The Coptic Orthodox Church in Bolivia Today (in 2016)

Pavel Mosko

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This video popped up in my video feed today, I think do to watching Orthodox and Coptic stuff as well as some true crime videos dealing with the War on drugs and Pablo Escobar and Bolivia in particular.

I found it interesting for various reasons.

1) It always interesting when I see an Orthodox church go big on getting local natives, especially in a traditional Catholic country.


2) It always interesting to see parishes that are very Evangelistic. Many times Orthodox, alongside Eastern Catholic, ACE etc. tend to see their ministry totally to their own people who are in some kind of diaspora so to speak. Besides that, I noticed some definite psychological scars from some Copts after living under Sharia etc. e.g. feeling paranoid about talking openly about Christianity etc. Even though their conscious mind knew they were living in a free country, their unconscious still thought maybe their was a secret policeman nearby and people should still keep quiet or only talk in whispers.

But that being said, I noticed many years ago that Coptic Church was one of the few Orthodox Churches to really be big in reaching out to outsiders. e.g. they were one of the first ones to do programs and web sites on "Orthodox Evangelism" etc. and materials etc. on that subject. Prior to stumbling on that stuff in the early 2000s it was only Eastern Orthodox bodies like the Antiochians and OCA that were into that sort of thing.

Anyway take a look at the video.





PS - 4 years ago somebody did a thread like this, and I think linked to the previous video, but I think it is worth reposting since lots of people haven't seen it etc. And new discussion threads get more interaction than necroing old threads.

Orthodoxy in Bolivia & the Caribbean
 

Pavel Mosko

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Well my reaction to looking at the video, the church or churches and ministry look "very Bolivian". This is in contrast to how things are in the states, where you got a mix of Americanized Copts, some Americans who have married them, and the other half older Egyptians that left their homeland a few decades ago. Much of the Church culture is "Egyptian" and by that I mean lots of Arab food, music, etc. The Church besides being a spiritual center also helps to keep Egyptians from being to homesick from being away from their homeland.
 
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