Photo Credit: Diocese of Egypt
The Very Revd David Aziz has been appointed Dean of the Episcopal / Anglican Cathedral in Alexandria.
The Archbishop of Alexandria, Mouneer Anis, has appointed the David Aziz to become the Dean of the Episcopal / Anglican Cathedral of Saint Mark in Alexandria and the Churches of the Alexandria region. In a special service to commemorate the event, Archbishop Mouneer said: “today I appoint one of my sons to assume this great responsibility, which is to take care of the parish of Christ in this great city, the city of Alexandria whose soil was watered with the blood of the martyrs in the era of the Romans and those who sacrificed their lives for Christ.”
The service was attended by several members of the Egyptian Parliament and executive leaders in Alexandria, representatives of the Coptic Orthodox and Greek Orthodox churches, the Renaissance Church, the Catholic Church, the Church of Christ, the Egyptian Family House, and a delegate from Al-Azhar Al-Sharif.
Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Alexandria was built on land given to the Anglican Church by Muhammad Ali Pasha, ruler of Egypt in 1839. It was the first Episcopal / Anglican Church in the Arab Republic of Egypt. In 1841, the Archbishop of Canterbury consecrated Michael Solomon Alexander as the first Bishop of Jerusalem, and signed an agreement with the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria in which he committed the Anglican Church to serve the Orthodox Churches. In 1842, the Anglican Church started a seminary for the Coptic Church in the Patriarchate in Cairo. One of the graduates, Kyrilos, became the Pope of Alexandria.
The Episcopal / Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East was inaugurated in 1976, and Egypt and North Africa was a diocese within it. In January 2020, Anglican Primates approved the decision of the Anglican Communion’s Standing Committee to recognise the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa as the new autonomous Episcopal / Anglican Province of Alexandria, serving 10 countries. It is the 41st Province of the Anglican Communion.