Worshipers chatting during the Christmas mass held at Evangelical Church in Heliopolis on Friday - Photo courtesy/ Hassan MohamedReligious paintings from an Evangelical church in Cairo -Photo courtesy/Hassan MohamedA choir singing during the Christmas Mass - Photo Courtesy/ Hassan MohamedA choir singing during the Christmas mass in Heliopolis - Photo courtesy/ Hassan MohamedMuslim clerics participate at the Christmas mass in the Evangelical church in Cairo - Photo courtesy/ Hassan MohamedA worshiper during an Evangelical Christmas mass - Photo courtesy/ Hassan MohamedCAIRO –5 January 2018: Christmas mass of the Evangelical community was held on Friday at the Evangelical Church in Heliopolis, led by Andrea Zaki, the President of the Evangelical Church in Egypt.The ceremony was attended by high-level state officials, including Hisham Arafat, Minister of Transport,Helmy Al-Namnam, Minister of Culture,Amr Moussa, Secretary-General of the Arab league, Fathy Refae, Secretary of the Council of Churches of Egypt, and Abba QuesShoubra, Bishop of the Copts Orthodox.President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi dispatched on Friday Karim al-Diwani, the Secretary-General of the Presidency, to the Coptic Evangelical church to attend theAnglican community’s Christmas mass.On January 7, Egypt celebrates Christmas Day whose official mass is slated to be held at the new cathedral in the capital city and led by Pop Twadros, in presence of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.Interior Ministry ramps up security measures ahead of the festive season of Christmas. Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar ordered security officers to be unrelenting in dealing with any potential attempts to break the law, and to install extra electronic entry gates in the vicinity of churches. He further ordered the creation of a 180-meter exclusion zone around churches.

Source: Egypt Today January 05, 2018 16:52 UTC