Christianity in Egypt

Saint Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria

Christianity is a minority religion in Egypt. Egyptian Christians, nearly all of whom are Copts (adherents of the Coptic Orthodox Church or other Coptic churches), most likely account for about 10% of the country's population, though different sources' estimates have ranged from 3% to 20%.While a minority within Egypt, Egypt's Christian population is the largest in absolute numbers in the Middle East and North Africa. The history of Christianity in Egypt dates to the Roman era. Alexandria was an early center of Christianity.

Demographics

Over 95% of Egyptian Christians belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, an Oriental Orthodox Church. The Coptic Church constitute the largest Christian community in the Middle East and has approximately 4 to 8 million followers in Egypt, in addition to 1 to 2 million abroad, but no one really knows since there has never been a census. 10% is the generally accepted figure, but it may be higher. The actual number may be between 11-13 million according to an article cited in Coptic Christianity in Egypt. The Coptic Orthodox Church is headed by the Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa on the Holy See of Saint Mark, currently Pope Theodoros II. Affiliated sister churches are located in Armenia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, India, Lebanon and Syria.

Other native Egyptian Christians are adherents of the Coptic Catholic Church, the Coptic Evangelical Church and various Coptic Protestant denominations. Non-native Christian communities are largely found in the urban regions of Alexandria and Cairo, and are members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Latin Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Maronite Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, or the Syriac Orthodox Church. Scattered among the various churches are a number of believers in Christ from a Muslim background. A 2015 study estimates some 14,000 such believers in Egypt.

Christian Denominations in Egypt by number of adherents

Denomination	Number of Egyptian adherents
Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria	15,300,000 (95%) (See Copts in Egypt)
Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria	350,000 (0.5%) (4,500 are of Greek descent, the rest are mostly of Syro-Lebanese descent)
Coptic Catholic Church	161,000 (0.3%) (See Copts in Egypt)
Evangelical Church of Egypt (Synod of the Nile)	14,000 (out of 27,000 Protestants)
Assemblies of God	7,500 (out of 27,000 Protestants)
Baptist	4,000 (out of 27,000 Protestants)
Free Methodist	2,000 (out of 27,000 Protestants)
Christian Brethren Church	1,500 (out of 27,000 Protestants)
Anglican Church (Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East)	1,000 - 1,500 (out of 27,000 Protestants)
Melkite Greek Catholic Church	9,000 (0.8%) (Adherents are mostly of Syro-Lebanese descent)
Armenian Apostolic Church	8,000 (0.1%)
Latin Catholic Church	8,000 (0.1%) (Formerly large communities of Italians and Maltese made up the Latin Catholic population)
Maronite Church	5,000 (0.1%) (Adherents are of Lebanese descent)
Pentecostal Church of God	375 (out of 27,000 Protestants)
Syriac Catholic Church	2,000 (>0.1%)
Pentecostal Holiness Church	140 (out of 27,000 Protestants)
Armenian Catholic Church	1,200 (>0.1%) (See Armenians in Egypt)
Church of God of Prophecy	110 (out of 27,000 Protestants)
Seventh-day Adventist Church	852
Chaldean Catholic Church	500
Syriac Orthodox Church	450 - 500

History

Further information: Roman Egypt and History of the Copts

The Diocese of Egypt (c. 400 AD)

Egyptian Christians believe that the Patriarchate of Alexandria was founded by Mark the Evangelist around AD 33, and Christianity entered Egypt because of [Mark the Evangelist]

By AD 300 it is clear that Alexandria was one of the great Christian centres. The Christian apologists Clement of Alexandria and Origen both lived part or all of their lives in that city, where they wrote, taught, and debated.

With the Edict of Milan in 313, Constantine I ended the persecution of Christians. Over the course of the 4th century, paganism was suppressed and lost its following, as the poet Palladius bitterly noted. Graffiti at Philae in Upper Egypt proves worship of Isis persisted at its temples into the 5th century. Many Egyptian Jews also became Christians, but many others refused to do so, leaving them as the only sizable religious minority in a Christian country.

Alexandria became the centre of the first great schism in the Christian world, between the Arians, named for the Alexandrian priest Arius, and their opponents, represented by Athanasius, who became Archbishop of Alexandria in 326 after the First Council of Nicaea rejected Arius's views. The Arian controversy caused years of riots and rebellions throughout most of the 4th century. In the course of one of these, the great temple of Serapis, the stronghold of paganism, was destroyed. Athanasius was alternately expelled from Alexandria and reinstated as its Archbishop between five and seven times. Another religious development in Egypt was the monasticism of the Desert Fathers, who renounced the material world in order to live a life of poverty in devotion to the Church.

See also

• Religion in Egypt
• Coptic Orthodox Church
• Roman Catholicism in Egypt
• Protestants in Egypt
• List of Coptic Churches in Egypt