Why The Middle East’s Largest Christian Community Is Fleeing Egypt

[CopyBoy]

Incense smoke fills the air as a priest with a salt-and-pepper beard and a billowing white gown recites Arabic hymns at the pulpit. Rows of red-cushioned wooden pews gradually fill, and a group of mostly young women carrying their children squeeze themselves into a standing space in the back.

Aging Egyptian men with scruffy chins meet outside by the parking lot, speaking Arabic. In the lobby, latecomers for a simultaneous English prayer service upstairs, many of them second-generation Egyptian-Americans, make way for the staircase, dodging little boys chasing one another in unpredictable directions. It’s a Sunday morning at the Coptic Orthodox Church of Saint Mark in Jersey City, New Jersey, and the faithful have gathered to pray.

ibtimes.com/why-middle-easts-largest-christian-community-fleeing-egypt-2288395

 

[7_Sorrows]

It is so sad to see these Christians fleeing the Middle East. I am glad they have found safety here. I had heard el Sisi was friendly to the Christians in Egypt and had even attended some services, but it sounds like there are retributions for these Christians supporting his government. He has been tough on Muslim Brotherhood which some Muslims are not happy about. Thankful these Coptic Christians are building strong faith communities here where they are safe to practice their faith.