COPTIC CHURCH

COPTIC CHURCH. The indigenous Church of Egypt (q.v.), its name, the ethnic name of its adherents (“Copts”), derives from the local pronunciation of the Greek word, Aegyptos. While certainly dating from apostolic times (local tradition ascribes the missionary work to St. Mark), little is known about the Egyptian Church before the writings of Clement of Alexandria (qq.v.), and the latter says little or nothing about the non-Greek, native Christians. Coptic Christianity properly emerges with the rise of monasticism (q.v.) in the 4th c. Its founders, Antony, Macarius, and Pachomius (qq.v.), were all Copts. The leadership of the Egyptian church, however, was concentrated in Alexandria (q.v.), which was Greek. Some scholars have therefore read the schism following the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (qq.v.) as a movement toward native Egyptian independence. While this is not entirely convincing, there is doubtless some truth to it. Within a few generations following Chalcedon, the Egyptian countryside was solidly “monophysite.” The rise of Islam (q.v.) and the Arab conquest of Egypt in the 640s contributed to the permanence of the breach in communion. Today the Copts are a minority in their own land, though this is somewhat offset by their being the educated class. They number between 5 and 10 percent of the Egyptian population, but are victimized by Islamic “fundamentalists” who oppose government toleration of other religions. Their patriarch is based in Cairo, though still bearing the title of Alexandria. While Coptic, the last expression of the language of the pharaohs, is still used in this Church’s liturgy, it is increasingly giving way to Arabic. The past thirty years have also seen a renaissance in the Coptic Church and increased contact with both the other “Oriental Orthodox” (q.v.) and the Eastern Churches adhering to Chalcedon.