We recently had the opportunity to interview Archbishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church, a cherished friend and key ally of the FoRB Foundation. Archbishop Angaelos has been a steadfast advocate for religious freedom and interfaith understanding, graciously hosting our events in “The Sanctuary” and using his voice to build bridges across faith communities. In this interview, he shares the personal and historical reasons behind his commitment to freedom of religion or belief, the ongoing challenges faced by Coptic Christians and other religious minorities, and practical ways that individuals and communities can contribute to this crucial work.
Interviewer 0:00
So what inspired you to get involved with promoting freedom of religion or belief?
Archbishop Angaelos 0:30
So when I started, it was, of course, that there were attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt. And so of course, being here, I was the representative, and so we raised the issue, followed the talk, and as time went on, sorry, the time went on. We then had the uprisings happening around the Middle East, and you had Libya, Iraq, Syria, everything happening, and there was pressure on the Christian communities. So we ended up advocating for Christians in those countries. Then, of course, seeing what was happening to the Yazidis on Sinjar Mountain, and I just felt as a Christian, the least Christian thing I can do is only advocate for Christians. I think that that’s not what we’re supposed to do, not what we’re called to do. And so we started advocating for for the Yazidis. We’ve also had a very strong relationship with the Baha’i community for about 20 years, almost. And so went from there. And as the forbe community started to develop here in London, we started to develop our own network, and so lots of very good friends. And we do maintain friendships thing. I mean, I think this isn’t just institutional, it’s not just official, it’s actually relational, and that’s what makes it very good. So we were able to do all of that, and by God’s grace, able to help people communicate. And because of the relationships, we then developed a convening power. So if we have a meeting, we’re able to gather people together. So those are just some of those.
Interviewer 2:27
I actually had the opportunity to visit Egypt this past winter, and our guide was a Coptic Christian, and he talked about kind of his struggle with being a Christian in a predominantly Muslim country.
Archbishop Angaelos 2:42
It is. There are a variety of issues. I mean that the you know, media worthy bombings and shootings haven’t happened for a while, but there’s still the glass ceilings. There’s still the institutional persecution, there are still the Christian leadership, that kind of thing. So it’s a challenge, but it’s a challenge over the 1400 years. It’s nothing new for us. By God’s grace, we’re still there. That’s amazing.
Interviewer 3:18
So when did you first become actively engaged in Forb related work? Was it when you first came in, or was it just recently?
Archbishop Angaelos 3:27
Yeah, so I’ve been here now for 30 years. My first four years, I served as a monk, Priest, as a parish priest. I stuck to my parish into youth ministry. I became a bishop in 1999 25 years ago. And it’s at that point that we started establishing our ecumenical interfaith relations and dealing in the public square. And I think that all then provided quite you know, as I was saying, just history unfolded, and it was quite an organic development of God opening doors and people being in need, and have people who need the new step up. And I think that. And over the past 20 years, we’ve seen lots of violations against Christians predominantly, but also against faith communities generally.
Interviewer 4:15
Thank you. Could you tell me what roles you’re currently playing and what kinds of support or charitable activities you’re involved in? Matthew mentioned that you have a charity or some sort of support initiative that you’ve set up.
Archbishop Angaelos 4:33
So it’s not a standing on charity. It’s our advocacy office in the church called ref semi, R, E, F, C, E, M, I is the Coptic word for advocate. And I don’t want to quote the Coptic office of because then it would look like we’re just advocating for Coptic Christians. And also it was for me. I chose the name because 1000 years ago there was an. Arabization, Islamization of Egypt. And so there was an active pursuit of eradicating Coptic culture. To the extent that Coptic as a language was removed from all officials and documents and people would literally have the towns come out of this book. So to think that 1000 years later, there is a Coptic word that is the name of an advocacy office where that church still exists only in Egypt, but now all belong in London, and advocates for everyone else being persecuted for their faith was quite significant to me, and so semi partners with a variety of friends. And the thing is, we don’t compete. You know, we are a church desk. We’re not an NGO, we’re not looking for funding, we’re not competing for space, we’re not we’re not competing for attention. And as I said, because we’ve forged personal relationships, then all of that works quite well, and we’re able to stand together so I can stand equally comfortably with the baha’i community Christians in Pakistan in even on the more contentious issue with Israel, Palestine, Russia, Ukraine as a church, we have a broader understanding of what it means to love and to forgive and social justice and all of those Things we can speak to without being partisan and without being inflammatory.
Interviewer 6:56
Are you involved in FoRB efforts in the UK, and how do you promote FoRB in the UK?
Archbishop Angaelos 7:05
So we are founding members of the UK FoRB forum. Actually, you so founding members of the APPG ever since it started with Baroness barge, probably 10 years ago. Now, we were one of the handful of organizations as a church that sponsored the work behind and have continued. You know, with now Lord alton and Cox taking over and you know, with Julie being in place, we also are active members and supporters of the UK FoRB forum again, ever since the establishment of Bishop Philip Ron Stephen was then Bishop Truro. Now he’s Winchester, and we contributed to the his review, the Truro review, that was quite critical in pinpointing persecution of Christians, but within a context that it is a violation of fraud. Because I think when we have a shared voice and a shared platform, we’re much more effective and we can help each other. We know, modernist society already looks at religion as being partisan, selfish, self interested, irrelevant. So I think when we can stand together, especially on important issues, then it’s it makes a difference, and it gives us more credibility and allows us to speak with a very different kind of voice.
Interviewer 8:47
So what do you believe individuals and communities in the UK can do to promote and protect forb?
Archbishop Angaelos 8:55
First and foremost, awareness. So become aware. Learn, ask questions, listen, dig deeper, but also at the same time, be very careful of the sources of the information, because there’s lots of chatting out there. Some of it is relevant, some of it is inflammatory and unnecessary and quite simply, wrong. So find credible sources, become more literate and understand the issue, rather than being provoked by social media and sound bites and random quotes and things that don’t build, they actually create. More of a division. That’s the first thing they become from. Secondly, reach out to the communities themselves. We’ll sometimes sit in the comfort of our armchairs and think, Oh, poor people. You know, that’s really horrible. If you know someone from that community, reach out. Ask them how they are, ask for their perspective, ask for what they think, ask for what you can do, and then find ways to help. And they can range anywhere from humanitarian aid and contributions and donations all the way to speaking oneself or petitioning Members of Parliament, or looking at civil society, or creating more awareness around so I think in those respects, that is what we can do, and that’s we sometimes sit and we think, Oh, That’s a horrible thing, but that’s where it stops. That’s just going off.
Interviewer 11:10
How can people get involved with or support your organization and initiatives.
Archbishop Angaelos 11:19
So I mean, go to refseme.org, our EFC. M, i.org. It’s and we’re not doing we’re not the only entity that does this. Lot of people do it, whether it’s through us or through anybody else, as long as we’re advocating for people who can’t speak for themselves, don’t have a platform. If we can provide a platform, if we can collaborate and corporate, you know, there’s just one thing that really frustrates me, is duplication, wastage, wastage of time, wastage of resources. It’s just, it’s a if this, if this was a company, we’d be running a loss. So I think we have so much talent. That’s why you know, today’s opportunity to partner is brilliant, our ability to stand with people and to stand for other causes. One experience I had, which I’ll never forget, that really was probably the beginning of all of this work. Is some years ago now, there were seven Bahai religious leaders who were imprisoned in Iran, and my good friends in the high community said, Well, we’re going to see the Minister of Middle East, North Africa. Will you come with us? And I said, Of course. Then couple days later they called. He said, Well, would you leave the delegation? And this was an interfaith delegation for the high community. And I said, Absolutely. And then they called and said, well, actually, would you actually hand the letter over on that was an open letter with the minister. Will you hand the letter over on our behalf? And so there was this Coptic Orthodox clergyman heading a delegation of interfaith representatives handing over a letter to the Foreign Office Minister for Middle East, North Africa, on behalf of the Baha’i, and that’s beautiful volumes.
Interviewer 13:24
How do you create such and foster this relationship with the Baha’i community,
Archbishop Angaelos 13:31
Friendship, common cause, common experience. What the Baha’i community is going through in Iran is similar, and sometimes, quite sometimes, more harsh than what to go to ask Christians go through and so I think it’s about feeling people’s pain and being able, being able and willing to step in and support.
Interviewer 14:00
Thank you so much.