Sydney Harbour, Friday the twenty forth of January 1969 at six o’clock in the morning, the Ocean Liner Patrice lies docked. From therein emerges the Very Reverent Father, Abouna Mina Nematalla, the first Coptic Priest of Australia.

Fast forward some five decades to today and the Australian Coptic Orthodox Christian Community has grown to include as many as one hundred thousand members served by two Coptic Orthodox Dioceses (Diocese of Melbourne and Affiliated Regions led by Bishop Anba Suriel, Diocese of Sydney and Affiliated Regions led by Bishop Anba Daniel), over sixty churches, three monasteries, two Theological Colleges, several secondary, primary and pre-schools, day-care centres, nursing homes and sport teams.

Known to fragrantly and unabashedly display symbols of their faith (the crucifix the most obvious and pertinent), the Coptic community’s social life is intertwined with religious devotion and expression. Rites of passage, such as baptism, are motives of celebration as are the lives and deaths of saints unknown to most of the western world.

While spurred by its critics as conservative, traditional and out of touch, has this strand of Christianity which harkens back to the original founders of the faith managed to find a way to reconcile the seemingly all-encompassing facets of the modern world?