The Ecumenical Patriarchate, in a written announcement issued on Friday, expressed its "sorrow and disappointment" at an Egyptian court ruling that it said "disputes the centuries-old ownership status of the historic Holy Monastery of Sinai" and only gives the monks residing there the right to its use.
The foremost among the Orthodox Christian Churches appealed to the government of Egypt to find a way to preserve the monastery's age-old ownership status and abide by a recently reached agreement, pointing out that this ownership status had been "particularly respected and carefully tended" for centuries by Islam.
"The centuries respected the Monastery of Sinai. Let Egypt respect it today," the announcement stressed, noting that the monastery's presence was a valuable asset for Egypt, "which does it honour and links symbolically and in essence on its soil the two great religions of Christianity and Islam."

See also: Government officials on the issue of Monastery of Saint Catherine in Sinai