Our History
Who are the Copts?
The Coptic Orthodox Church is one of the most ancient churches in the world, founded in Egypt in the first century by Saint Mark the Apostle and writer of the second Gospel of the New Testament. A church of conservative nature, it has safeguarded the Orthodox Christian faith in its original form. It is a faith that has been handed down through the ages, ever remaining faithful to the apostolic doctrines and modes of worship. The church’s spiritual focus underscores holiness, divine mysteries and fellowship, grounded deeply in the canons of the holy scriptures, the apostolic and orthodox creeds, the teachings of the church fathers and the first three ecumenical councils.
Our Faith
The church faith is based on the teachings of Saint Mark the Evangelist, one of the seventy disciples, and the writer of one of the four Gospels, who brought Christianity to Egypt during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero in the first century, a few years after the Lord’s Ascension.
Saint Mark
When Saint Mark entered and walked through the streets of Alexandria, a famous city in Egypt, his sandals were torn. While Ananias the cobbler was mending Saint Mark’s shoes, his finger was cut from the awl and he cried out: “O the one God!” Saint Mark healed the cobbler’s finger and spoke to him about who the “One God” really was. Ananias invited Saint Mark to his home where he and his household were baptized after having professed their belief in the Christian Faith. Soon afterwards, many others believed and Ananias’s house became the meeting place for the faithful people.
In 62 AD, Saint Mark decided to leave Egypt to visit the new believers he had preached in the Pentapolis. Before leaving, he ordained Ananias as bishop. He also founded a church in the Crypt where the Holy Family had taken refuge, thus fulfilling the prophesy of Isaiah: “In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border… Then the Lord will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day” (Isaiah 19:19,21).
The Coptic Creed of Faith
We believe in one God, God the Father the Pantocrator who created heaven and earth, and all things seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not created, of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made; Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy spirit and the Virgin Mary and became Man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried. And on the third day He rose from the dead, according to the scriptures, ascended to the heavens; He sits at the right hand of his Father, and He is coming again in His glory to judge the living and the dead, Whose kingdom shall have no end.
Yes, we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Life-Giver, Who proceeds from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.
And in one holy, catholic and apostolic church. We confess one baptism for the remission of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the coming age. Amen.
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