ON SUNDAY Pope Tawadros II led the consecration ceremonies at St Mark's Cathedral following more than three years of renovations, reports Marina Barsoum. The overhaul of the church marks the 50th anniversary of the cathedral which officially opened in 1968 in the presence of Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie and president Gamal Abdel-Nasser. While two days of celebrations were originally planned to mark the occasion, following the attack on pilgrims returning from the Monastery of St Samuel the Confessor earlier this month which left seven dead and 15 injured, Pope Tawadros had let it be known the celebration of the cathedral's golden jubilee would be limited to liturgical prayers. The cathedral was heavily secured for the consecration ceremony during which icons were anointed with holy oil. Pope Tawadros then led prayers before anointing the inner sanctuary with oil. In recent years the Coptic Church has been the target of a number of terrorist attacks. In December 2016 the Church of St Peter and St Paul, attached to St Mark's Cathedral, was the scene of a bombing that killed 23 worshippers. The cathedral, located in Cairo's Abbasiya district, has been the Coptic Orthodox Church's papal headquarters since Pope Shenouda III decided to reside there in 1971.