This morning, Saturday 18 July, the Monastery of Anba Shenouda, Abbot of the Solitaries, in New South Wales, Australia, celebrated the admission of a new monk to its monastic community after he completed a three-year period of monastic testing. The ceremony also included the elevation of three monk-priests to the rank of Hegumen. The events coincided with the monastery’s annual feast day in honor of its patron, Saint Anba Shenouda. The celebration was presided over by His Grace Bishop Anba Daniel, bishop and head of the monastery, with the participation of His Grace Anba Daniel, Bishop of Sydney and its dependencies, and His Grace Anba Rewis, General Bishop of East Asia and overseer of the Diocese of Melbourne and its dependencies. Monks of the monastery, a number of Coptic priests in Australia, the families of the monastery’s monks, and hundreds of members of the Coptic community in Australia attended. The service began with the early morning incense prayers, followed by the rite of tonsure for the novice Brother Mina. During the rite he lay prostrate and was covered with a shroud, symbolically like the dead, in accordance with the rites of the Coptic Orthodox Church; the prayers included the commemoration of the departed. After the prayers, Bishop Anba Daniel signed all of the monk’s garments with the sign of the Holy Cross—making three full anointings—before vesting the new monk, who received the name Father Bishoy Anba Shenouda. After the ordination of Father Bishoy, the senior clergy celebrated the Divine Liturgy, during which Bishop Anba Daniel performed the elevation of Fathers Anthony, Moses and John to the rank of Hegumen following the Kiss of Peace. The celebration concluded with a procession of saints’ relics through the church and around the monastery grounds, after a luncheon prepared by the monastery’s servants. On this occasion, His Grace Bishop Anba Daniel offered thanks to His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of the Great City of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, for his support and encouragement of the monastery. He also thanked the bishops, priests, deacons, servants and the congregations present, and expressed gratitude to the family of the new monk for giving their son to the monastery.