Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of Saint Mark’s Diocese Tawadros II opened on Sunday the first ever Coptic church in Japan.

The church was set up last year by Anba Daniel, the bishop of Sydney to serve Copts from Egypt, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony, Pope Tawadros thanked the government and people of Japan for hosting the new church. 

He also hailed the efforts exerted by the Egyptian embassy in Tokyo, led by Ambassador Ismail Khairat.

The pontiff termed Egypt as a combination of civilizations; Pharaonic, Christian and Islamic civilizations.

"Egypt has a Pharaonic history. Christianity lived for seven centuries in Egypt and then Islam came," he told the event.

He cited the travel of the holy family to Egypt in the first century. 

Source: MENA