Coptic Festival Provides Unique Look Into Howell Culture

As he walked the halls of Archangel Michael Coptic Church on Saturday morning Father Ishak Shokry Mansour could not help but smile.

After more than two years of work Father Ishak and his congregation were able to open their doors for their annual Coptic Festival after the work on their Church Road building was finally completed.

The process started back in 2010 when the building where Sunday school classes and the fellowship hall are located. This past December the main part of the church was opened to make the building whole. “It feels great,” Father Ishak said. “We’ve performed what we were supposed to perform and we opened the festival to anyone.”

Throughout the church there were games and activities for the younger participants while the adults and parents could shop for items like Egyptian foods and artwork in the hall upstairs. Just pulling in the parking lot the smell of meat on the grill was enough to pull people in from the outside.

Father Ishak said he hoped to see the event continue to grow in the future, bringing in more people from outside the church as well. “We look to serve the community and the festival will encourage us to be involved with the youth of the community.”

The festival began this past week and continues next weekend. Father Ishak said even before they moved into their current home the festival was spread over two weekends to give more people the chance to take part.