SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

one of three texts that her group has been retranslating from Sahidic Coptic into English, as project sponsored by the Society with funding from the Isis and Nosshi Mansour Charitable Foundation. The text introduced here is attributed to St. Severus of Antioch, preserved in the British Library under call no. Or. 7597, originally published by Wallis Budge in his 5-volume Coptic texts set. The title is: ' A Discourse on the Compassion of God and on the Freedom of Speech of the Archangel Michael, By Severus, Archbishop of Antioch. ' This text was previously published by Budge in his 1894, Texts Related to Archangel Michael . One of the incidents that Dr. Bontty discussed was a court case that involved the offsprings of a merchant who were wrongly accused of robbing a magistrate. This came on the heal of them being driven out of their hometown after the death of their father. The family converted to Christianity earlier as a consequence of an encounter that the father had related to Archangel Michael. In short, the story tells of the process of their trial, which ended in Archangel Michael helping them in proving their innocence. c. Monastic Vows Monastic Vows and Communal Objectives in Abba Shenoute's Discourses (5 and 8) By Mark R. Moussa, a PhD Cand. at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. This paper represents a part of Mr. Moussa's upcoming dissertation on the major work of St. Shenouda, titled, I have been Reading the Holy Gospels . Using this text and other related ones, he pieced together St. Shenouda's views on the vows of chastity among the clergy. Apparently this was practiced in his days, as we began to see it lately in the Coptic Church. Traditionally the Church insisted on the marriage of the parish priests before being ordained as priests, and prohibited a second marriage for any reason. St.

Shenouda's views on the subject with regards to the priests, echoed those of St. Paul, if you can be celibate continue, if not get married. However he stressed that one should permanently choose one or the other. He was very critical of priests that vowed celibacy and later got married. It is amazing how timeless are the writings that our Church Fathers have left us. Therefore, the preservation and promotion of their writings are indispensable to every Christian. Exhibit: The exhibit organized for this gathering dealt with the subject of the Coptic Liturgical Services. A subject that deals with the most visible feature of the Coptic Church. The books exhibited depicted four distinct groups of publications found in this field. They are as follows:  The earliest translation of Coptic Liturgies. This was represented by our most recent acquisition, the 2-volume set of Renaudot, E. Liturgiarum Orientalium Collectio… , Paris 1716.  The publications of Western scholars and orientalists  Publication efforts of service manuals by the Coptic Catholic Church in the 1930s in Cairo.  Recent publication of Service manuals by the Coptic Orthodox Church. Organizers: This event was organized by the staff and students of the St. Shenouda Center for Coptic Studies.

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter Publications of the Proceedings: There is no formal plan to publish the proceedings in a separate publication. However, selected papers will be included in this or future issues of the Newsletter.

-8-