Egyptian theologians look to early church after recent attacks

Only a few days after the December 12 attack against the city’s Coptic Christians as they worshiped, theologians met near Cairo to seek unity in an early church father.

The academic conference Saint Irenaeus and Enlightened Humanity  had been planned by the Anaphora Institute in collaboration with Lyon Catholic University in France.

“St. Irenaeus focused on the worldwide church as one body,” said Egyptian bishop Anba Thomas of El-Qussia, founder of the Anaphora Institute. “And our vision at Anaphora has been to emphasize that there are no foreigners here, as in Christ, we are all one in his image. We want life to be a practical implementation of that dimension of the teachings of St. Irenaeus, where we see the church as that beautiful image of a tree possessing deep, strong roots and open branches.”