The discussion about the electoral law for the papal election in the Coptic Orthodox Church has been raging for many decades since 1957. When Pope Yusab II passed away, leading members of the Sunday School Movement, a reform movement in the church, entered monastic life and presented themselves as candidates for the papacy. The Holy Synod of the church did not want this to happen and subsequently implemented changes that deliberately aimed at excluding the candidates of the Sunday School movement during those years. Later, the discussions raged over who could be elected; only monks, as the school of Father Matta al-Meskeen argued, or anyone from the clergy, as Bishop Gregorius argued in 1971. The 1957-electoral law remained in place until Pope Tawadros and the Holy Synod decided to change this in February 2014. Kamāl Zākhir, a prominent lay person who had been arguing for change for years, wrote about this in al-Watan, February 24. Kamāl Zākhir, however, belongs to the school of Father Matta al-Meskeen. Bishop Rufa’il wrote in Watani (no date was given, text could not be found through an internet search) that the church councils in the Apostolic age do not mention any clause against a bishop or a metropolitan becoming head of church. The existence of two schools about the issue of papal succession became clear in an article written by Michael Faris in Masry el-Yom, September 8, 2012. The bishops Serapion and Bishoy then argued about the interpretation of the Apostolic rules. One claimed that these rules prohibit the election of a bishop to the papal throne, and the other stated that the Apostolic rules do not prohibit this.