at Christian assembly today.
Awarded the OBE by Her Majesty the Queen in 2017 for services to international religious freedom, he has been a tireless advocate of dialogue, conflict-resolution, and reconciliation, working on behalf of those suffering persecution and displacement through ecumenical and inter-religious engagements.
Archbishop Angaelos spoke about the history of Orthodoxy and the practical nature of the Christian faith for young people today in the 21st century.
Alongside his pastoral leadership as The Coptic Archbishop of London, he is frequently asked to comment on human rights, civil liberties, and international religious freedom, particularly in relation to Egypt, the Middle East, and North Africa, and works with the All Party Parliamentary Group on International Religious Freedom or Belief.
He spoke and fielded questions in an assembly in the lecture theatre and kindly donated several books which are now available to read in the Library. He highlighted the importance of simple actions, such as being courteous to one another in speech and action, as well as being understanding of other faiths and religions in the community.
MGS Archivist Rachel Kneale spoke about the significance of this visit: "Manchester Grammar School has longstanding ecclesiastical links, having been founded by Hugh Oldham, the Bishop of Exeter. In the School’s early years, boys attended church daily to pray for the souls of the founders; this tradition would eventually morph into a yearly Founders’ Day service that is still held today. Since those early days, MGS has only hosted an Archbishop three times. In 1915, the School was celebrating its four-hundredth year, and so invited the Archbishop of York to distribute the prizes at Speech Day. It would be another three decades until a low-key visit from the Archbishop of Quebec, who visited to address sixth-formers. A different Archbishop of York visited in 1973, and spoke at Founders’ Day, held in Manchester Cathedral. The visit of Archbishop Angaelos is our first from an Archbishop of the Coptik Orthodox Church and only our fourth visit from an Archbishop."
We are very grateful to the archbishop for taking the time to speak to the pupils, inspiring many with his descriptions of meeting with Her Majesty the Queen when he received his OBE for services to International Religious Freedom in 2015.
This was a great opportunity for MGS pupils and was a very historic moment, as this is only the fourth visit from an Archbishop according to MGS Archive records!