Anyone who has followed my blog in the past knows that I have always tried to bring awareness about the sufferings of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Although I am Catholic, these are my brothers and sisters in Christ and they have suffered horribly over the centuries.
Like nearly everyone in the world I was riveted by the coverage of recent events in Egypt. I prayer fervently for the Egyptians to win their freedom. I rejoiced as Muslims and Christians acted as one, defending each other at prayer and/or Divine Liturgy. But since the end of the revolution covered by the media things have not gone very well for the Coptic Christians.
The site The Free Copts has excellent coverage of events; so I will only provide a short summary. More detailed information can be had in this article: link
The short form is that on March 5th a Coptic Church was destroyed after local unrest involving a mixed relationship. Muslims destroyed the Church as the military watched and by many reports aided. Then 2,000,000 Copts and liberal Muslims protested for 9 days outside the TV Building in Maspero demanding the return of the Copts to their village and the rebuilding of the Church.
Eventually the military agreed, after some Muslims even made the insane accusation of witchcraft against the Copts, to rebuild the Church. That is a short summary, please read the above links for a full account.
There is cause for concern and hope in the story. One one hand there was death and destruction as the military watched. On the other, there was a united interfaith demand for justice that is being met. But there are still some very troubling response from the military in what I have read.
There is a long hard road ahead for all of Egypt and her people. May God guide and protect everyone. And may the Coptic Orthodox Church be allowed to worship in full equality.
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