SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

The fourth paper was presented by Dr. Saad M. Saad in the morning session of Saturday. In it he introduced the history of the interest displayed by Copts in the subject of Patristic Theology, beginning with the pioneer in this field, Archdeacon Habib Girgis. After expounding in some details about his achievement in that area, he added mention of those that followed in his footsteps as a result of his influence and direct contact with this remarkable personality. The mention of the accomplishment of such persons, living in the 20 th century, shows that the glory of the early fathers of the church is still echoed through these anointed personalities to the present. The fifth paper dealt with a very explosive subject at least when presented in the West. It was delivered by Prof. Rachad Mounir Shoucri of Kingston Canada. The theme of this paper is similar to the theme of many of Prof. Shoucri’s presentations in various learned gatherings. It attempted to argue or at least to bring to the surface the importance of the Ancient Egyptians’ contribution to philosophy. A contribution that was further developed by the Greeks and later exclusively attributed to them. His arguments centered on the philosophy displayed in the Gnostic works of Nag Hammadi and the Corpus Hermeticum. The authentication of these works as representative of Ancient Egyptian philosophy, as presented, makes it still a work in progress. The sixth and final paper was delivered by our future Shenoutian scholar, Mr. Mark R. Moussa of Catholic University of America, Washington DC. As part of his doctoral dissertation, he is working on a major (not fully published) work of St. Shenouda. In this work, the saint shows his opposition to the teachings of heretic and heterodox ideas that was still current in his time. Mr. Moussa expounded on that theme, analyzing and elaborating on the saint’s views of the heretics and their teachings, particularly those of the Meletians. The Meletians were followers of the 4 th century Meleius, Bishop of Lycopolis (Asyut), who initially opposed the pardon of those that lapsed during the great Roman persecution of the early 4 th

century. His sect then became more defiant and heterodox in their teachings as time went on. Mr. Moussa reiterated to us one of the great qualities of the saint’s writings, which is his obedience and transmission (in simpler terms) of the teachings of the hierarchy in Alexandria. A fact that makes his writings most valuable to Copts and second only to the Holy Scriptures which he quoted abundantly. f. Coptic Liturgy: The two papers in this category were presented consecutively in the morning session of Friday. The first was presented by Miss Veronia Hanna, a student at the Coptic Center in Los Angeles. Her paper dealt with the use of Psalms in the Coptic Church in general and in Coptic liturgical services in particular. After surveying the role of the Psalms in the Church, she went at length to detail the results of the survey that she did of what psalms were used where. Special emphasis was given to the Coptic Lectionaries: Annual Cycle (Days, Sundays), Lent, Pascha, and Paschaltide. Her research was restricted to current publications of these works and only the rubric text, listing the Psalm number, was recorded. The graphical presentation and conclusions were made based on results made with the help of recorded data in a Microsoft Access database. This database will be used to record further work on this topic which will involve the authentication of the rubric texts and collation of the manuscripts. The second paper was presented by Mr. Hany Takla, the Society’s president, dealing with some readings added over half a century ago to the Coptic text of the Pascha Reading book. These readings, mostly from the Old Testament, originated from a church manuscript from the Diocese of Bani Sueif in Middle Egypt. They are distinguished by Sahidic influence in the areas of vocabulary, spelling, and syntax. All these readings are available in pure Bohairic format, however they tend to be nearly identical to the Sahidic counterpart, when found. This led the presenter to suggest the possibility of the parent manuscript being a translation of a Sahidic original and may be of a different recension than the

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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