Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria

The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is the largest Christian Church in Egypt, and also the largest in the Middle East overall.

According to tradition, the Church was established by Saint Mark, an apostle and evangelist, in the middle of the 1st century (approximately AD 42). The head of the Church and the See of Alexandria is the Patriarch of Alexandria on the Holy See of Saint Mark, who also carries the title of Coptic Pope. The See of Alexandria is titular, and today the Coptic Pope presides from Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the Abbassia District in Cairo.

The Coptic Orthodox Church belongs to the Oriental Orthodox family of Churches, which has been a distinct Christian body since the schism following the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, when it took a different position over Christology from that of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The precise Christological differences that caused the split with the Coptic Christians are still disputed, highly technical, and mainly concerned with the nature of Christ. The foundational roots of the Coptic Church are based in Egypt, but it has a worldwide following.

Coptic

Coptic may refer to:

See also

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels.

In many Christian denominations, worship services on Palm Sunday include a procession of the faithful carrying palms, representing the palm branches the crowd scattered in front of Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem. The difficulty of procuring palms in unfavorable climates led to their substitution with branches of native trees, including box, yew, willow, and olive. The Sunday was often named after these substitute trees, as in Yew Sunday, or by the general term Branch Sunday.

Biblical basis and symbolism

In the accounts of the four canonical Gospels, Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem takes place about a week before his Resurrection.

The symbolism is captured in Zechariah 9:9 "The Coming of Zion's King – See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey". It suggests that Jesus was declaring he was the King of Israel to the anger of the Sanhedrin.

Egypt

Egypt (ⁱ/ˈiːdʒɪpt/; Arabic: مِصر‎ Miṣr, Egyptian Arabic: مَصر Maṣr, Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ Khemi), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia, via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is the world's only contiguous Eurafrasian nation. Most of Egypt's territory of 1,010,408 square kilometres (390,000 sq mi) lies within the Nile Valley. Egypt is a Mediterranean country. It is bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.

Egypt has one of the longest histories of any modern country, arising in the tenth millennium BC as one of the world's first nation states. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. Iconic monuments such as the Giza Necropolis and its Great Sphinx, as well the ruins of Memphis, Thebes, Karnak, and the Valley of the Kings, reflect this legacy and remain a significant focus of archaeological study and popular interest worldwide. Egypt's rich cultural heritage is an integral part of its national identity, having endured, and at times assimilated, various foreign influences, including Greek, Persian, Roman, Arab, Ottoman, and European. Although Christianised in the first century of the Common Era, it was subsequently Islamised due to the Islamic conquests of the seventh century.

Hope not Hate

Hope not Hate (stylized as HOPE not hate) is an advocacy group based in the United Kingdom that "campaigns to counter racism and fascism," and to "combine first class research with community organising and grassroots actions to defeat hate groups at elections and to build community resilience against extremism."

It was created in 2004 by Nick Lowles, a former editor of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight (from which it split in late 2011). It is backed by various politicians and celebrities, and has been backed by several trade unions.

History

Founded in 2004 by Nick Lowles, former editor of the anti-fascist Searchlight magazine, Hope not Hate functioned as part of the latter organisation until 2011, when the two parties split. As a standalone organisation, HOPE not hate took with it two of the three units of Searchlight: Searchlight Educational Trust (SET), a charity; and Searchlight Information Services (SIS), its research and investigative function. The organisation now consists of HOPE not hate Educational Ltd (a charitable wing) and HOPE not hate Ltd (focused on campaigning and investigative work).