Pope Shenouda gives his blessings to Egypt’s new envoy to Addis

Dina Ezzat 18/7/2011 Religious ties between the Egyptian and Ethiopian churches may help strengthen relations between the two countries, which are threatened by ongoing disagreements over the Nile’s water. This morning at the headquarters of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Abbasiyya, Pope Shenouda III, the Coptic Patriarch, received Mohamed Edrees, Egypt’s new ambassador to Ethiopia. The meeting, according to statements made by Edrees after the papal reception, was designed to evoke the issue of relations – historic and forthcoming – between the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt and its sister Ethiopian Orthodox Church as a key part of strengthening relations between the two countries.