COPTIC-ORTHODOX SUCCESSION
Ancient tradition points to Alexandria, where there was a large colony of Jews as the scene of the Missionary activities of St. Mark the Evangelist. The APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS (VIII, 46) tells us that he consecrated one Anienus as the first Bishop of Alexandria and that St. Luke the Evangelist consecrated the second of that See, Abilios.
The Gospel spread rapidly throughout Egypt of which Alexandria became the Primatial See, being subsequently raised to the dignity of a Patriarchate, ranking third in order next after Rome and Constantinople. Despite severe Muslim persecution, and today sadly shorn of its former strength, the Coptic-Orthodox Church has managed to continue its existence down to our own times and owing to the presence of numerous Africans in the United States, established a mission there, under:
- Archbishop St. John-the-Divine Hickersayon, who on May 27, 1947, consecrated:
- Davison Quartey Arthur, Mar Lukos, Bishop of Lagos, Accra and Trinidad. who on February 19, 1951, consecrated:
- Hugh George de Willmott Newman, Mar Georgius I, who on July 6, 1956, consecrated:
- Charles Dennis Boltwood, who on October 16, 1966, consecrated:
- Albert J. Fuge, who of May 27, 1972, consecrated:
- John Lawrence Brown, who on December 31, 1973, consecrated:
- Donald Lawrence Jolly, who on March 16, 1980, consecrated:
- Robert Vincent Bernard Dawe. who on October 18, 1981, consecrated:
- Francis Thorne-Coley, who on August 20, 1998, consecrated:
- Lee Allen Petersen, who on April 26, 2009 consecrated:
- Mansell Christian Gilmore, who on January 30, 2011 consecrated:
- Bryan Dennis Ouellette, Ph.D., in ecclesia Nicholas III, Patriarch, by acclamanation and fiat, Holy Nicholean Church, Patriarch, by election and acclamation, Holy Imperial Russian Orthodox Church in exile.
