SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

Presentations: There were four presentations delivered during the day, a brief description of each is as follows: a. The History, Organization, and Accomplishments of the St. Shenouda the Archimandrite Coptic Society by Hany N. Takla: This presentation dealt briefly with the long 22- year history of the organization from its humble beginning within the confines of St. Mark Coptic Church in Los Angeles, to its current status. b. The Liturgical Celebration of the Feast of Nairuz in the Coptic Church by Joseph Fahim. This paper attempted to research the meaning that the Coptic Church, liturgically, have attached to the celebration of the feast of Nairuz, or the Coptic New Year. The author restricted himself to books and hymns, published for ecclesiastical use by the Coptic Orthodox Church. He primarily compared the First of Tut readings from the Lectionary to those of three of the major martyr feasts in the church. The result was that the message that the Church fathers were trying to convey during that feast differed greatly from that of the martyrs. It was more about a new beginning than a blessed struggle and conclusion as in the case of the martyr feasts. This bring to question when did the popular notion found recently in the Coptic Church, concerning the linking of the feast to the celebration of martyrs, actually began and why. Was it a change or was it a return to an old custom. More research is of course is needed to establish the evolution of the celebration ecclesiastically, before such questions can be answered. In the discussions some alluded to the popular practices of the feast and its link the feast of the Martyr in Medieval times. Practices that were discontinued possibly before the time that such readings has been adopted in the church. Also other points were presented on the difficulties encountered in the study of the current Annual Lectionary in relation to the celebration found in the Coptic Church Synaxarium. c. Liturgical Cycle of St. Michael Monastery at Hamouli (Al-Fayoum): This paper began as an exploration of the liturgical feasts of this

monastery through the only survived, complete Lectionary found in its recovered library. The contents of which resides for the most part in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. The author however found external as well as codicological evidence that this book was not reflective of the most recent tradition of the monastery before its destruction in the 12 th century. Such evidence included the lack of readings for the celebration of many Saints' feasts that were prominent in the literature found in the monastery library. Also the excellent shape that this Parchment codex had can not attest to any heavy use that one would expect to have for such work. So what was uncovered in this codex is most likely a reflection of the local ecclesiastical tradition outside of the monastery prior to the 9 th century. A tradition that probably grew obsolete shortly after it was copied, possibly from an older manuscript from the monastery. More details is available in the edited paper in this issue of the Newsletter. d. Elements of Social Change of the Copts from the time of the Arab Conquest of Egypt to the Early Medieval period. In this paper, Deacon Severus (Maged) shared with the audience his research about this intriguing period of Coptic history. He began briefly with the description of the Copts socially during the last years of Byzantine rule. The presentation continued to include what we definitely know about the Arab Conquest and the first few centuries that follows it. Among the topics that he dealt with were the Melekites versus the Copts and the treatment of the new conquerors to them over time, Arab Historians' writings concerning these fateful events, and the Coptic Revolts of the 8 th and 9 th centuries. A point was made that the Arab rulers were siding with whichever camp of Christians in Egypt (Melekites or Coptic Orthodox) who would have benefitted them the most. It seems as time passed that the Coptic Orthodox were the ones. Also the revolts did not gain popularity with the ecclesiastical Coptic authority which made them short-lived. The reason for such lack of support may be attributed to the social and financial causes that instigated them rather than religious ones. The

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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