The Monastery of St. George in Rizeigat, Luxor, issued a statement today confirming that it is preparing for the annual celebration that will be held on time under the patronage of His Holiness Pope Tawadros II and the papal committee overseeing the celebrations of the monastery . Statement added that the celebration will only be canceled if decided by Pope Tawadros and the committee, but there is currently no plans to suspend them.

St. Samuel monastery is waiting for security permission to open after the road to it was completed and is ready to be opened. The Central and Northern Upper Egypt Development Authority, affiliated to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Communities, announced the completion of paving the road to the monastery at the cost of 42 million LE. It is noteworthy that this road witnessed two terrorist incidents, in which nearly 40 people were killed and 30 other Copts were injured in their way to visit the monastery.

The Church of the Martyrs of Faith and the Homeland in Minya celebrated the arrival of the remains of the African martyrs Matthew, who was slain by ISIS among the 21 Coptic martyrs in Libya. His Eminence Abba Pfnutius, Archbishop of Samalut, demanded the Egyptian authorities to give him the remains of martyr Matthew to be held in a dedicated place in the shrine of the martyrs at the Church of the Martyrs of Faith and the Homeland.

Bishop Paula of Tanta received today a delegation of members and ambassadors of the European Union countries at the Cathedral of the Great St. George to visit the Shrine of the martyrs of Tanta. The delegation included His Excellency the Ambassador of the European Union Christian Burger, His Excellency the Ambassador of France, Mr. Stefan Romate, His Excellency the Ambassador of Germany, Mr. Cyril John, and the French member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Jean-Francois, and Stephen Romateie, the French ambassador.

Luxor Governorate started demolishing the Evangelical Church in Luxor to complete the Rams historic project. It is worth mentioning that the state has built a new church instead of the demolished one and prayers were held in the new church this month.

Bishop Agathon of Maghagha issued a statement confirming his love and submission for His Holiness Pope Tawadros II and that the lawsuit that he filed against the writer of the book about Bishop Epiphanius was in his personal capacity. In a statement, Bishop Agathon referred to a meeting at the Papal Headquarters in Cairo with His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of Saint Mark See and a number of members of the Holy Synod and declared all support for the decisions taken by the Pope for the good of the church and the Egyptians.

His Eminence Bishop Raphael, General Bishop of Churches in Central Cairo, said that the New Coptic Year celebrated tomorrow brings us a new hope, a new opportunity, and a new joy mixed with the blessings of the martyrs. He added that we pray to God to bless the new year with the prayers of the martyrs that we celebrate on that day.

Ambassador Nabila Makram Abdel Shahid, Minister of State for Immigration and Egyptian Affairs Abroad received HG Bishop Bakhoum, Patriarchal Deputy for Patriarchal Diocese Affairs in the Catholic Church, and Samia Rafla, Member of Parliament, to discuss means of cooperation between the Ministry of Immigration and the Coptic Catholic Church, within the framework of the presidential initiative The survival boats . The initiative aims to raise awareness of the dangers of illegal immigration, and the cooperation with the Coptic Catholic Church will be through supporting the simple and needy families in the governorates exporting illegal immigration.

The Minya Criminal Court issues its verdict in the case of burning the homes of Copts in Karm village next Tuesday after 4 Copts decided to reconciile with the defendants claiming they didn t see them burning their homes. The crime was committed on May 2016 after a rumor spread about a romantic relationship between a Muslim woman and a Coptic man whose mother was attacked and stripped nude and in the streets to punish her son for what they claimed he committed.

The Court of Appeal of Beni Suef decided that next Sunday, September 13th, will be held the first session of the case of Mrs. Suad Thabet, known as lady of Karm village. This came after the Minya Criminal Court decided to refer the case of Soaad Thabet, known as the lady of Karm village who was stripped and dragged along the streets of the Egyptian city of Minya. The former judge decided to follow his precedent and decided to step down from the case and return it to Beni Suef court to assign it to another court.

The Coptic Orthodox Church issued a statement to refute the false claims of some extremists that it has seized public properties and lands of the state to build churches. The statement assured that the church has never seized a public property and never built on a public land except for those granted by the state to the church in new cities. It added that the law is totally respected by the church, especially the law of building houses of worship.

Monks of St. Catherine s Monastery participate in removing the effects of torrents with the people of Arbaeen Valley. On Monday, the city of Saint Catherine witnessed torrents in Wadi Ar-Arbaeen, which was a happy news since torrents water are the valley.

For the first time, Egypt agreed to build a church and a mosque in the same building in the first religious complex in Moqattam, which will be opened this year. The new building is a sign of religious tolerance, unity and love in Egypt as it will contain the church of St. Mark and St. Luke as well as the mosque of Al-Hafiz.

The Monasteries of St. Thomas is Khattaba, St. Moussa in Al-Alamein, and St. Boktor in Khattaba, announced they will start receiving guests starting from tomorrow. The monasteries announced they will only receiving private small cars and only 5 cars will be allowed at the same time while adhering to precautionary measures including wearing masks, social distancing, and fever screening.

The Egyptian Armed Forces announced on Sunday that they managed to destroy and raid 317 terrorists hideouts and 73 terrorists were killed during the raids and more than 10 SUV vehicles were destroyed. The Egyptian Army’s press statement said that the operations against terrorism ended with the death of two high profile terrorists and mourned the death of three officers and four soldiers during the operations.

For the second time, the Minya Criminal Court decided to refer the case of Soaad Thabet, known as the lady of Karm village who was stripped and dragged along the streets of the Egyptian city of Minya. The judge decided to follow his precedent and decided to step down from the case and return it to Beni Suef court to assign it to another court.

After 6 months of closure on Fridays due to the spread of Corona virus, Egyptian mosques and churches will return to open their doors for prayers tomorrow while taking all precautionary measures. The government decided to close all houses of worship on Fridays since they are the most crowded days with worshipers to avoid the spread of COVID-19.

Dr. Rev. Andre Zaki, head of the Evangelical community in Egypt, thanked president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi for establishing the Evangelical Endowment Authority which proves equality between Egyptians and helps organizing the work. This came after the final approval of the House of Representatives to establish the Evangelical Endowment Authority and the Catholic Endowment Authority

17 Copts won the Senate Council elections that were held this week in Egypt. It is worth mentioning that 14 Copts succeeded in the list system, while three Copts won the individual system in the governorates of Cairo and Alexandria.

The Coptic Orthodox Church commemorated today the third anniversary of the departure of Bishop Kyrollos of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Milan and the Papal Vicar in Europe. Bishop Kyrollos died at the age of 65 after establishing the first Coptic diocese in Italy. He was born On October 15th, 1952 and passed away on August 14th, 201

A limited fire has in the Church of Archangel Michael in Nag Hammadi after a fire broke out in some of the coffins prepared for funerals in case of deaths. A church source said that the fire probably started with a candle, as some servants were carrying out the cleaning process of the church, but the fire was controlled without any losses in the church or casualties