SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

respectively. They were in the form of a 45-minute slides presentation. Dr. Van Elderen in his presentation introduced some of his prior excavations leading to the more recent two seasons that the Scriptorium conducted at Wadi 'N Natrun monastery of St. John the Little. He introduced to the audience many of the discoveries made in the monastery church as well as the possible subterranean crypt of St. John. Bishop Samuel presentation on the Coptic Archaeological discoveries in Egypt in the past quarter century also dealt in part with excavation by the Scriptorium. It further enumerated, with the aid of slides, the many excavations and discoveries that he, the Dutch, the German, and the Polish archeologist and art historians have made in Egypt. Excavations that Bishop Samuel was in many instances an active participant. b. Coptic Art: The presentation on Friday by Fr. Bishoy Mikhail Brownfield dealt specifically with sacred art of the Copts in general and modern Coptic Icongraphic movement in particular. Being a devoted student to this movement that began by Prof. Isaac Fanous a few decades ago, he briefly recounted its beginning and went on to explain some of the theological and spiritual aspects of it. To illustrate some of the finer points of his arguments, he used several original icons from his vast private collection. c. Coptic History: This branch of C ptic Studies was the most represented in the conference. There were six papers presented on the subject. Three of them dealt with events and the other three with projects being done in the field. In the first paper, Mr. Maged Attia of Sydney, Australia, presented a survey of the Coptic Orthodox Church role in the first 50 years of the ecumenical movement. This survey tended to emphasize such active role only during the tenure of Pope Shenouda III. The apparent lack of details on the early participation by the Church was questioned by Dr. Elhamy Khalil, who had first hand knowledge of some these efforts. However, the paper could not be debated due to the fact that

Mr. Attia was unable to attend in person. The paper was presented by Miss Nefertiti M. Takla on his behalf, as assigned by the conference organizers. The second paper presented was also done by a person other that the author. It was composed by Dr. Youhanna N. Youssef of Melbourne, Australia, and read by Mr. Joseph Fahim. It dealt with an interesting historical phenomenon that was observed in Egypt in the 12th Century AD and survived until the 19th Century AD. This was the existence of multiconfessional Churches, i.e. groups of different Christian confessions used the same building. The paper showed that such practice was more a matter of convenience rather an exhibition of hostility, though the latter was sometimes the primary motive. It was interesting to see that such practice was only observed in churches in Lower Egypt, where there is less density of Copts at the such times. The third and last paper dealing with events was that of Dr. Saad Michael Saad about the role of the recently departed historian, Iris H. El-Masri, as a historian and a theologian. Such topic, like many of Dr. Saad's previous presentations, was very thought-provoking and the discussions was a testimony to that. Dr. Saad communicated some of his observations about her contributions and her visions of femininity and ecumenical movement in the church. Bishop Serapion was quick to clarify that her views did conflict with the official stand of the church on such topics. Regardless of the controversy surrounding her views, she was a great contributor to history of the Copts in the 20th century. Is worthy to mention that Prof. Dwight Young of Chicago, in an electronic communication, expressed his appreciation that she was being recognized by the conference, being an old classmate of her during her university days in Philadelphia. The fourth paper, and the first in the projects group, was presented by Dr. Elhamy Khalil about the project of recording the history of the Coptic Diocese of Los Angeles. This project is being done under the auspicious of the Christian Education

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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