SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

Service Books Used during the Pascha Week in the Coptic Orthodox Church (by Hany N. Takla)

parameters in understanding the evolution history of these liturgical volumes, but they would fall outside the scope of this survey. The beginning of this lectionary is traditionally attributed to the Coptic Patriarch Gabriel II (AD 1131-45). In an introduction to a manuscript of this book, dated AM 1510 (AD 1794) we find the following text, related to this tradition: "So when the Apostolic canon commanded the reading of both the Testaments, the Old and the New, it became a requirement for every Christian. Until the honored father Anba Ghabrial (Ben Turaik, the 77th among the number of the fathers the Patriarchs and he was a scribe) upon the throne of St. Mark the Apostle in the City of Alexandria (in the) year 974 of the pure martyrs. So he saw that the people, because of their preoccupation with their jobs and the service of the Sultans and the Khalifs and the rest of the burdensome jobs, they are not able to accomplish the apostolic canon. So he gathered the scholars from among those who are knowledgeable and cognizant and many monks from the monastery of Saint Abu Maqar. They took from the Old and the New (Testaments) what is appropriate, and placed them in a book and named it Kitab al-Pascha and they utilized it at the Pascha every year in their churches. Until the honored in every way Anba Boutros became a bishop over the city of al-Bahnasa and looked into the Pascha and saw that they have in one hour many prophesies and gospel readings and in another a few. So he collected from the holy books and placed for every one of the hours what is appropriate to it and thus the recitation of the hours became equal. He also placed for every day of the days of this week, two sermons from the sayings of the fathers, one for the morning and one for the evening as is recorded in the book of Pascha to this

Introduction: The most structured liturgical season in the Coptic is that of the Great Lent. In fact it is safe to say that it represents the crown of all Coptic Liturgical system. In the same analogy the Holy week, or Pascha, services is the crown jewel. Magically, the tunes of these service transform you to the time of the last week that the Lord spend on Earth, leading to His glorious Resurrection. This is done, not only with the carefully selected reading lections, but by the tunes that are used. Unfortunately, expediency and lack of knowledge of some of these hymns hinder the worshippers from having the full effect of these wonderful times. The purpose of this article to orient the readers with the service books used during this services whether they are still in-use or not. The survey is done on the basis of the manuscripts that were survived and the first printed editions that followed them. Pascha Season: The Pascha season is defined in the Coptic service books as the period starting with the vespers service of Palm Sunday and ending with the service of the Holy Resurrection Sunday. Pascha Book (Lectionary): This is the primary service book used during this week. It contains all the Biblical lessons read during that period from Both the Old and New Testaments, in Coptic and Arabic. It also includes several abridged sermons of the fathers of the Church, read during this holy season. The primary use of the book was for church use. Currently the Coptic readings are in a separate volume from the Arabic ones. This usually meant that each was set on a different lectern in the same manner that we find in the other Liturgical lectionaries. However, the manuscripts tradition also preserved to us large-format editions that contained both languages in parallel. Bilingualism, size, and date are important

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