LYNNWOOD — The scream hushed the congregation.
It was the Coptic Christmas Eve, Thursday, Jan. 6. Some saw the flash of light too, others could just feel that something very special had occurred. Only one, Mariam Flemon from Lynnwood, saw the vision.
“St. Mary appeared to her,” said St. Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church member Maha Jahshan. “She saw St. Mary holding baby Jesus and light came from the halo she was wearing, like a crown.”
Flemon started screaming, holding her hands out and crying out in her native Arabic about what she had just seen.
Jahshan said, “I was shaking and even though we didn’t see it, we felt the presence.”
Flemon, who doesn’t speak English well and wasn’t available for comment, was quickly surrounded and needed to be calmed by those next to her, Jahshan said.
Flemon told the others she was looking up at the paintings in the dome, none of which were of St. Mary, and then she saw her, Jahshan said. Adding, Flemon said she looked away after the light and looked back up and St. Mary was gone.
“We were all in awe … it was very surreal,” Jahshan said.
Flemon’s son, Remon, said his mother couldn’t describe her feelings, she said she was filled with emotion and had shivers throughout her body and she felt, “she wasn’t worthy of the holiness of the sight,” Remon Flemon said.
Others in the church didn’t see St. Mary, but some did see the flash of light from the dome.
A deacon leader of the church, Alfady Azmy, the eldest son of the church’s priest Takla Azmy said it was dark out and there were no other lights.
“There’s no other reason for this to happen,” said Alfady Azmy, who also saw the flash of light.
The event made the already holy night even more reverent for the more than 200 people gathered to celebrate the Coptic Christmas Eve at the Lynnwood congregation’s new, large, European-style cathedral, said St. Mary’s priest, Father Takla Azmy. According to the Coptic calendar, Christmas, or the “Feast of the Nativity” is Jan. 7.
Takla Azmy said that while he saw only the flash, he saw a vision of Mary in 1968 at a church in Cairo, Egypt.
That time, the congregation was also celebrating Christmas, also worshiping for the first time in their unfinished cathedral. The vision of St. Mary is very significant, Takla Azmy said.
“It means Mary wants to say, ‘I am here with you and God blesses this place,’” he said. “We are very spiritual people and believe that saints help us because they lived with us in flesh on earth and so they can relate to the difficulties we have on earth.”
Takla Azmy said the vision, particularly on the holy day, says to them that Mary knows of the “big, big effort,” he said they’ve made in trying to build this new church.
Takla Azmy said the vision has brought the congregation even closer to God.
“It affected all the people very much. This is blessing from heaven and it encourages them to repent and start the New Year with good action—bringing the congregation even to closer to God and the Bible and closer to repentance,” he said. “It makes us very peaceful.”
The $3 million church building is a gift from God, he said. Financing came through a loan and offerings from the congregation. For the most part there haven’t been many big issues in the building of the unique structure in Lynnwood, he said.
The church is planned to be finished and open to the public in August after the Coptic Pope Shounoda comes to Lynnwood to give the church his blessing.
Takla Azmy said that after the blessing, he hopes the only other two Coptic Orthodox churches in the state, St. Mark’s in Puyallup and St. George in Kirkland, will join the Lynnwood congregation in the church.
For years now, more than 180 people from all over the Puget Sound area have worshipped at a converted house on 52nd Avenue in Lynnwood.
After the late-summer opening, the new church will be open to the public Takla Azmy said.
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