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Tawadros II installed as Coptic pope in Egypt
November 18, 2012 - 14:33 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - The Coptic Orthodox church staged a ceremony rich in
ritual on Sunday, Nov 18, to install its pope, Tawadros II, who
Christians hope will guide them through the new, Islamist-led Egypt,
according to Reuters.
The 60-year-old pope was picked on November 4 and the ceremony on
Sunday filled with incense, elaborate robes and chanting marked his
formal ascendance as the 118th leader of the church.
Coptic Christians, whose church predates the arrival of Islam in
Egypt, make up a tenth of Egypt's 83 million people.
Many fear their community, the biggest Christian group in the Middle
East which has long complained of discrimination, will be squeezed to
the sidelines of society under Islamists now ruling the
Muslim-majority nation.
President Mohamed Mursi, propelled to power by the Muslim Brotherhood,
did not attend the ceremony in the cathedral in Cairo's Abbasiya
district to the dismay of some Christians who said it undermined his
claim to be a leader for all Egyptians.
But he sent his prime minister, Hisham Kandil. Other officials and
dignitaries also attended.
0
From: A. Papazian
November 18, 2012 - 14:33 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - The Coptic Orthodox church staged a ceremony rich in
ritual on Sunday, Nov 18, to install its pope, Tawadros II, who
Christians hope will guide them through the new, Islamist-led Egypt,
according to Reuters.
The 60-year-old pope was picked on November 4 and the ceremony on
Sunday filled with incense, elaborate robes and chanting marked his
formal ascendance as the 118th leader of the church.
Coptic Christians, whose church predates the arrival of Islam in
Egypt, make up a tenth of Egypt's 83 million people.
Many fear their community, the biggest Christian group in the Middle
East which has long complained of discrimination, will be squeezed to
the sidelines of society under Islamists now ruling the
Muslim-majority nation.
President Mohamed Mursi, propelled to power by the Muslim Brotherhood,
did not attend the ceremony in the cathedral in Cairo's Abbasiya
district to the dismay of some Christians who said it undermined his
claim to be a leader for all Egyptians.
But he sent his prime minister, Hisham Kandil. Other officials and
dignitaries also attended.
0
From: A. Papazian