CWN - The Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church has created a new diocese to minister to Christians who have fled discrimination and violence in Egypt and now live in northern France.
Another diocese, created in 2015, ministers to the Coptic Orthodox faithful who live in Switzerland and southern France.
Emigration from Egypt to France, where an estimated 100,000 members of the Coptic Orthodox Church now live, began in the 1960s during the rule of Gamal Abdel Nasser and intensified in the years following the Arab Spring (2011).
The Coptic Orthodox Church ceased to be in full communion with the Apostolic See following the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451).
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