AUSTRALIAN CHURCHES RALLY TO SUPPORT EGYPTIAN CHRISTIANS

Australian Christians from many denominations are joining with the country's Coptic community against violence directed towards Christians in Egypt. A specially organised liturgy and demonstration was held on 14 January at St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral in Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, then processed to the Egyptian Consulate and then to offices of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs. "We want the whole world to know what is happening in Egypt to the Chriatian community: that every week, every month, there are continuing attacks against Christians and it's escalalting," Coptic Bishop Suriel of Melbourne and Affiliated Regions told Ecumenical News International. The prayer service and demonstration was held in response to the reported killing of six Coptic Christians and a Muslim security officer who were sprayed with gunfire in a drive-by attack in the Southern Egyptian City of Nag Hamadi, on 6 January, the Coptic Christmas Eve. Australia has an estimated 20,000 Coptic Christians, "and about 6,000 of them were there at the rally", Bishop Suriel said. After the service, the congregation followed six black coffins through the streets of Melbourne to the Egyptian Consulate. A delegation of ecumenical leaders called upon the Consul-General, "demanding that the Egyptian Government act against the persecution against Christians", Bishop Suriel said. The Bishop said that he was "very shocked" at the killings, "especially as people were leaving church so happy on Christmas Eve only to be met with bullets and violence." Bishop Suriel described the slayings as the latest in a string of attacks on Copts, "which amounts to religious persecution and harassment - but these attacks are not taken seriously" by the Egyptian police, he said. Leaders of Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches joined the Coptic Christians at the Melbourne church service and rally in the Australian state of Victoria. "It will be far better that justice and peace comes with integrity rather than authorities 'turning the other way' as if nothing was happening", the President of the Victorian Council of Churches, the Rev Jason Kioa, told ENI. Mr Kioa, a leader of the protestant Uniting Church in Australia said, "We offer our prayers for peace, justice and goodwill for all. But for that to occur, people of peace, justice and goodwill must act together, to bring these things into reality." SYDNEY CHRISTIAN DEMONSTRATION On Tuesday 19 January 2010, thousands of Christians will also demonstrate against the murder of Coptic Christians in Egypt. Refer to the details below. "Similar demonstrations are being held in many nations, so that the Egyptian Government will stop the killing of Christians and the attacks on their churches, to ensure that all Egyptian citizens have the same human rights," said Rev Fred Nile MLC, Leader of the Christian Democratic Party.