St Luke's Church, Eccleshill, Bradford, UK

Bringing the good news of Jesus to the people of Eccleshill.
Visitors are warmly welcome to all our events and services.

Linking with the Copts in Egypt

Chris, Angela and Anna Chorlton August 2003 Chris, Angela and Anna Chorlton May 2004

St Luke's Church supports Chris and Angela Chorlton as our Mission Partners with Church Mission Society, serving the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt. Pictured are Chris and Angela with Anna (born June 2003), when they visited us at a Coffee Morning on 2nd August 2003 (above), and taken in Cairo in May 2004 (below).

For the few years before joining CMS Chris and Angela lived in Leeds. They attended St Matthias Church Burley, where they led the youth group until 2002. Chris was an RE teacher at Garforth, and Angela was a Social Worker with Leeds Social Services until April 2003 (when Anna was due). They originally met in Yemen, as they both worked for the Red Sea Mission Team.

They moved to Birmingham in September to train at Crowther Hall, Selly Oak, where they did some theological and mission studies, as well as beginning studying Arabic. They were commissioned at St Matthias Church, Burley (Leeds) on 4th April 2004, and flew out to Egypt on 20th April. They are currently living in a suburb of Cairo where they are doing further language study.

From September 2004 they will be working with St Mark's Church in Beni Suef, about 70 miles south of Cairo. Chris will be teaching English in St Mark's School (which is a private school, run by the church and open to both Christian and Muslim pupils), and Angela hopes to do some Social Work with families, children and the elderly, where the church already has links.
 

Chris and Angela visited us on 14th December 2003 to talk a little about their hopes and plans. Chris spoke on 1 Cor 12 where St Paul likens a church to a body. He outlined how the Coptic Church had been left out of ecumentical discussions from AD 481 until only about 20 years ago, and asked what sort of body could not feel the pain of one part, and indeed ignore that part, for so long? He pointed out that the Coptic Church can truly say it holds the "native religion" of the Egyptian area (contrary to the claims of Islam which says Christianity is a form of Western imperialism), and as the first mission partners to work with the Coptic Church it was a real privilege to be able to stand beside the Christians there as a representative of the wider body of Christ.

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For further information:

Latest news & prayer topics from Chris and Angela.

Chris & Angela's page on the St Matthias Burley (Leeds) web site.
Church Mission Society.
The Christian Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt.
Maps of Egypt showing Beni Suef (Bani Suwayf):
    Lonely Planet,
    Energy Info (US Government), and
    MapQuest.

 

We are grateful to Bradford Diocese for hosting this site.
This web page was last updated on 30th July 2004.