Yesterday, the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt selected the 60-year-old Bishop Tawadros from Beheira in the Nile Delta as the new leader of the church in a ceremony held at St Mark's Cathedral in Cairo. The ceremony which selected Tawadros consisted of an altar boy wearing a blindfold picking one of three names from a chalice.
The election process follows the death in March of the previous leader, Pope Shenouda III. Tawadros will formally take his position as pope on November 18.
The Coptic Orthodox Church represents six to ten percent of the 83 million people of Egypt and is the largest Christian community in the Middle East. Following the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak and the election of the Muslim Brotherhood there have been a number of violent attacks on Copts as well as complaints of discrimination.
This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.
Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.
Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
