Persecution of Egyptian Christians

Image Credit: alittleperspective.com

Egypt a country located nicely in the north east part of Africa, known for its great pyramids and its powerful past leaders referred to as Pharaohs during ancient Egypt before 3100 BC; now has a population of 87.3 million, mainly Muslims but with just 10 million as Christians, constituting 12-15% of the entire population. You can imagine the plight of Christians in this country. Christians being in the minority, experience on-going attacks from Islamic extremists and as we all know, a difficult physical battle to overcome. The situation is worse on Muslims who convert to Christianity because when they refuse to renounce their new faith, being Christianity, they are beaten, their homes destroyed, and many have been killed.

The most recent attack was on July 25th, 2016, reported by open doors, 2016 which compelled Pope Tawadros, the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church to move the prayer service to Abassia district, to the historic Hanging Church. This move was quite disruptive for thousands of Christians that normally attend the service. According to Open Doors, 2016 report, the attacks resulted in several deaths and injuries besides lootings causing the local Christians to live in constant fear.

History plays a huge part in the Patriarch’s decision to move from the cathedral to the Hanging Church. The Hanging Church dates back to the 3rd and 4th century and according to Gerstel, S.E.J (2006), in her book “Thresholds of the Sacred “; The “Hanging Church was built on two towers of a fort from the Roman period, with the first mention of a church on that site dating back to the above stated centuries. The Hanging Church is the most famous Coptic Christian church in Cairo, as well as possibly the first built in Basilican style. It was probably built during the patriarchate of Isaac (690–92).Gerstel continued by explaining that the earliest mention of the church was a statement in the biography of the patriarch Joseph I (831–49), when the governor of Egypt visited the establishment. The church was largely rebuilt by Pope Abraham (975–78) and has seen many other restorations including an extensive repair and restoration of the church and its surroundings completed in 2011. Early believers used the church as a place of refuge during times of Roman persecution. Pope Tawadros’ choice to lead this prayer service from the Hanging Church recalls a painful chapter of the long history of the Roman Egyptian church which involved back in the centuries mentioned above steep exploitations that led to economic and social decline of Egypt but left huge benefits to the Roman rulers.

Pope Tawadros’ powerful statement to Christians throughout Egypt, according to open doors report, 2016 is that, “by the grace of God, years of persecution from various political powers have come and gone, but the church of God in Egypt remains, shining for the Lord Jesus”. He encouraged Christians to continue to pray against the turbulence in Egypt and around the world for the light of Christ to shine so that the multitudes of Muslims may come to our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ.

References:

• Open Doors, available at:www.opendoorsusa.org. [accessed in September, 2016]

• Gerstel, S.E.J. (2006) Thresholds of the Sacred: Architectural, Art Historical, Liturgical, and Theological Perspectives on Religious Screens, East and West. Country Studies, available at: http://countrystudies.us/egypt/14.htm. (accessed in September, 2016]

• http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/coptic/coptic.html. [accessed in September, 2016]

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Blog Post Author: Maryanne Aniagolu-Oke is a bi-lingual freelance human resource generalist and community development expert who speaks English and German. Maryanne writes for SitiTalkBlog.

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