Three Coptic Children in the UK in need of help!!!!!

salsoul

Dear beloved family:
There is a Coptic couple who went through a divorce in the UK. They have 3 kids. As the court rolling,
the social service took over the children.There is Muslim Moroccan worker in the social service who took the children and placed them at the custody of the city Mosque without the knowledge of the Church.

The authority refused to return the children to the Church without a petition signed by at least 10,000 people from in and out of the UK. In his last visit to USA, H. G. Bishop Angaelos of the UK confirmed the story and asked every one to do his/her best in this matter. The best you guys can do is follow the link and sign the petition.

So far, since 10/2008,there has only been 1720 signatures???

there is also a facebook group for this cause: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=46556229753

please do join it and invite others to sign the petition as well... facebook is a great way to reaching out to people!

thanks & God Bless
ss.

peterfarrington

I hope that this will make a difference. Unfortunately I am not sure that the government agencies take any notice of any petitions of any size. The church has already made many reasonable suggestions about the children being fostered by a Coptic family and has rejected them all.

We must pray earnestly and ask God to change the situation as well as present a petition.

Deacon Peter

Unknown

[quote author=salsoul link=topic=7612.msg99945#msg99945 date=1233696775]
Dear beloved family:
There is a Coptic couple who went through a divorce in the UK. They have 3 kids. As the court rolling,
the social service took over the children.There is Muslim Moroccan worker in the social service who took the children and placed them at the custody of the city Mosque without the knowledge of the Church.

The authority refused to return the children to the Church without a petition signed by at least 10,000 people from in and out of the UK. In his last visit to USA, H. G. Bishop Angaelos of the UK confirmed the story and asked every one to do his/her best in this matter. The best you guys can do is follow the link and sign the petition.

So far, since 10/2008,there has only been 1720 signatures???

there is also a facebook group for this cause: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=46556229753

please do join it and invite others to sign the petition as well... facebook is a great way to reaching out to people!

thanks & God Bless
ss.



Hi,

I'm just curious. How can children be placed in the custody of the city mosque? Both parents are Coptic?! right? This is an outrage!
At the very least, the children should be given to one of the parents, or both parents should have joint custody, not the mosque.

What are the names of the children, or the family. I'd like to know more.

Thanks

peterfarrington

It does seem rather a complex story and not quite so clear cut.

I understand that the children are with a Muslim foster parent who is not supportive of their Christian background. I also understand that the Coptic family are not able to care for their children for reasons I do not know.

The council does appear to have refused to allow the children to stay with a Coptic foster carer, and does seem to be denying that their Christian background is significant in the placement of them.

Being in the UK I am doubtful that a petition of a million people will make much difference. But prayer and a properly organised approach to the council might. Especially prayer. One difficulty is that a situation like this becomes an urban myth almost, whereas what we really need is current information from the priest of the London Church so that we all know what is actually the situation at present.

Deacon Peter

user00

Guys, this is so important!

http://www.stmark.org.uk/index.php?option=com_joomlapetition&func=viewcategory&Itemid=&catid=1

Seriously, sign for all your siblings,parents, and forward it to all your email contacts. We'll more than halfweay there.. there are millions of copts.. why is it so hard to just get 10,000 signatures?

elepti

How come I can find no trace of this in the mainstream media???

elepti

I find this highly suspicious.  The only mention of this is within Blog Entries.  I could not even find this in any other respected Coptic News sites at all.  Why the rush to signatures?  I do believe the UK has a justice system; there are courts with lawyers and judges etc.  It is not Egypt.  Do your own math folks.  Who is propagating this???

grace08

It would be nice if the complete real story was released to the public.  It seems like a lot of crucial information is missing.  I would like to know why these children were removed from the parents?  I can't imagine that neither parent was fit to raise them? How about grandparents, uncles, aunts? And why would they be in custody of city mosque/muslims? Its puzzling because this is happening in the UK (not Egypt) and I am sure that the authorities are looking out for the best interests of these children. 

peterfarrington

Here is the material from St Mark's website..

We, the undersigned, support the Coptic Christian Community in the UK, in petitioning the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, the Rt. Hon. Ed Balls, MP to consider the placement of 3 Coptic Christian children , by Westminster City Council, with a Muslim foster family. Section 22 of the Children’s Act 1989, sub-section(5) states that the local authority, in making any decision, has a general duty to give due consideration to the child’s religious persuasion, racial origin and linguistic background.  The placement of those 3 children has failed to support their racial, cultural, linguistic and religious identity. There is evidence that it is seriously undermining their religious beliefs and we are gravely concerned about the confusion of identity of those looked after children.

Comment:


It has come to our attention from other websites that the purpose of the petition or its effects may have been misunderstood.

As stated the petition is being gathered and will be given to the Secretary of State for Education and the London Borough of Westminster, amongst others. The purpose of the petition is to make the UK government and the local authority aware of how strongly the Coptic Orthodox Christian Community feel about this issue. The petition gives an evidential basis of the number of people who are concerned about this matter.

Clearly the more people signing the petition the more pressure is brought on those concerned to investigate the matter and consider the correctness of their decision. It does not however create any legally binding obligation on the authorities.

We would continue to ask for your support in this matter.     

It is clear that whether 10,000 or 10,000,000 signatures are received it does not guarantee anything. That is not how UK law works. What would be helpful would be to know what the latest approaches to the local authorities have achieved and when they took place. Have the authorities given any hope that they will be reconsidering the placement of the children? The children are not in a mosque as some have said, and it would seem that their family has broken down, so it is reasonable for the children to be in care. But the issue seems to be that they have been placed with a Muslim carer who is undermining their Christian family background.

It would be good to know the current situation, what actions are planned, or have been tried and failed.

In Christ

Deacon Peter

elepti

How come that tract is not posted anywhere promimently on St Mark's Website???  If this is something of great importance why do I see it as a blog spread on non-essential sites such as Facebook where the mindless sheep graze???  Or other Coptic Blog sites but not on important Coptic Orthodox News sites???

user00

The following is a quote from one of the members of Coptichymns.net:

"Peace and Grace
I've spoken to the priest here in Manchester and have contacted Anba Angelos, and surprisingly received a reply quick enough.

The fact is, with this new argument imposed, we are completely disrespecting the wishes that the PARENTS (who want their kids with a Coptic family. From what HG Anba Angelos told me, "It kills them every day to see their kids in the care of those in whom they do not wish for their kids to be with. They can't do anything about it and they are relying on the Coptic community." What you can do is support the family and pray about it rather than bombarding the family with "what's the problem in keeping them with a Muslim family?". Please keep this issue in your prayers. I don't want to create problems, I'm telling you the wishes that the parents have and the reason why this petition is going on. Don't think for one minute that the parents are pleased at all. Yes, we can all agree that at least the children are being taken care of and have a roof over their heads and food on their plates. But we MUST take into consideration who this family is. I'm not saying Muslims are bad people. All I'm saying is that this petition is going on because of the wishes the parents have to keep their children in the care and love of a Coptic Family. For this is God's commandment, that we owe nothing to anyone but the pledge of love. Let's see those kids in the care of Christian Loving family.

Put yourself in their shoes.

Remember my weakness in your prayers"

joe9y

Hi,

The Diocese of the Midlands in the U.K. confirmed the urgency and importance of this petition - just for your information if you are in doubt (they posted a link to the petition alsoon their site). You should probably note that , the U.K. government need a lot of pushing in order to take action. So the more signatures, the better.

user00

Are there any updates on this situation?