The Cal State Long Beach club Coptic Orthodox Christians come together for community, guest speakers, social events and community service at the CSULB Coptic Club.
“This Coptic Club is a way for us to practice and celebrate our faith in the comfort of our school,” co-president Youstina William said. “As college students, this gives us not only a community but a sense of belonging at our school.”
The Coptic Orthodox Church is an Egyptian Christian denomination that is part of Oriental Orthodoxy, which is the 4th biggest Christian denomination in the world behind Catholicism, Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
According to the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States, it was founded in 47 A.D. in Alexandria, Egypt by Saint Mark the Evangelist who traditionally, is known for writing the Gospel of Mark in the Bible.
The Church is mainly composed of the Copt people of Egypt who speak the Coptic language, which is related to the Ancient Egyptian language.
“Answering the question of what is Coptic Orthodoxy is quite difficult because it’s such an ancient and traditional faith with many layers to it, big to scratch the surface,” Willliam said. “A majority of us are Egyptian but any and everyone is welcome.”
The club celebrated Tasbeha on Feb. 16, which is Midnight Praise in Arabic. Tasbeha is a time of praise to God and prayer from the Bible for almost 2 hours and is considered a time when you are close to Heaven while on Earth.
“This is my first semester being president and I’m so far loving it,” William said. “My team and I have very exciting ideas planned for this semester, which I am very excited to share with the club.”
The CSULB Coptic Club meets on Thursdays at 7 p.m. in the Horn Center in room 706 and always announces events on their Instagram.