The three Egyptian churches have excused themselves from the televised national dialogue session called for by President Mohamed Morsy for Tuesday.

Bishop Andrea Zaki, head of the Coptic Evangelical Church, told the state news agency MENA that the Coptic Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical Churches had decided not to attend the session, but were calling for holding another private session with the president to address their concerns about a number of constitutional articles.

Zaki said that the suggestions and concerns presented by the three churches representatives during the previous dialogue sessions were not taken seriously by the presidency.

“We are convinced that such dialogues yield nothing new. That’s why the churches representatives withdrew from the previous dialogue session,” he added.

“Although we will not be attending the session today, we pray to God that it succeeds so that the country can overcome the current crisis,” Zaki.

In a pre-recorded interview, televised in the early hours of Monday morning, Morsy called on 24 political parties, 20 public figures, representatives of the three churches, Azhar, April 6 Youth Movement and Kefaya to attend the session which is scheduled to begin at take place at 5 pm.

Edited translation from MENA