Gaza ceasefire deal still possible but difficult work remains, Blinken says
Cairo, Egypt Reuters US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday he believed talks in Qatar could still reach a Gaza ceasefire agreement while Israel attacked Hamas gunmen in the enclave’s Al Shifa hospital and evacuated patients. In Cairo, Blinken met Arab foreign ministers and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as talks in Qatar […]
Series of fires in Egyptian churches “not a coincidence”, say Copts
World Watch Monitor Three Coptic churches in the Upper Egypt region were hit by fires in the last three weeks which, the Copts say, is “not a coincidence”. On Friday morning, 1st November, a fire started in an adjacent hall of the Mar-Girgis (St George) al-Gyoushi Church in the Shubra district of the capital Cairo; it was […]
COPTIC CHURCH: ANGER ERUPTS IN EGYPT AFTER MASSACRE OF CHRISTIAN PILGRIMS
JACOB WIRTSCHAFTER and MINA NADER report for Religion News Service…
At least seven dead as Coptic pilgrims targeted in another bus attack in Egypt
At least seven people have been killed and 14 more been injured in another attack on a bus of Coptic Christians travelling back from a monastery in Egypt on Friday. The victims were on their way home after visiting the St Samuel the Confessor monastery in the governorate of Minya in Upper Egypt – reportedly […]
Egypt appoints its first ever female Coptic Christian governor
World Watch Monitor For the first time in Egypt’s history a Coptic Christian woman has been appointed as provincial governor. The new governor of northern Damietta, Dr Manal Awad Mikhael, is also the second female governor ever to be appointed in Egypt, reports the BBC. Mikhael, 51, was sworn in before President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on […]
Mob attack on church in Egypt encouraged by police promise, say sources
World Watch Monitor A mob attacked a church in Minya, Egypt, on 13th July protesting against its legalisation and received a police officer’s approval, World Watch Monitor has learnt from local sources. The only church in Ezbet Sultan Pasha village, where about 20 per cent of the population is Christian, was built in September, 2016. Apart from […]
Families of beheaded Copts finally reunited with remains of loved ones in Egypt
World Watch Monitor After a three-year wait and a number of broken promises, the Egyptian Coptic families of 20 men beheaded by the so-called Islamic State in Libya in 2015 have finally received their loved ones’ remains. The leader of the Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros II, accompanied by several bishops, priests and deacons, welcomed the […]
EGYPT: “GIVING FREEDOM TO WOMEN IS SOMETHING REMARKABLE” – PROTESTANT HEAD
World Watch Monitor reports on how, while the issue of equality for women is gaining traction in Egypt including in some sections of the church, there’s still a “long way to go”…
Protestant leader rejects Egypt’s community reconciliation system
World Watch Monitor The head of Egypt’s Protestant Church has said he urges clergy not to take part in “reconciliation sessions” that aim to resolve community conflicts without the involvement of the police and legal system. Rev Dr Andrea Zaki said he “strongly” opposed the scheme because it renders the law “absent”. Rev Dr Andrea Zaki, president […]
US Vice President’s plans to help Middle East Christians overshadowed by political storm
World Watch Monitor US Vice President Mike Pence in a June 2017 photo PICTURE: NASA/Bill Ingalls US Vice President Mike Pence’s postponed trip to the Middle East goes ahead this weekend amid myriad tensions and a fast-shifting diplomatic landscape. Mr Pence’s trip is a shortened version of the one planned for last month, which was […]