Thursday March 28th, 2024
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Coptic Monks Face Off with Bulldozers to Save Church

Monks in Wadi El Natroun's The Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great are putting their lives on the line in an attempt to save their holy place of worship.

Staff Writer

Coptic monks in Wadi El Natroun are standing in the way of government bulldozers in a last ditch effort to protect their place of worship, The Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great.

According to http://egyptmylovely.blogspot.com/ there is a battle brewing between monks and the government that want to demolish part of their church. In a meeting that took place on January 24th, the Fayoum governorate and the Ministry of Environment decided that they would bring down one of three church gates and 300 meters of fencing. According to Pope Shenoda the Third's spokesman, the church was left with no option, and he explained that any action to prevent them from their demolition plans may result in another Maspiro-like massacre.

Despite the warning, many monks are putting their lives on the line, standing in the way of bulldozers. Hopefully, this incident will be settled without the loss of life, but with little options made available, Egyptian Christians are calling out to all those concerned to put pressure on Ibrahim Mehleb to step in with the hope of finding an alternative option. As it stands, this blog is the only one we could find with this story, and were not able to confirm at this time what is exactly happening, but believe that these pictures suggest that there is an ongoing dispute, and hope that the matter is resolved without injury. 

Photos courtesy of egyptmylovely.blogspot.com/