CAIRO (REUTERS, AFP) - The head of the Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros II, led midnight mass in the cathedral of Egypt's new administrative capital on Saturday (Jan 6), a service attended by President Abdel Fattah al Sisi.
The mass, on the eve of Coptic Christmas which is celebrated on Jan 7, was the first to be held in the newly-built cathedral and took place amid tight security. Sisi was cheered by worshippers as he entered the building.
He walked in alongside Coptic Pope Tawadros II and took to the altar amid ululations and cries of "we love you".
"We love you too," he responded. "You are our family, you are from us, we are one and no one will divide us."
Sisi said the cathedral, in a new administrative capital Egypt is building, was a "message to the world, a message of peace and a message of love".
Military and political officials also attended the mass, conducted in a mix of ancient Greek and Coptic.
The celebrations were held days after attacks on a Coptic church and another Christian-owned shop that left more than 10 people dead.
Egypt's large Christian minority has increasingly been targeted in recent years by Islamist militants including Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which is waging an insurgency in the north of the remote Sinai Peninsula. Egypt Copts mark Christmas Eve after bloody year.
Tightened security around the cathedral and other churches across Egypt were testament to fears of a another attack.
Police set up barriers around the church and spread out on the street leading to it while congregants took pictures before a Christmas tree outside.
Within the church, some congregants had small Egyptian flags and used cellphones to take pictures of public figures as they entered.
Copts, who make up about 10 per cent of Egypt's 93 million people, have long complained of discrimination and intermittent sectarian attacks.
The new Egyptian capital, announced in March 2015, is intended partly to reduce crowding in Cairo.
Some 45 km east of Cairo, the city, which has not yet been given a name, will be home to government ministries, housing and an airport.
