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The Coptic Orthodox Church: Living the Apostolic Faith and Worship
383 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 7, 2026
About the author
Hegumen Abraam Sleman
70 books48 followersHegumen Abraam Sleman is a Coptic Orthodox priest, theologian, and author dedicated to proclaiming the knowledge of the one true God—Yahweh, the Heavenly Father—through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit. With decades of pastoral ministry and theological reflection, he writes to reveal the heart of the Gospel in a way that is both faithful to Scripture and accessible to readers from all backgrounds.
Ordained to the priesthood in 1989, Fr. Abraam has served in Egypt and the United States, including St. Mary Church in Ard Elholf (Heliopolis), St. Mark Church in Colorado, and currently at St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church in Jersey City, where he continues his pastoral and teaching ministry.
He is the author of numerous theological works, including Encounters with Christ: Seeing the Father in Jesus, The Book of Revelation: Revealing God’s Plan of Redemption, and The Good News for Jews, along with several books exploring the nature, name, and oneness of God. His writings emphasize the Father-centered revelation of God, the unity of Scripture, and the living work of the Holy Spirit in creation, redemption, and the life of the Church.
Fr. Abraam is also engaged in Bible translation projects, including the development of the Master Standard Version (MSV), which seeks to faithfully render the Scriptures while restoring the divine name “Yahweh” and highlighting the richness of the original Hebrew and Greek texts.
Through his books, sermons, and online ministry, he seeks to invite readers into a deeper relationship with God, encouraging faith in Jesus Christ as the revelation of the Father and the Savior of the world.
Ordained to the priesthood in 1989, Fr. Abraam has served in Egypt and the United States, including St. Mary Church in Ard Elholf (Heliopolis), St. Mark Church in Colorado, and currently at St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church in Jersey City, where he continues his pastoral and teaching ministry.
He is the author of numerous theological works, including Encounters with Christ: Seeing the Father in Jesus, The Book of Revelation: Revealing God’s Plan of Redemption, and The Good News for Jews, along with several books exploring the nature, name, and oneness of God. His writings emphasize the Father-centered revelation of God, the unity of Scripture, and the living work of the Holy Spirit in creation, redemption, and the life of the Church.
Fr. Abraam is also engaged in Bible translation projects, including the development of the Master Standard Version (MSV), which seeks to faithfully render the Scriptures while restoring the divine name “Yahweh” and highlighting the richness of the original Hebrew and Greek texts.
Through his books, sermons, and online ministry, he seeks to invite readers into a deeper relationship with God, encouraging faith in Jesus Christ as the revelation of the Father and the Savior of the world.
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July 17, 2026
Writing "The Coptic Orthodox Church: Living the Apostolic Faith and Worship" was not simply an academic exercise for me — it grew out of years of standing before the altar, hearing the questions of my spiritual children, and longing to put into words something I have come to know by experience: that the faith we have received was not invented in a century of controversy or preserved merely as custom, but handed down, unbroken, from the apostles themselves, and that it still breathes in our worship today.
At the center of this book is something I hold to be the thread that ties the whole of Scripture together: the revelation of God as Father. So much of our theology, our liturgy, and our spiritual life only makes sense in light of this — that the Son reveals the Father, that the Spirit leads us into the Father's house, and that everything the Church does in worship is an entrance into that relationship rather than a performance before a distant deity. I wanted readers to leave this book not with a list of doctrines memorized, but with a deeper sense of whose children we are.
I did not write this as an outsider looking in at Coptic tradition, but as a shepherd who loves this Church and wanted her voice — ancient, apostolic, and still living — to be heard clearly by anyone curious enough to ask what we believe and why we worship the way we do. There is a pastoral urgency behind these pages: so many of our own young people, and so many sincere seekers outside the Church, have never been given a clear, faithful account of the apostolic faith in language they can actually enter into. That gap is what pressed me to write.
If there is one thing I hope stays with a reader long after they close this book, it is this: that Orthodoxy is not primarily a set of positions to defend but a life to be lived — worship offered to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit, in continuity with the apostles who first received it. I tried to write with both theological care and pastoral warmth, because I believe truth and love were never meant to be separated in the Church's witness.
I give this book five stars not out of pride in the writing, but out of confidence in what it points to. Whatever is faithful in these pages belongs to the tradition I merely tried to serve; whatever falls short is my own. My prayer is that it draws readers closer to the Father who has been reaching for us all along.
At the center of this book is something I hold to be the thread that ties the whole of Scripture together: the revelation of God as Father. So much of our theology, our liturgy, and our spiritual life only makes sense in light of this — that the Son reveals the Father, that the Spirit leads us into the Father's house, and that everything the Church does in worship is an entrance into that relationship rather than a performance before a distant deity. I wanted readers to leave this book not with a list of doctrines memorized, but with a deeper sense of whose children we are.
I did not write this as an outsider looking in at Coptic tradition, but as a shepherd who loves this Church and wanted her voice — ancient, apostolic, and still living — to be heard clearly by anyone curious enough to ask what we believe and why we worship the way we do. There is a pastoral urgency behind these pages: so many of our own young people, and so many sincere seekers outside the Church, have never been given a clear, faithful account of the apostolic faith in language they can actually enter into. That gap is what pressed me to write.
If there is one thing I hope stays with a reader long after they close this book, it is this: that Orthodoxy is not primarily a set of positions to defend but a life to be lived — worship offered to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit, in continuity with the apostles who first received it. I tried to write with both theological care and pastoral warmth, because I believe truth and love were never meant to be separated in the Church's witness.
I give this book five stars not out of pride in the writing, but out of confidence in what it points to. Whatever is faithful in these pages belongs to the tradition I merely tried to serve; whatever falls short is my own. My prayer is that it draws readers closer to the Father who has been reaching for us all along.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review