SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

Noticeably absent were nine members of the organization that passed away within the past four years. Prof. Paul van Moorsel of Leiden and Fr. Quecke of Rome were the most missed. Prof. Müller of Germany, Prof. Nagel of Germany, Prof. Depuydt of Rhode Island (again!), Prof. Goehring of Virginia, Prof. Pearson of California, and Prof. Robinson of California were the most notable faces missing from among the regular live attendees. Program: The schedule was arranged over a seven-day span. The first day, Sunday, was devoted to Congress registration and a get- acquainted session from mid-afternoon to early evening. The second day, Monday, marked the official opening ceremony of the Congress as well as the start of the activities. The participants were welcomed first by Prof. Dr. van Oostrom, the dean of the Faculty of Arts of the University, followed by Prof. Dr. J.F. Borghouts the chairman of the Egyptology-Coptology Section of the Department of Near Eastern Studies. During these addresses a special presentation was made of a new book that collected the works of the late Prof. Paul van Moorsel to his longtime companion Ms. Johanna Rijnierse. At the end of the session, Prof. Dr. Stephen Emmel delivered the presidential address in the form of a presentation about Coptic Studies before Kircher. This included mention of Dutch scholars who pursued Coptic Studies but were seldom mentioned because of their lack of publication in the field, publish or perish . This congress was organized a little bit different than previous ones. It still had the two customary types: plenary or main papers and brief communication or short papers. However, the time allotted for the Main papers was increased to 45 minutes each, while keeping the Short Papers to their original 20-minute format with a 10-minute period for questions and comments. Also more structured workshops which lasted for a few hours were held. There were also several after-hours events set up by the organizing committee. The large number of short papers made most of the schedule to have four parallel sessions. This severely limited the participation. However, each

attendee received a bound volume that contained over 120 abstracts submitted by the authors of the short papers, written usually in the language that it was delivered in (English, French, or German). The main papers were 10 in number and dealt with the following topics: Art, Literature, Copto- Arabic, Linguistics, Liturgy, Archeology, Monasticism, Gnosticism, Papyrology, and Christian Nubia. The short papers were 125 in number with 30 papers delivered or co-authored by Copts and other Egyptians. They were divided into the following categories: Art 25; Linguistics 11; Literature and Patristics 15; Archeology 5; History 14; Icons 4; Bible 4; Textiles 4; Documentary Sources 4; Early Monasticism 3; Manuscript collections 3; Magic and Liturgy 7; Manichaeism and Gnosticism 15; Monastic Archaeology 2; Documentary Sources, Paleography, Epigraphy 9. Six workshops and two special meetings were conducted during the Congress. The workshops dealt with the Coptic Language, Icon Paintings, Editing St. Shenouda's literary Corpus, electronic edition of Coptic Texts, Textiles, and Monastic Archaeology. The special meetings were that of the participants in the projects "Catalogue Géneral du Musée Copte", and that of the participants in the 2002 Wadi 'N Natroun Symposium which is discussed briefly in the News section of this Newsletter. other planned activities included a welcome reception at Leiden City Hall, a film showing by a Coptic film-maker, a trip to Amsterdam's Allard Pierson Museum with the viewing of a special Coptica Exhibit, a farewell party, and an optional post-congress tour of the Coptic Museum in Ruinerwold. This Museum represents a private venture of Copts living in the Netherlands. Also there was a manuscript exhibit organized at the Leiden University Library. Papers Presented by Copts and Other Egyptians: As mentioned above the number of short papers presented by Copts was substantial. In fact it nearly tripled the number of similar

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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