SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

Bishop Samuel of Shibin Al-Qanater, Dr. Lola Atiya of Utah, Dr. Nosshi Abdel-Shahid, Dr. Kamal F. Ishak of the Cairo Coptic Institute, Mrs. Samiha Abdel-Shahid and Mrs. Fatima Mahmoud of the Cairo Coptic Museum, and Dr. Ashraf Iskander of France. There were also several notable American Scholars absent. This group includes, Prof. Dwight Young of Chicago, Dr. Van Minnen of Duke Univ., Dr. Leslie S. B. MacCoull of Washington DC, Dr. Scott Carroll and Dr. John Sharpe III of the Scriptorium, Dr. Paul Mirecki of Kansas, Dr. Tim Vivian of California, Dr. Terry Wilfong of Michigan, Prof. Wintermute of Duke, Dr. Donald Spanel of the Brooklyn Museum, Mr. Richard Smith of Claremont CA, Ms. Monica Blanchard of the Catholic Univ. of America, Dr. Janet Timbie of Maryland, and Dr. Marianne Robertson-Wilson of Utah. Other notable no-show were Fr. Veilleux of Rome, Fr. Samir Khalil of Lebanon, Dr. Samuel Rubenson of Sweden, Prof. Kuhn of England, Dr. Lucia Papini of Italy, and others. The Program: The schedule was arranged over a seven-day span. The first day, Saturday, was devoted to Congress registration in the afternoon and a get-acquainted session in the evening. The second day, Sunday, marked the official opening ceremony of the Congress. The participants were welcomed by the Rector of the University, the president of the IACS, Prof. Giverson, and the esteemed Congress Secretary, Prof. Krause. The day concluded with a bus trip to the nearby town of Hamm. There we viewed the beautiful new Coptic Art Exhibit opening at the Town Museum. It was titled " Ägypten - Schätze aus dem Wüstensand. Kunst und Kultur der Christen am Nil ". It mainly featured Coptic items from German collections, including textiles, manuscript, and many other art objects. The last five days were devoted to the participants communications (presentations). The communications presented were arranged in two groups. The first was a group of 5 plenary (hauptvorträge) sessions and the second consisted of eleven specific sections. The plenary sessions

contained 15 presentations (one canceled due to illness of presenters). The specific sections contained 116 presentations (al least 12 were canceled due to absence of presenters). Due to the volume of the presentations in the later group, they were arranged in two or three concurrent sessions. This made it very difficult to attend everything that was of interest. The plenary sessions were arranged in 30-minute format with no follow-up questions. Each essentially dealt with a general survey of the research done since 1992 in each of the fields representing the Coptic Studies Discipline. This included Architecture, Art, Christian Nubia, Linguistics, Literature, Bible, Codicology and Paleography, Liturgy, Church History (canceled), Monasticism in Egypt, Gnosticism in Egypt, Manichianism in Egypt, Papyrology, Christian- Arabic Literature, and the story of the Coptic Museum. Without exception, each presenter ran out of ime recounting the accomplishment of his respective field. This should tell us that such gatherings need to be done a lot more often than every four years. The presentations of the special sections were arranged in 20-minute format with 10-minute question-and-answer session. Due to the special workshops on the Last day and the business meeting of the IACS, held the day before, Monday through Wednesday were arranged in three concurrent sessions. Thursday had two concurrent sessions and Friday had only one. These presentations were arranged in the following sections: Coptic Art and Archaeology, 29 papers over three days (2 by Copts). Coptic Linguistics, 11 papers (2 by Copts) plus a Workshop. Coptic Liturgy and Church History, 9 papers (5 by Copts). Coptic Literature and Coptic Bible, 11 papers (2 by Copts). Coptic Papyrology and Epigraphy, 11 papers.

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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