COPTS ABROAD
Many Places. ONE Church.
The Coptic Church
An Ancient Church within a Modern World
In 50 AD, St Mark the Evangelist came to Egypt. There he would trip, rip his sandal, and Egypt would change forever. What started off as a simple shoe repair job became the beginning of his ministry for Christ in Egypt, which was at this point a pagan land. His life would end in Alexandria, being blessed with the crown of martyrdom. However, his disciples began to multiply more and more, until the See of St Mark, the Church of Alexandria, the Coptic Orthodox Church would pray in every corner of Egypt. Anianus, the humble cobbler who repaired the shoe of St Mark, would become the 2nd Pope of Alexandria, and the Church would grow and evolve throughout the centuries to the modern day.
Spiritual Revival and National Revolution
Shortly thereafter the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, Gamal Abdel Nasser became President of Egypt and instituted many social, economic and agrarian reforms. Much of Egypt changed very rapidly, not excluding the Coptic Church, which at this time was undergoing a spiritual revolution following the ordination of Pope Kyrillos VI in 1959. Without mincing words, the Church was bleeding for many decades and many of her children were disillusioned, deeming the ancient church unfit for the new Egypt and the modern world. This all changed with the papacy of Pope Kyrillos VI, whose devotion to asceticism, humility, and self-emptying love enflamed the hearts of millions. This led to a spiritual renewal of the Church - monasteries were built and populated, churches were full, social works were undertaken in the most remote of villages, and the Virgin Mary herself appeared in Zeitoun. The Coptic Church was going through a renaissance.
The Birth and Flourishing of the Diaspora
Beginning at the end of the 1950s and continuing later on, the Coptic Diaspora arose out of a intersection of different social and economic factors. The aforementioned reforms Nasser instituted prompted wealthier Copts to emigrate to places such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and Kuwait. Due to increased persecution and lack of economic opportunity, along with President Sadat's infitah policy, larger groups would end up emigrating, and small communities started to develop in urban centres across the Western World. In his wisdom, Pope Kyrillos VI saw these communities for what they could be. He began ordaining priests, developing parishes, and building churches for these Copts abroad, who began to thrive in their host countries socially, spiritually, and economically. These communities would act as appendages of the Church, raising money, supplies, and resources to send to their kin back home in Egypt. More churches would be built, dioceses would be organized, and the Coptic church would spread across the world for the first time in her history. Today, there are an estimated 2 million Copts living outside of Egypt, with thousands of priests, churches, and services.
