St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church (Los Angeles)
History of the Church
St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church of Los Angeles was founded as the second Coptic parish in the United States, and was incorporated by 1970 with about 200 families at the time. The Coptic families in Los Angeles started settling from around the late 1960s when the late Father Bishoy Kamel was commissioned to serve the church in 1969, during Pope Cyril VI's papacy. Fr. Bishoy was a prominent Copt, being considered a modern-day saint within the Church, and helped to found not only St. Mark's but several other parishes and buildings throughout Egypt, the United States, Europe and Australia.
The congregation initially used a Syriac Orthodox building to accommodate its liturgies. Then, the congregation eventually purchased the current building which was previously used by the Russian Orthodox. Several years later, in 1995, the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles, Southern California and Hawaii was founded. Pope Shenouda III, the Pope of Alexandria (at the time), enthroned HG Serapion as Bishop for the diocese, which includes St. Mark's Church as well as several other diocese churches. There are currently about 650 Coptic families served by St. Mark's Church with several others belonging to different church congregations throughout California.
See also
- Coptic Orthodox Church
- Seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria
- Coptic architecture
- Coptic Cairo
- Coptic Orthodox Church in North America
References
- ^ "Coptic Church Urges Thorough Investigation In Murder of Jersey City Family". Coptic Church Network, January 20, 2005. Accessed August 11, 2008.
- ^ CNEWA:The Coptic Orthodox Church Archived 2009-08-13 at the Wayback Machine (Retrieved 17-07-2008)
- ^ Church Data
- ^ The History of Copts in North America Archived 2014-04-17 at the Wayback Machine (Retrieved 08-06-2008)
- ^ The life of Fr. Bishoy Kamel (Retrieved 06-08-2008)
- ^ Fr. Bishoy Kamel (Retrieved 06-08-2008)