Coptic Orthodox Congregation Plans New Church in Redmond

Redmond could soon be home to the third Coptic Orthodox church in Washington state, if the city approves plans to build a 21,000-square-foot facility at the corner of 132nd Avenue Northeast and Northeast 100th Street.

St. George Coptic Orthodox Church, which has rented space at  for the past six years, is one of just three congregations of its kind in the state. The other two Coptic churches are St. Mark in Puyallup and St. Mary in Lynnwood.

Church member Mark Soliman, who serves as St. George’s treasurer, said most of the area’s Coptic Orthodox are Egyptian-Americans who left their mostly Muslim native country because of religious and economic persecution in the 1970s and '80s.

“It’s expensive to be a Christian in Egypt,” Soliman said. “Economics and religion sort of go together on that one.”

Most of St. George’s parishoners are sons and daughters of immigrants, Soliman said, and the church primarily draws people from Kirkland, Redmond and Bellevue.

“We’ve been renting space for awhile now, and we kind of want to have a place of our own,” Soliman said at a March 1 neighborhood meeting that was held to discuss the church’s preliminary site plans.

The new, two-story church would have a worship area on the top floor and Sunday school classrooms and other gathering space on the lower level. The building would have a capacity of 250, but church members said their current congregation is between 100 and 150 people.

St. George has owned the 1.6 acres where the new church would be built for the past three or four years. The land was annexed from unincorporated King County into the city of Redmond in May 2010 and contains one house that has been unoccupied for several years, Redmond city planner Eric McConaghy said.

A few Redmond and Kirkland residents who attended last week’s neighborhood meeting said they are concerned about St. George’s affect on traffic, especially because the new facility would be located within a few blocks of two other churches.

“I have a hard time thinking we’re having three churches in five blocks,” said Kirkland resident Gordon Buck. “That’s tough for me.”

Church members stressed that their use of the building would be minimal during the week. Even on Sundays, they said, the size of their congregation makes major traffic issues unlikely.

Redmond city planners said the city has already approved the site's traffic study. Plans call for a right-turn-only exit on 132nd Avenue Northeast and a combined entrance and exit on Northeast 100th Street.

Several residents said they would like to see a traffic signal installed at 132nd Avenue Northeast and Northeast 100th Street, but Redmond planners said the intersection is owned by the city of Kirkland and any serious modification would be Kirkland’s responsibility.

Redmond resident Greg Sheehan said he hopes St. George will join area residents in lobbying Kirkland for a new signal so traffic will become more manageable for everyone who travels in the area.

“It isn’t going to be to your advantage if you don’t,” Sheehan said.

McConaghy acknowledged traffic is a problem in the area, but told residents the church is legally obligated to mitigate only its own impact.

“The existing problem is not the church’s to solve,” McConaghy said.

Church leaders said they plan to submit a building permit application to the city in the next few weeks. After that, the public will have 21 days to comment on the application.

Project architect Wayne Ivary said St. George aims to begin construction in late spring or early summer. The church would take between nine months and one year to build, Ivary said.