The Coptic community in mourning | Custodia Terrae Sanctae

The Coptic community in mourning

The Coptic Orthodox Metropolitan Archbishop of Jerusalem and the Middle East, Archbishop Anba Abraham, died yesterday, Wednesday, 25 November in Jerusalem.

Ibrahim Sedrak (name of birth) was born in Egypt 30 June 1943, in the district of Sohag. He served in the bishopric of Giza and became its secretary. He was ordained 23 July 1990.

He was called to the bishopric of Jerusalem and the Middle East, by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III on 17 November 1991.

His funeral will be held on Saturday 28 November in Jerusalem, in the presence of Pope Tawadros, Coptic Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria,who came especially from Egypt. This visit is the first in 35 years. Although Egypt signed an agreement of peace with Israel in 1979, former Coptic Pope Shenouda III forbade his followers to go to Jerusalem as long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not resolved.