SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

received his Bachelor in Philosophy in 1944. Habib Girgis then appointed him to teach at the Clerical College, first the subject in Philosophy and later Theology. His desire for learning took him again to Cairo University where he was awarded a Diploma in Archeology in 1951. The Church send him on a scholarship to Manchester, England, where he studied under the renowned Austrian Coptologist, Prof. Walter Till. His Ph.D. dissertation was written on the subject of Greek-loan words in the Coptic Language, which was completed in 1954. Portions of this valuable work was published in different editions of the Bulletin of the Society of Coptic Archeology in Egypt. Though offered a teaching position there, he declined, opting to return back to Egypt. Upon his return, he was given back his old teaching position which was left vacant all that time. He was also given the position of Assistant Dean to the College and later headed the Department of Theology in the new Higher Institute for Coptic Studies. Later he became the dean of the Institute until his illness. He was nominated by a group of lay Church servants in 1958 for the patriarchate while only holding the ecclesiastical position of Reader in the Church. This, despite its lack of success, w s quite a testimony to his stature and the respect he earned. He was elevated to the rank of Archdeacon under Pope Cyril VI and later joined A wide range of amateurs and professionals in a definite social and cultural setting practices music, but all great music becomes accessible to peoples outside the cultural or ethnic circle. The present writer was educated in Western Classical music traditions from childhood and was a professional musician before becoming a theologian and priest. It is a personal conviction that it is in playing Coptic Orthodox music that we come close to the inner reality of Coptic liturgical life. It is essential

the blessed order of monasticism in El-Muharraq Monastery. He continued to serve in his teaching capacity at the Institute afterwards. He was sent by Pope Cyril VI to represent the Coptic Church in an observer capacity at the Vatican II Council in 1964. Pope Cyril, recognizing his piety and scholarship, ordained him a bishop for Higher Studies in May 1967. He was later nominated for the patriarchate in 1971, but his name was withdrawn because of the length of his monastic life. In 1981 he served on the 5-bishop committee that ran the administration of the Church when Pope Shenouda was detained in the Monastery. After the murder of Bishop Samuel, he became the leading member of that committee which earned him undue ire of some Copts in Egypt and Abroad. When it became evident that Pope Shenouda was not in favor of such a committee, he withdrew from the lime light in deference to the Pope. His effectiveness as the leading Church theologian deteriorated rapidly afterward and the Church lost his contribution at a time it was sorely needed. He was a unique Christian in every respect. It is hoped that after his passing from our temporal world, we can give him his due credit and present him to our young generation as the shinning example that he always was and we surely need to have. May God repose his soul in the Paradise of Joy. to be aware of the public setting of Coptic Music whilst affirming the value of individual experience. All religious music, and especially Coptic music in this context, can be experienced at once as inward and intimate, communal and educational. There is nothing so evocative of the Coptic experience as the enigmatic malisma (a melodic extension of a vowel); the long unison phrases (the music is monophonic); and the measured metrical scanning of the verses of

In Memoriam Ragheb Moftah (by Revd Dr John H Watson)

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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