Coptic Christianity Meets the Modern World.

Coptic Christianity Meets the Modern World.

How does an ancient, persecuted faith keep pace with political and cultural change?.

You tell the story of Coptic Pope Peter VII receiving an emissary from Russia who says the Tsar has proclaimed protection of the Copts. And he asks, "Does the Tsar die?" The emissary responds that of course he does. And Peter VII responds, "Why should I seek protection from one who dies when we are under the protection of the Living that never dies?"

The story is a reflection of the different path Copts took compared to other religious minorities in the region. Copts of course had long memories of how the Byzantines and later on the Crusaders had treated them. They also recognized that Western powers come and go, but God's church remains. Today the attitudes have changed a bit, given that foreign countries are no longer alien to them. They are places where their brothers, sisters, and cousins now live.

How is the increasing emigration of Copts around the world influencing the church and its identity?

It is indeed a remarkable development. To cite one example, when Pope Shenouda became pope in 1971, he inherited two churches in the United States: one in Los Angeles and one in New Jersey. When he died in 2012, he left behind 202 Coptic churches in the U.S. The Coptic church today has more than 550 churches outside of Egypt.

But this tremendous growth puts a huge burden on the church. The challenge is one that the church has never faced before. It requires a redefinition of what the very word Copt means. The word Copt comes from the Greek word, itself an adoption of the word the ancient pharaohs used for Egypt. What does it mean to be a Copt in Philadelphia or in Minnesota? What does it mean for the church if, at a certain moment in the future, a majority of its adherents live outside of Egypt's borders?

The challenges are immense. In the West there is an open market competition among religious denominations and secular worldviews, whereas atheism is a problem hardly faced inside Egypt. Divorce rates are different. Every aspect of life in the West is different.

It's a challenge, of course, for other ancient Christian communities, like the Armenians for example. And throughout their history, the Jews have had to deal with being a community in exile. But this is completely new to the Copts. It might require changes in the church's conception of Coptic identity and a greater emphasis on the more general Christian message and the church will need to distinguish itself less as a specifically Egyptian church than as one of the founding churches of Christianity, and thus as part of a heritage that all Christians share.

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