His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark

My beloved children in the lands of immigration, clergy and laity. Peace and grace to you from the Lord. My greetings to you on the Glorious Feast of Resurrection.

The Resurrection of the Lord offers to us beneficial lessons that we will not forget. The first lesson is that there is no impossible, and everything is possible with God. The second lesson is that the Lord Christ, in His Resurrection, was always working for our sake.

Firstly, He removed the feelings of fear and doubt that troubled the disciples. He comforted them and planted in them the power of faith. Then He granted them the grace of the priesthood. And He said to these disciples: "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you" (Luke 20:21). He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (Luke 20:21-22).

"...On one hand, its theology is based on nothing outside the scriptures. On the other hand, the doctrines agree in all parts with those of the Early Church i.e. the tradition which has the proper interpretation and application of the teachings of our Lord and the Apostles as understood and practiced by the Christians and the leaders of the Church during the period of the One Universal Church until the division of 451 A.D."

-Bishop Athanasius of Ben-Swef and Bahnassa (1977)

The Coptic Church was established in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by St. Mark the Evangelist in the city of Alexandria around 43 A.D. The church adheres to the Nicene Creed. St. Athanasius (296-373 A.D.), the twentieth Pope of the Coptic Church effectively defended the Doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ's Divinity at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. His affirmation of the doctrine earned him the title; "Father of Orthodoxy" and St. Athanasius "the Apostolic".