Coptic Church in Aswan responds to video of Bishop

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By NADER SHOKRY - Translated by NOURHAN MAGDI
The Aswan bishopric said a mistake occurred in an interview published on YouTube, where Bishop Hedra, discussing the Marinab Church incidents, said mistakenly that the building hosting the church was a house before it was converted to a church.

The bishopric, a Coptic jurisdiction, ensured it was an old church, where religious rituals were practiced under police guard.

“This is a response to what was mistakenly understood from the record of the Bishop Hedra on the El-Karma Channel,” Aswan’s bishopric said in a statement released Wednesday.

“The video was recorded Sep. 18 and was published Sep. 20, while the attacks were on Sep. 30. This means it was 12 days before the burning of the church.”

The statement added that the main purpose of the video was to reassure Christians that the church’s cross had not been taken, because it had not been installed yet. The statement also sought to reassure the congregation that the situation will be settled down after the government’s interference.

The statement also said that Bishop Hedra assured the Church building appears old from outside, where his owner donated it in 1940. It was mentioned that because it is so old, it earned the classification of a church.

It is said also that Bishop Hedra prayed three times inside it, the first time being in 1976 during his first visit to the country.

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