By Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service.
Twitter photo of His Grace Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, spoke at a Press Conference regarding a potential U.S. Genocide declaration in response to actions of the Caliphate against the Yazidi and Christian communities in the Middle East.
WASHINGTON (RNS) Bishop Angaelos, a U.K.-based leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, stood before the media holding up a thick report on “genocide” in the Middle East that featured a 2015 photo of Islamic state extremists preparing to behead 21 members of his faith in Libya.
“They were not killed for any other reason but they were Christians,” he said Thursday (March 10), joining with others calling attention to religious persecution.
Hours later, he addressed board members of the National Association of Evangelicals, explaining the basics of his 15 million-member faith — “Coptic Orthodox just means Egyptian Orthodox” — and telling them that what they have in common “far, far exceeds” their differences.
A year after losing 21 fellow Copts, Angaelos continues his bridge-building work, seeking support for persecuted people of many faiths, visiting Muslim refugees and helping evangelicals realize that the Orthodox are part of the Christian flock.
“Being Christians and being able to forgive, it’s important for us to also know that we need to be reconcilers and that conflict is something that is detestable to God,” he said in an interview after his meeting with the NAE board.
The Coptic Orthodox Church established by St. Mark, the writer of the Bible’s second Gospel, remains the largest Christian denomination in the Middle East, with some 13 million adherents in Egypt. He told the NAE board his faith’s roots include the creation of the Nicene Creed, still recited across Christendom, and a monastic tradition now shared in the West.
“When I’m walking through airport terminals or down the streets and I see nuns or brothers, I feel an instant connection because we have that common heritage,” said Angaelos, who wears the cowl of a monk beneath his round black bishop’s headdress.
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At any given day in the PCUSA on a national or corporate level, they are consumed by three questions. How and where are LGBTs getting married. What civil rights are being denied Hamas terrorists by Israel. And what churches, people, or entities can be extorted to fill the coffers. Other issues, Christian genocide, religious persecution, transglobal terror are simply non-issues, or not worthy of their time. The latest thome from the Stated Clerk more or less seeks to give advise to the President’s travel schedule. This is what level the PCUSA has devolved too.
Of course if my people or church were being slaughtered in their own homes I would seek the input and support of American Evangelicals, the old Protestant Mainliners do not even pick up the phone. Does not fit their victimization and tribal grievance narratives. May God Bless the Good Bishop. Louisville would not even open the front door.