Coptic Orthodox Church in The United Kingdom

Coptic Orthodox Church In The United Kingdom

The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria has many churches in the United Kingdom and Ireland, under the jurisdiction of one metropolitan and four bishops. The first Coptic Orthodox Church to be established in the United Kingdom was St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church, Kensington, London. Pope Shenouda III consecrated the Church at its present site in 1979, however it had roots ten years before in a hired place (believed to be Coptic Street, London - named after the Church's first presence in the United Kingdom). The first three monk priests who served this church became members of the Holy Synod of the mother church in Egypt. The first Coptic Orthodox bishop to be sent to the United Kingdom by Pope Shenouda III, in 1985, was a General bishop, Bishop Missael, who established St. Mary & St. Antony's Coptic Orthodox Church in Birmingham later that year and St. Mary & St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Centre in 1989. On 26 May 1991, Bishop Missael was consecrated by Pope Shenouda III as the first bishop of the first Coptic Orthodox diocese in the United Kingdom, the Diocese of Birmingham, which is today known as the Diocese of the Midlands in the U.K. In the next three decades the Coptic Orthodox Church and congregation grew quickly.