40 years of the Coptic church in the Netherlands

This year marks 40 years since the first Coptic-orthodox church in the Netherlands was opened. On Saturday November 8th this was celebrated in the Coptic cathedral of the Holy Virgin Mary in Amsterdam. In addition to Coptic clergy, volunteers and faithful, also present were the apostolic nuncio to the Netherlands, mgr. Jean-Marie Speich, the Roman Catholic bishop of Amsterdam, mgr. Jan Hendriks and the mayor of Bussum (which has the most recently opened Coptic church), Han ter Heegde. The rector of St Irenaeus, father Michael Bakker, represented both our institute and Metropolitan Athenagoras of Belgium.

Nowadays there are 10 Coptic churches and a monastery in the Netherlands, as well as one church in Belgium belonging to the Dutch diocese. Together these churches serve over 10.000 faithful.