Coptic Christmas Campaign

Coptic Christians are the Christians of Egypt. Sometime between 42-62 AD. St. Mark the Evangelist traveled to Alexandria to preach the word of God. Because ancient Egyptians had concepts of an afterlife and a forgiving God, they quickly began converting to Christianity. Centuries late, they were persecuted, martyred, and forcibly converted out of Christianity. Despite these hardships, many Copts remained faithful. Today, they are the largest Christian minority in the Near East, constituting roughly 10% of the country’s 100+ million people.

Due to high levels of persecution and poverty, some Copts have immigrated. Today, there are diaspora communities in the US, Canada, Australia, and several other nations.

The largest church within the Coptic community in Egypt is the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. The Coptic Orthodox Church considers itself a living extension of the apostolic church in life, spirituality, liturgies and dogmas. Unlike other denominations of Christianity, the Coptic Church never underwent any major reformations and thus has preserved many original traditions of the early Christians.

Early Coptic leaders such as St. Athanasius (296-373) ardently defended what many Christians accept today as the concept of the Trinity. At the first ecumenical council in Nicaea in 325 AD, St. Athanasius debated against Arianism, which denies the divinity of Christ and considers Him a created being. Athanasius successfully defended the Trinitarian belief that Jesus is coeternal and consubstantial with the Father. Athanasius is also believed to be the author of the Nicene Creed, which is recited throughout many churches today.

Coptic Christians practice the sacraments of baptism, chrismation, repentance and confession, the eucharist, unction of the sick, matrimony, and priesthood/holy orders. They have their own liturgy, ceremonial calendar, clerical hierarchy and pope. The Pope of the Coptic Church, currently; Pope Tawadros II, oversees matters of faith and pastoral care. He is highly regarded by all Copts but does not occupy any state of supremacy or infallibility. Unlike many Christians who operate on the Gregorian calendar, Copts follow the Julian calendar. This means that common holidays such as Christmas and Easter fall on different days for Copts than many other Christian denominations.

Coptic Christians have a distinct ethnoreligious identity. Copts are also indigenous to Egypt and inhabited the land, with their own language and culture, as a majority for hundreds of years until the Arab conquest in the seventh century. After the Arab conquest, many Copts were either killed or forced to convert to Islam. There has not been a Christian majority in Egypt since. Although it is an ongoing debate within the Coptic community itself, many Copts do not identify as Arab. Historically, they existed as a separate people and were only assimilated into Arab culture in Egypt after the seventh century conquest.

Estimates of the Coptic population in Egypt vary from around 10-20 million. According to World Atlas, there are 18 million Copts in Egypt and 1,243,000 in the diaspora. The largest number of Copts in the diaspora reside in the US, Kuwait, and Canada.