Orthodox Christians, including Coptic and Greek churches, to celebrate Easter on Sunday

As Roman Catholics and many Western churches held Easter services on April 4, Coptic Orthodox Christians will celebrate Pascha on Sunday, along with other members of the Orthodox Christian faith, including the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches.

“Arabs could not pronounce the Greek word Aigyptios [Egyptian] so they abbreviated it to qubt, the Arabic word for Copt,” said Father Timotheus Soliman, of St. John the Baptist Coptic Orthodox Church, 7851 Riviera Blvd., in Miramar, near the Miami-Dade-Broward County line.

Founded by St. Mark, in the first century, Coptic Christians have maintained their faith and traditions despite facing persecution.

In 325, the Council of Nicea assembled 318 bishops to resolve matters of Christian doctrine. In what was the first Ecumenical Council, church leaders agreed that Christians would celebrate Pascha (the Greek word for Easter) on the Sunday after the Paschal full moon.

The council adopted the Julian calendar, named after Julius Caesar, and Coptic Easter would follow Jewish Passover on dates ranging from April 4 to May 8.

Orthodox Easter this year falls on May 2; Holy Week started Sunday.

The Copts, as they are known, were in union with Eastern Orthodox Christians, which included ethnic Greeks, until 520 bishops convened at the Council of Chalcedon, in 451, resulting in a split. The fifth century schism was the result of the Copts being incorrectly accused by the Greeks of being monophysites — or those who believed that Jesus Christ had only a divine nature, and not a human nature.

Both sides ex-communicated each other, and some 1,500 years later, in 1990, ties were re-established.

“Coptic Christians believe that Christ had two natures, one human and one divine, united as one without mingling, without confusion, and without alteration,” Soliman said. “We confess this at every liturgy.”

In 1054, Catholics split from their Eastern Orthodox brethren, and in 1582, they adopted the Gregorian calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII, which runs about 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar. This explains why Catholics and many Western Christians celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25, while Copts and other Orthodox denominations do so on Jan. 7.

The Copts faced Roman oppression in the third century for embracing Christianity. By the seventh century, they were forced by Muslims to stop speaking Coptic, a language derived mainly from Greek, and conduct their oral and written affairs in Arabic.

In recent years, Copts have been attacked and fire-bombed during church services in the Middle East.

Soliman recalled when the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS, published a 2015 video that showed masked militants decapitating Copts as they knelt along a Mediterranean beach in Libya. The video’s caption read, “People of the Cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian Church.”

“The 21 martyrs were given a choice to either denounce their faith or face death,” Soliman said.

Last Saturday, ISIS published a video showing the execution of Nabil Habashi Salama, 62, as a warning to “Christians of Egypt.”

There are upward of 20 million Copts in Egypt and another 2 million in the diaspora, which includes Australia, Europe and North America, Soliman said.

According to the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern U.S., there are 37 Coptic communities in the South. Copts make up less than 1 percent of the religious community in Miami-Dade County, a Pew Research Center study shows.

About 160 families, totaling 640 people, from Monroe, Miami-Dade and Broward counties attend St. John the Baptist, Soliman said. A new church being built on the five-acre site is expected to open by early 2022.

Copts follow strict rules including a 55-day fast preceding Easter, charitable giving and partaking of the sacraments.

“Think of the risen Christ and think of things that are above,” Soliman said. “Lay aside the sin that is surrounding us through the power of the risen Christ, who conquered death.”

For more information, visit stjohnmiami.org

This story was originally published April 26, 2021 at 12:00 PM.