SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

Similarly, Mr. Sherief Sorial is working on the Coptic Psalmodia. All of these projects are designed to trace the developmental history of these important books in the Coptic Church. 13. Computers at the Coptic Center: The Coptic Center's staff, primarily Mr. John Rizk, has upgraded its Computer system. With the donation of computer components by Dr. Wisam Michael and Mr. Markos Michael, Mr. Rizk was able to build a heavy-duty computer system to handle the Society's progressive computer needs. He also was successful in building a 3-PC peer-to-peer ethernet network, using combination of Windows for Workgroup and Windows 95. This network when fully completed, will have eight workstations. We also acquired a video-signal splitter to display the same computer display screen on up to four monitors at the same time. When all this work is completed the Center will be capable of providing the following services: a. Search capability at both the library and the microfilm rooms. b. ability to print documents from any workstation. c. Establishment of an office Intranet to aid those interested in Coptic Studies. This would include bibliographies, outlines, and accessibility to the gigantic graphics library of Coptic manuscripts and monuments. d. Upgrade the instructional methods employed at the Center. The Society appreciates any donation of PC computers (386 or higher) and VGA monitors to allow us to complete this project. 14. English Coptic Dictionary: Professor Samuel Lieu of Sydney, Australia has informed us (by e- mail) that Rev. Dr. Bernard Kotter has completed a two volume English-Coptic Dictionary - a work which is much more extensive than a mere expansion of the English index at the end of Crum. The entire ms. is hand-written and runs into over 1500 pages. Prof. Lieu estimates the cost for electronic conversion of the entire manuscript, using Macintosh MSWord, to be about $50,000

plus the cost of checking. He also faxed us a couple of pages of the original manuscript of the work to get acquainted with it. The work includes entries from all Coptic dialects as well as Greek loan-words which are not part of Crum's original work. The Society is still looking for the feasibility of such project from the perspective of the Coptic community, which only uses the Bohairic dialect. If you need more information about the work you can contact Prof. Lieu, e-mail: slieu@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au. 15. Coptic Music: Dr. Marian Robertson-Wilson of Utah, has informed us recently that she has completed the cataloging of the Coptic music material that was donated by Mr. Ragheb Moftah of the Cairo Institute for Coptic Studies, to the Library of Congress. These material are recordings by the Muallam Mikhail, the most famous cantor in the Coptic Church in this century. The Library of Congress has transferred these recording to digital tapes for preservation. Dr. Robertson-Wilson's catalog, preserved in the Library of Congress is a manuscript of over 400 pages. In it, she included a detailed introduction about the Coptic ecclesiastical musical tradition along with literal and musical note transcription of all the material. This work is a true preservation of our genuine and rich Coptic musical tradition. We are truly grateful to Dr. Robertson- Wilson for this labor of love and we hope that the Library of Congress will publish this manuscript in part or in whole. 16. Coptic Music on CD: The Coptic Diocese of Germany has kindly send the Society two musical CD's of Coptic music hymns, produced by them. The hymns were recorded by the famous Choir of the Institute of Coptic Studies in Egypt, founded by Mr. Ragheb Moftah. The choir was visiting Germany at the time, and the recording was done in the Coptic Monastery there. The first CD had selected hymns of the Coptic service of the Holy Week. The second included hymns from the Coptic Nativity (Christmas) liturgical service. The sound tracks are of archival quality. Each CD had a handsome printed insert about the Coptic Church

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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