Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The center is Jesus Christ
The center of Coptic Christianity is the Lord Jesus Christ: His Incarnation, Cross, Resurrection, Ascension, and coming again. The Creed, the Liturgy, the Gospel readings, the feasts, the icons, and the hymns all return to this confession.
Ancient worship can look unfamiliar to people formed by a different style of church life, but the faith being confessed is the apostolic Christian faith. The Coptic Church is one of the ancient apostolic churches that has preserved Christian faith and worship from the earliest centuries.
What the Church confesses
The Church confesses the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation of the Word, salvation through Christ, the resurrection of the dead, Baptism, Chrismation, Confession, the Eucharist, and the life of prayer and repentance. She receives Scripture as the word of God and reads it inside the worshiping life of the Church.
To understand whether the Church is Christian, listen to the Liturgy. The prayers are offered to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. The Gospel is proclaimed. The people confess the Creed. The Eucharist is offered and received as communion with Christ.
Why the Coptic shape matters
Coptic Christianity has Egyptian language, history, saints, and customs, but those serve the Christian faith. The Church’s identity is apostolic, Orthodox, and Christ-centered before it is cultural.