Photographs have circulated on social media of elated Copts mounting a cross over the dome of the Coptic Orthodox church of the Holy Virgin and Anba Pola in Bagdad, the first Coptic Orthodox Church in Baghdad.
The foundation stone of the Holy Virgin and Anba Pola’s was laid in a ceremony in 2012. Back the, the governor of Bagdad, the Egyptian Ambassador to Bagdad, and the Iraqi head of Christian endowments attended the ceremony, as well as heads and representatives of Churches in Bagdad had attended the event. Father Mina al-Ureshalimi gave a speech during that ceremony, expressing the joy of the Coptic Church and congregation for the erection of a Coptic Church in Bagdad which he described as: “the city of civilisation, enlightenment and history, in Iraq, the birthplace of Abraham, father of all prophets.”
Watani International
9 March 2019