ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORTS

St. Shenouda Center for Coptic Studies

• Introduction: The Society in the 1992-93 year took the bold step of leasing an office space to start a center for Coptic studies. As the center went into operation, the need for bigger space to accommodate the collections housed as well as to facilitate their use by the users. Through God's grace a larger office space was available in the same building, which is located close to St. Mark Coptic Church in Los Angeles, the first Coptic church on the West Coast.
• The new Center is conveniently divided into four separate rooms. Two rooms on the west side of the same size as the previous office space and two smaller rooms on the east side with a hallway that runs North-South. There is also a large walk-in closet for storage, located at the end of the hallway. Each room will be utilized for a specific function or functions. We decided to identify each room with a name of a Coptic Saint in the common tradition of the Copts. The choice of name on the whole reflects the function for which such room is being used for. The name assignment given here are tentative at this time. As one enters the center and walks south toward the closet and then return north to exist he would see the following:
• 1. St. Athanasius Room: This is the first room on the right (west) and it has the book library reading room. The library is arranged in accordance with the several categories included in the general field of Coptic Studies, such as Coptic Art, Bible, Hagiography, Patristic, Language, Law ... etc. There is also a section that has periodicals dealing with Coptic Studies such as the Bulletin of the Society for Coptic Archaeology, Le Monde Copte, and others. It is equipped with a computer for searching the contents of the library. The choice of name was due to the enriching effect that St. Athanasius's writings had on the ecclesiastic literary tradition of the Copts.
• 2. St. Cyril I Room: This is the second and last room on the right (west). It has the classroom space used for the seminars sponsored by the Society. Currently the Society has an Introductory course in Coptic and an advanced translation class. St. Cyril's name is synonymous with right teachings of the Coptic Church, so it would seem appropriate to name such room after him.
• 3. St. Shenouda the Archimandrite Room: This is the microfilm library room, located at the Southeast side of the Center. It houses the Coptic Microfilm Library. This library represents the greatest accomplishment made by the Society and the one that makes it unique among all places frequented by seekers of the Coptic Heritage. It is equipped with several microfiche viewers and nearly 17,000 microfiche cards, containing over 170,000 microfilmed-frames of manuscripts and about 13,000 microfilmed
• 4. St. Abraam Room: This is the second and last room on the east side of the Center just before heading out of the door. It serves the functions of a computer center and an office space. The main computer of the Center is located there. It is a 486-IBM compatible PC with an external 150-MB external Bernoulli Disk Drive and a laser printer. Stored in that computer hundreds of data files that contain literally thousands of pages of Coptic texts and English translations. They are stored in ASCII, MLS, and Word for Windows formats. There are also other computers there that are utilized for specific computer applications. Other files used in the operation of the Society will also be housed in this room. Because of the non-profit status of the Society, the name of St. Abraam, the friend of the poor, seemed a good choice. Also St. Abraam was indirectly responsible for us making the move to this new space.

Treasures of the Coptic Church (TCC):

Several years ago the Society made plans to organize the literary treasures of the Coptic Church into multi-group series of publications. Preliminary work on this massive 300-volume plus series began with the collection of the written sources such as manuscripts as well as published texts. It was followed by computerization of such texts and translation of some. The first fruit of such effort will be, God's willing, the Gospel of St. Matthew. This to be published in three parallel versions, the Bohairic, Sahidic, and Middle Egyptian dialects plus a reference column containing King James English version. Later editions of this work will include all the variant readings available in the manuscripts as well as fragments from other Coptic dialects. Other works have started on most of the Biblical series of the collection.

Through the effort of the group participating in Advanced Coptic Seminar, we have a translation of the 10th century Bohairic manuscript of St. Anoub (Abanoub) martyrdom. This work is planned to be published next year. The publication will include, in addition to the Coptic text and its literal English translation, a glossary list of all the Coptic and Greek words used along with the proper names and Geographical terms used. Now work is being done on a 13th century unique manuscript that records the martyrdom of St. John of Phanidjoit (not in the Synaxarium).

Many other liturgical, Hagiographic, and Patristic texts in Coptic has been computerized and await their eventual publication.

Computers and Coptic:

The introduction of computers in Coptic studies has been a blessing so far. It allowed us to manipulate Coptic texts to serve the needs of the users as well as a preservation medium for such vast collection. In the past years we encouraged many of our youth to participate in this process either by utilizing their own PC's or by the Society lending them the Hardware and the Software necessary for such participation. Even though a movement started, but the progress is still not what was hoped for. But, with God's help, we are hopeful that the seeds sown will bring the appropriate fruits in their own appropriate measure. We encourage those who have participated to increase their level of participation as well as encourage others to join in such a wonderful, blessed, and useful endeavor.

Coptic Library

With the opening of the center more attention was given to the acquisition of such books that would be needed by those interested in studying the different aspects of the Coptic Heritage. During this past year we were successful in acquiring a complete set of the Coptic texts published by the CSCO in Louvain, Belgium along with the volumes that included an English translation of such texts. We also acquired numerous Coptic art and language books published in Egypt recently, which is seeing a revival in such field. Another notable addition to the collection was a handsome volume on Coptic Fabrics.

More acquisitions are planned, as resources are made available to adequately assist anyone interested in Coptic Studies with working on any of its numerous disciplines. Such acquisitions contemplated are the handsome 12-volume set of the Facsimile edition of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts.

Coptic Microfilm Library

The formation of the Coptic Microfilm Library has truly been the greatest accomplishment of the Society. In spite of the great size and wide scope of this collection, there is more work to be done. There are important collections in Germany and Russia that has not been touched by us yet. It is hoped that this will change this year. Also, in spite of the gigantic microfilm collection (480 Manuscripts) that we got from the Coptic Museum, there are over 3,600 manuscripts in three major collections in Egypt that are not accessible to us. It is hoped that access to these treasures will be made through the new microfilming project being planned by the Church now.

Our acquisitions was dominated of course by the arrival of the 33-microfilm reels of the Coptic Museum manuscripts. This group include several hundred manuscripts in Coptic, Copto-Arabic and Arabic. The subject matter is mostly Biblical, Theological, and Liturgical works. All in all there were about 70,000 microfilm frames of manuscripts, of which about 20% is Coptic or Copto-Arabic. This entire group was converted to Microfiche format and is ready to be used. The Brigham Young University in Utah, the sponsor of the microfilm project, has recently send us a nearly 1600-page written inventory of this collection and other that have not been requested by us yet. Such copy will be available in the Center's Book Library.

The Society also acquired microfilms of other manuscripts from the three major Coptic collection in Europe, i.e. the Vatican (V), the British Library (BL), and the National Library of Paris (P). These acquisitions contained about 7,500 microfilm frames of Coptic, Copto-Arabic and Arabic manuscripts. There are several thousands more frames on order from the libraries of Oxford, Manchester, and Leipzig. Categorically the received copies are arranged as follows:

• Biblical (NT): BL.OR.424, BL.OR.1316-8, BL.OR.8793-5, BL.Or.1326(AR), V.8, V.10, V.11, V.12, V.13, V.15.
• Lexical: P.43, P.46.
• Liturgical: BL.OR.1001, BL.OR.1322, BL.OR.1324, P.127, P.134, P.141, P.142, P143, V.23.
• St. Mercurius Monastery (Edfu): BL.OR.7022, BL.OR.7023, BL.OR.7024, BL.OR.7025, BL.OR.7026, BL.OR.7027, BL.OR.7028, BL.OR.7029.
• White Monastery (St. Shenouda): P.78, P.102, P.132(1), P132(2), P.132(3), P.132(4), P.132(5)

Educational Classes:

The Society conducted, in the Center, a new 15-week introductory Coptic Language Seminar From April to August of this year. The seminar was an expanded version of the one given this year at Pope Shenouda III Theological Seminary in March of this year. Both seminars were conducted by the same person, namely Hany N. Takla, the Society's President. The 15-week seminar notes is being prepared for publication with an accompanying set of cassette tapes, and a supplemental instructor volume with solutions to the exercises given and suggested examinations to be given. A new session, along the same format, started in mid-September.

There are two advanced classes that are conducted on a permanent basis. The first is the advanced Coptic translation class, and the second is new workshop to train advanced Coptic students in transcribing manuscripts and manuscript collation. The first class is currently working on a very unique 13th century Coptic manuscript of the martyrdom of a saint from the Ayyubite Dynasty (12-13 Century). The class has finished the preliminary translation of the Coptic martyrdom of St. Anoub (Abanoub). That new workshop is unique and was made possible by the present of the large microfilm holdings of Coptic Manuscripts acquired by the Society. All the classes are in the Bohairic dialect.

In the future the Society will be organizing seminars in Coptic History and Ecclesiology, as well as introductory Sahidic Coptic seminar. Efforts are also being done in preparing comprehensive Coptic language courses for the different age groups to be used in Coptic Churches in America.

ST. SHENOUDA CENTER FOR COPTIC STUDIES

• General: The new Coptic Center has been in operation for nearly a year. Since its opening, about 120 visitors has passed through its doors. Its visitors came from all over the United States, Canada, and Egypt. They were Coptic Bishops and priests, members of the Society and the community, and youth seeking to know about their heritage as well as scholars in Coptic and other related fields. Everyone interested to sample or dig deep in the Coptic Heritage that never died, is welcome to come. The hours when visitors are welcome are weekdays from 6-9 p.m. and any time during the weekends. Because of staff limitation, we urge you to call ahead before coming so we can be ready. The telephone number is (310) 558-3973 or (310) 271-8329, or fax your message on (310) 5581863. The street address is 1494 So. Robertson Blvd., Suite 204, LA, CA 90035.
• Open House: On December 4, 1993; the Society held an open house to celebrate the formal opening of its new Coptic Center. This followed the celebration of the liturgy in Coptic in the neighboring Coptic Church of St. Mark. Nearly 50 people came through the door from as far as Bakersfield. There, they got the opportunity to see the facilities and the type of work being done. They also were treated to an exhibition of the activities, the collections, and the educational material related to our work in reviving and promoting the Coptic Heritage. Mrs. Nawal Monir, the editor of the Arabic Language Newspaper Al-Safaa, in Los Angeles, has most kindly conducted an extensive interview with the Director and some of the visitors and students of the Center. The interview revolved around the Society's effort to promote the Coptic Language as an indispensable tool of the revival and promotion of the Coptic Heritage. A copy of that published interview is available in the Center. It is safe to say that a very positive impression was made on all that came in. Thanks are due to the many people that contributed their time and effort to prepare the place before and during the event.
• The Great Los Angeles Earthquake of 1994: On the early morning hours of January 17, 1994, the Los Angeles area received quite a wake-up call. The area where the Center is located shook up extensively even though it was not very close to the epicenter of the quake. Through God's grace, we only sustained minimal damage. Only some of the books had damage to their binding, but nothing was of a permanent nature. A conference table did have to be replaced in the library because it was on the receiving end of the loads of books falling down with their heavy bookcases. Miraculously the computer equipment were barely moved.

THE TRIP TO GREAT BRITAIN (9/16/94-10/2/94)

The account of this most successful trip is written in details in a separate publication enclosed herewith.

TREASURES OF THE COPTIC CHURCH (TCC)

The Society's monumental work in publishing the treasures that the Coptic Heritage possesses, has continued. We have expanded the scope that this series will cover to include literature written in Arabic for use in the Coptic Church such as Patristic, Hagiographic, and Liturgical texts. This would increase the number of volumes planned by over 50%. A preliminary report was published in commemoration of the Center's Open House on December 4, 1993.

Publication of works prepared is currently on hold. The reasons are both financial as well as logistic. In order to insure a low-cost price of distribution, at least 2,000 copies need to be printed. The distribution of such works as the Coptic Gospel of St. Matthew (200+ pages) would be difficult under these constraints. On the other hand, if we shy away from putting such material in print then we would not be faithful to our original goals. The goals that made us unique in this field and brought God's graces upon us repeatedly. So we are still thinking of a solution for this dilemma. At least we will try to have copies of these available to students and other interested patrons working in the Center.

Publication of the other works, originally translated from Coptic, by members of the advanced Coptic Seminar would probably be more successful to produce and distribute. This of course assumes that funds are available! These works however are not ready for proper publication yet. The reason is human-resource limitation. But, God's willing, it will accomplished in the near future. There are two texts already translated, in a preliminary way, by that group. The first is the 10th century Bohairic manuscript of the Martyrdom of St. Anoub, and the second is the unique 13th century Martyrdom of St. John of Phanidjoit (not recorded in the Coptic Synaxarium).

We are still continuing our work in reviewing the extensive material already prepared to insure its accuracy and prepare it for publication even on an internal basis only. But at least it will be available.

COMPUTERS AND COPTIC

This past year, we experimented with digitizing Coptic images, Art, Architecture, manuscripts, ...etc. We are doing this with the aid of a newly acquired, but no too expensive, full-page color scanner that we purchased this year. So far the results are experimental at best but encouraging. We are also working on developing applications for a stand-alone Coptic educational material and research tools. CD-Storage of Coptic Music as well as digitized image libraries are seriously under consideration. Funds and human resources are the limiting factors. We are still looking for brave young men and women to help us in inputting the vast number of Coptic and English texts that are needed for the work. All using IBM PC's are welcome.

In the upcoming year, the Society is looking into developing a network to better utilize the computers in the Center. Also efforts are being expended in developing a puzzle book for all ages that can be used for teaching the Coptic Language.

THE COPTIC LIBRARY

During the past year the library grew by more than 20% to over 1,200 volumes of material in the different branches of Coptic Studies. We expanded the library in nearly every section of its more than 14 different sections. We are continuing the expansion and the development of the library to contain all the necessary references required by those who want to learn and/or to research the Coptic Heritage. The most notable additions were as follows:

• Coptic Art: Coptic Art (2 vol.), containing over 370 color plates of Coptic art treasures; Coptic Sculpture; and The Escape to Egypt, a journey through beautiful color photographs
• Coptic Bible, Old & New: Douglas, New Greek-English Interlinear NRSV; Friberg & Friberg Analytical Concordance of the Greek NT.; and Zerwick, Grammatical Analysis of the Greek NT.
• Catalogs of Manuscripts & Bibliographies: Depuydt, Catalog of Coptic Manuscripts in the Pierpont Morgan Library, (2 vol.); Elanskaia, Catalog of Coptic Manuscripts in the Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow; and Orlandi's Coptic Bibliography (updated).
• Coptic Festschrifts and conference proceedings: Orlandi/Johnson, Proceedings of the 5th International Congress of Coptic Studies (3 vol.).
• Coptic Church Law and Legal Texts: Al-Magmu al-Safawi by ibn al-Assal (Arabic).
• Coptic History: Schaff, History of the Christian Church (8 vol.); Shoucri, Readings in the History of the Egyptian Church (Arabic); and Carroll, The Melitian Schism in Egypt (Diss.).
• Coptic Hagiography: Wace, Dictionary of Christian Biography (onevol.), and numerous lives of the Saints in Arabic.
• Coptic Language: Several Coptic Language teaching books, printed in Egypt.
• Coptic Liturgy: El-Masri, Al-Syniksar al-Amin (2 vol.) Arabic; and three volumes of the translation of the Synaxarium in English.
• Coptic Literature: The 38-vol. Ante Nicene/Nicene and Post Nicene Series; and Emmel, Shenoute's Literary Corpus (5 vol. in 3).
• Coptic Monasticism: Timbie, Dualism and The Concept Of Orthodoxy In The Thought Of The Monks Of Upper Egypt (Diss) [SS. Shenouda and Pachomius]; and Goehring, the Letter of Ammon and Pachomian Monasticism.
• Coptic Theology: Schaff, Creeds of Christendom; and Mina, Theology according to the Belief of the Coptic Church (3 vol.), Arabic.
• Periodicals: The most recent volumes of the Bulletin of the Society of Coptic Archaeology, Coptologia, and Le Monde Copte.

THE COPTIC MICROFILM LIBRARY

The greatest asset of the Society has been its Microfilm library, or more accurately its Microform library. It was formed as early as 1980 and has expanded ever since. The 600+ frames we received from the British Library in March of that year has grown to over 182,000. The only limiting factors for developing this collection further are financial constraints (limited funds, and low dollar value) and resistance of some libraries to recognize the legitimacy of our requests. We hope that such resistance will disappear in the future especially with regards to the German institutions. Access to the Russian collections is virtually impossible due to economic and political conditions there. But we were truly fortunate to obtain the book edited by Prof. Elanskaia on the Coptic collection in Moscow's Museum of Fine Arts. However the access to the Bohairic portion was not made any easier by such publication. We are hoping that the avenues of cooperation being opened with Prof. Samir in Lebanon and St. Mena Monastery in Maryut, Egypt will yield an excellent harvest in this upcoming year.

This past year we can probably call it the Bodleian Year. The reason for that is our extensive dealing with them, made possible by the all-helpful attitude of their representative Ms. Doris Nicholson. Aside from gaining access to bibliographic material of all that is there, we acquired a total of about 8,700 frames containing numerous Coptic (mostly) and Christian Arabic manuscripts. This along with the more than 3,500 frames of Christian Arabic manuscripts, 18 in total, obtained from the National Library of Paris, has made the year's growth very satisfactory. Currently we have on order material from Manchester, Oxford, Cambridge, and the Coptic Museum in Cairo (awaiting the forthcoming written permission from Dr. Gabra of the Museum).

The acquired microfilms are arranged as follows (Arabic=Ar):

• Biblical (NT) & Commentaries: P.A. 93 (Ar); Ms. Copt. b.11, c.32, 37-9, 45-6; d.9, 219, 223; e.119, 131-3, 136-7, 139, 143; Or.558, Clarke Or.1, Hunt 3, 20, 122, 203, 394; Marsh. Or. 6, 99
• Canon Law: P.A.240 (Ar); Hunt 31-2 (Ar)
• Hagiography: P.A.282, 4787, 4883 (Ar); Marsh 23;
• History: P.A. 301-3 (Ar).
• Lexical: Ms. Copt. e.10; Or. 325; Hunt 365, 384, 590; Marsh. Or. 17, 85.
• Literary (Patristic): P.A.200, 208, 210, 4796 (Ar); Hunt 298, Seld.3275,63 (Ar).
• Liturgical: P.A.98, 100, 256, 4761, 4869-70 (Ar); Ms Copt. c.1, 29; d.1, 230; e.1, 2, 89; f.1, 3, g.2; Or. 652-3; I.I.Copt. 3, 4, 10; I.I.Ar.27 (Ar); Marsh Or. 459 (Ar).
• White Monastery (St. Shenouda): Clarendon Press b.1 through b.5
• Gnostic: Hunt 393.

EDUCATIONAL CLASSES

Classes at the Center: The Society successfully completed four 'Coptic I' classes during the year. A total of 15 students enrolled with ten of them successfully completing the 15-week course. A new session will start in late October of this year. The Advanced Coptic Seminar has completed the preliminary translation of the 13th century martyrdom of St. John of Phanidjoit and are currently working on a 10th century Homily of St. Theodosius of Alexandria on the Virgin Mary. A total of eight student are enrolled in this one. The Manuscripts workshop is continuing, slowly but surely, with about 4 students. The Society's president, Hany Takla, also taught the 2nd year Coptic Course in Pope Shenouda III Theological Seminary in Los Angeles during the second quarter of this year. A total of six students were enrolled there with one of them joining the Center's Advanced Coptic Seminar afterwards.

More Classes are being planned in Coptic History and Coptic Ecclesiastical Services. This will be, God's willing, the beginning of a complete curriculum of Coptic Studies that the Society is currently developing. More information will be forthcoming on that issue.

Classes at San Francisco: Fr. Matthaias Wahba, the priest of St. Antony Coptic Orthodox Church in Hayward (Northern California), has invited the president of the Society to conduct two introductory short courses on learning the Coptic Language for the community in San Francisco. This included lectures on the History of the Coptic Language and on the Patristic Golden Age of the Coptic Church from the late 3rd century to the middle of the 5th. The first one was held during the month of July with over 20 students in attendance, while the second, held in August, had between seven and ten students. The first was more of an introduction in the elements of reading as well as conversation. The second tended to explore deeper in understanding the written Coptic texts as used in the Coptic Church.

RECOGNITION

During the past year the Society was kindly acknowledged in Dr. Emmel's monumental doctoral dissertation on the literary corpus of the writings of St. Shenouda Submitted to Yale University in 1993. Also one of its publications was used in its bibliography. This mention was prompted by the Society's modest assistance given to Dr. Emmel in furnishing him with some microfiche of research material to aid him in his work. We thank him first for the great work that he accomplished, and secondly for his kind mention. He also directed some of his students and colleagues to our Society to utilize our services.

One of those that learned about us through him was Dr. Scott Carroll, the Director of Research for the Scriptorium in Grand Haven, Michigan. He in turn came and visited the Center in mid August. We are looking forward to working together in some aspects of Coptic Studies common to both of our foundations. The Scriptorium is operated by a non-profit, conservative Christian foundation, dedicated to researching and authenticating the roots of Christianity and the Bible. They hold an extensive collection of manuscripts, many of them are Coptic. They are currently preparing for an archaeological dig in Wadi 'n Natrun in Egypt in cooperation with Bishop Samuel of Shibin al-Qanater. They will be excavating the remains of the ancient monastery of St. John the Short. Dr. Carroll was invited by the Society to speak in St. Mary Coptic Church in Los Angeles on November 4, 1994, 7:30 p.m. He will also bring some of these Coptic Manuscripts with him. Mr. Ashraf Hanna, a staff member of the Society, was given the chance to visit the Scriptorium in Michigan in September. He was extremely impressed by their collection. May God's work prosper now and forever.

ST. SHENOUDA CENTER FOR COPTIC STUDIES

The Coptic Center has been in operation now in its current location for nearly two years, and already we feel the need to expand, especially the microfiche facilities. Since its opening, many visitors have passed through its doors. Its visitors came from all over the United States, Canada, and Egypt. They were Coptic Bishops and priests, members of the Society and the community, and youth seeking to know about their heritage as well as scholars in Coptic and other related fields. Most notable among the visitors from Egypt were Bishop Morcos of Shubra al-Khaima, Fr. Antonious Amin of Cairo, and Dr. Gawdat Gabra of the Coptic Museum. Everyone interested to sample or dig deep in our dearest possession, our Coptic Heritage, is welcome to come. The hours when visitors are welcome are weekdays from 6-9 p.m. and any time during the weekends. Because of staff limitation, we urge you to call ahead before coming so we can be ready. The telephone number is (310) 558-3973 or (310) 271-8329, or fax your message on (310) 5581863. The street address is 1494 So. Robertson Blvd., Suite 204, LA, CA 90035.

TREASURES OF THE COPTIC CHURCH (TCC)

The Society's monumental work in publishing the treasures that the Coptic Heritage possesses, has continued. We have expanded the scope that this series will cover to include literature written in Arabic for use in the Coptic Church such as Patristic, Hagiographic, and Liturgical texts. This would increase the number of volumes planned by over 50%. A preliminary report was published in commemoration of the Center's Open House on December 4, 1993, copies are still available to be ordered.

COMPUTERS AND COPTIC

a. The Nagi Khalil Coptic Software Center (NKCSC):

A few years ago, a center to produce and distribute IBM computer software to promote the Coptic Heritage, was introduced. It was named after our energetic vice-president of the late 80's, Mr. Nagi Khalil, who fulfilled his mission on earth several years ago and is helping us with his prayers before the throne of the Almighty. His pioneering and bold attitude was symbolic of what we were trying to do.

During the past year, we produced our first two software titles. The first in April 95, was an introductory comprehensive course in teaching Bohairic Coptic in the method currently used at the center as well as the Coptic Seminary in Los Angeles. It was distributed with a small Coptic-English Dictionary module. The software works under Microsoft Windows applications, Word for Windows and Excel. The second software, released in July 95, was the long-awaited Bohairic-English Dictionary. This is an electronic viewer of the largest collection of Bohairic and Greek words used in the Coptic Language. It is fully alphabetized and all sub-entries are cross-referenced. Periodic updates of this work will be published as needed. This software requires Microsoft Windows only to run.

This month we are planning the release of our largest work yet, which is the Coptic New Testament. This work will include the entire version of the Coptic New Testament in Bohairic and Sahidic Coptic as well as parallel copies of the King James English Version and the Greek Version. It is arranged in two modules, Bohairic/English & Sahidic/Greek. The Coptic text, Bohairic and Sahidic, was inputted several published sources, but modified orthographically for the sake of standardizing the text and making it more intelligible to those with non-academic Coptic knowledge. The Software will work under Windows.

Other programs are in different stages of development such as the Annual Lectionary (Coptic-English), slide presentations of the Coptic Monuments, CD on St. Shenouda the Archimandrite.

b. Image Digitizing:

This past year, we continued experimenting with digitizing Coptic images, Art, Architecture, manuscripts, ...etc. We are doing this with our economical full color scanner that we purchased the past fiscal year. This coming year we are planning, funds-permitting, a program to digitize our microfilm collection for easier access using special cameras and digitizing equipment. We are hoping to involve a large number of youth volunteers in that endeavor.

c. Global Access (Internet):

In August of this year, Mr. George Ghaly one of our new members in the New York area, send us a e-mail message. In it he suggested that the Society should explore the possibility of going on the Internet's World Wide Web (WWW) to present our work, activities, and our Heritage to the World. We took George at his suggestion and we are planning to have a site available for our members as well as the world to view what we are all about. The site will be officially complete on December 4, 1995. Its Address is:

HTTP://WWW.LMG.COM/TAKLA/CSOCIETY.HTM

We hope, God's willing, to be able to connect our own server. This will greatly expand the scope of material that we can present.

d. Miscellaneous:

A simple 2-computer network was developed at the center to better utilize the limited computer resources available to us. We are still looking for brave young men and women to help us in inputting the vast number of Coptic and English texts that are needed for the work. All using IBM PC's are welcome.

THE COPTIC LIBRARY

During the past year the library grew to nearly 1,300 volumes of material in the different branches of Coptic Studies. We expanded the library in nearly every section of its more than 14 different sections. We are continuing the expansion and the development of the library to contain all the necessary references required by those who want to learn and/or to research the Coptic Heritage. The most notable additions were as follows:

• Coptic Art/Architecture/Inscriptions: Ackermann, Decor Sculpte du Couvent Blanc; Beckwith, Coptic Sculpture 300-1300; C.Coquin, Les Edifices Chretiens du Vieux Caire; Creswell, Muslim Architecture in Egypt (2 vol); Hasitzka, Ein Neues Archiv Koptischer Ostraka; Mulock/Langdon, The Icons of Yuhanna and Ibrahim the Scribe; Sauneron et al, Les Ermitages Chretiens du Desert D'Esna (5 vol); Smyth, The Great Pyramid - its Secrets and Mysteries Revealed; and Walters, Monastic Archaeology in Egypt.
• Coptic Bible, Old & New: Bromiley, Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament - Abridged; Gabra, Der Psalter im Oxyrhynchitischen Dialekt; and Martinez, the Dead Sea Scrolls Translated.
• Catalogs of Manuscripts & Bibliographies: Volkoff, A La Recherches de Manuscrits en Egypte.
• Coptic Festschrifts and conference proceedings: Brooklyn Museum, Coptic Egypt - Papers read at Symposium in NY 1941.
• Coptic Church Law and Legal Texts: Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity.
• Coptic History: Anonymous, Al-Qawl Al-Abrizi Li-Alama Al-Maqrizi (copy of 1898 ed.); Dzielska, Hypatia of Alexandria; Meinardus, Christian Egypt-Ancient and Modern; and Meinardus, Faith and Life.
• Coptic Hagiography: Drescher, Apa Mena - A Selection of Coptic Texts Relating to St. Mena; and several volumes of lives of the saints in Arabic.
• Coptic Language: Polotsky, Etude de Syntaxe Copte, and several Coptic Language teaching books, printed in Egypt.
• Coptic Liturgy: Burmester, The Rite of Consecration of the Patriarch of Alex., Coquin, Le Livre de la Consecration du Sanctuaire ..., Forget, Synaxarium Alexandrinum, 2 vol., and Muharriq Monastery, The Three Liturgies (Coptic-Arabic).
• Coptic Literature/Magic: Henein, Magie par les Psaumes, and Meyer/Smith, Ancient Christian Magic-Coptic Texts of Ritual Power.
• Coptic Monasticism: Meinardus, Monks and Monasteries of the Egyptian Desert (Rev. Ed.).
• Coptic Theology: Al-Khoury, Orthodox Fathers & Orthodox Faith.
• Periodicals: The most recent volumes of the Bulletin of the Society of Coptic Archaeology, Coptologia, and Le Monde Copte.

THE COPTIC MICROFILM LIBRARY

I. Manuscripts:

The greatest asset of the Society has been its Microfilm library, or more accurately its Microform library. It was formed as early as 1980 and has expanded ever since. It has grown to over 202,000 frames. The only limiting factors for developing this collection further are financial constraints (limited funds, and low dollar value) and resistance of some libraries to recognize the legitimacy of our requests!

This past year was the most productive year since the acquisition of the greater portion of the Cairo Coptic Museum in 1992. We acquired microfilms and microfiche of Coptic and Arabic Christian manuscripts from six different institutions in Europe. Five were from British collections, and the sixth is from France. Seven came from Cambridge Univ. (CU), 20 from Oxford's Bodleian Lib.(OB), 22 from Birmingham Mingana Collection (MG), 8 from London School of African Studies (SOAS), 54 from London's British Library (BL), and 32 Arabic ones from Paris's National Library of France (PA). The acquired microfilms are arranged as follows (Arabic=Ar or PA):

• Biblical (NT/OT) & Commentaries: OB.Clar.P.d1, e7; Copt.d2, 3, 4. MG.Ms.10 (Ar), 14 (Ar), 41 (Ar), CU.BFBS.Ms.138. SOAS.Ms.7 (Ar), 46, 275.(Ar). BL.Add.5995; Or.426, 1240, 1315, 6695, 7558.
• Canon Law: MG.Ms.40 (Ar). PA.238, 239, 241, 243, 244, 250, 4728, 6502.
• Hagiography: MG.Ms.45 (Ar). PA.154, 4884, 4888, 5969.
• History: PA.305, 307, 4772, 4773. SOAS.Ms.252 (Ar), 355 (Ar), 360 (Ar).
• Lexical: OB.Bodl.Or.660, 696; Copt.d5, e.148. BL.Add.11627; Or. 441, 8771, 8775, 8780.
• Literary (Patristic/Theology): MG.Ms.18, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 77, 82, 188. PA.150, 170, 172, 201, 207, 209, 780, 4711. SOAS.Ms.6 (AR). BL.Or.6781, 7597, 8802.
• Liturgical: OB.Marsh 5, I.I.Copt.5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11; I.I.Arab.26 (Ar); Arab.d.91 (Ar); Arab.f.68 (Ar). MG.Ms.6 (Ar), 22, 23 (Ar), 24, 123 (Ar), 152 (Ar), 163. CU.Or.1365, 1366, 1636, 1637, 1946. .PA.90, 91, 112, 113, 114, 4779, 4780. SOAS.Ms.187 (Ar). BL.Add.5996, 5997, 5998, 8027G, 14765; Or.425, 442, 3381, 5286, 5453, 5501, 5503, 5505, 5506 5641, 5643, 5644, 5644 (7), 5898, 8781, 8804, 8806.
• Magical: BL.Or.6794, 6795, 6796.
• Monastic: MG.Ms.71 (Ar).
• White Monastery (St. Shenouda): CU.Or.1699. BL.Or.8664.
• Misc. (mixed contents): OB.Arab.d150 (Ar). PA.4885. BL.Add.19902; Harl.6524; Or.20, 3367, 4724, 4725, 5452, 5464, 5465, 6943; 6721, 8801.

II. Research Material:

The Society also acquired 147 microfiche of research material from IDC in Holland. This included 7 Rare books and two archives of photographs from Egypt. The Photographic archives has over 7,500 photographs of Ancient Egyptian Art, including several Coptic material, and historical photographs. Such resources greatly enriched our already mammoth collection of research material in the field of Coptic Studies.

EDUCATIONAL CLASSES:

The Society successfully completed two 'Coptic I' classes at the Coptic Center during the year. Another 'Coptic I' is being conducted at the Orange County Mini Coptic Center, by Mr. Joseph Fahim of the staff there. A total of 14 students were/are enrolled in these 15-week courses. A new session will start in late October of this year at St. Peter and St. Paul Coptic Orthodox Church in Santa Monica, CA. The Advanced Coptic Seminar is currently working on a 10th century Homily of St. Theodosius of Alexandria on the Virgin Mary. A total of seven student are enrolled in this one. A second session for translating Sahidic Apophthgamata Patrum Texts also started, with a total of 5 participants. The Manuscripts workshop is continuing, slowly but surely, with about 4 students. The Society's president, Hany Takla, is currently teaching the 1st year Coptic Course in Pope Shenouda III Theological Seminary in Los Angeles. A total of five students are enrolled there. The Seminary Faculty has preliminarily recognized the Coptic I course, taught as the Center, as an acceptable equivalent to the one taught at the Seminary. Requirements for such acceptance is still pending.

A Comprehensive Coptic Studies Curriculum of 3-year duration is being planned. This will include about 21 classes with 30-hours of instructions each. It will cover all aspects of Coptic Studies that are necessary for the Preservation and Revival of the Coptic Heritage. The level of instructions will be at Upper Division to Graduate University Level. Instructions will emphasize Manuscript research and methodology. A fee will be charged for these classes. It is hoped, God's willing, that some of these classes can be offered during this fiscal year.

PUBLICATIONS

a. Newsletter:

This past year, the Coptic Center staff published a quarterly newsletter that brought out some of the work being done using the resources available at the Center. Four issues were published and mailed to our members and others interested individuals throughout the world.

b. Annual Bulletin:

For those interested in history, you may remember our first volume of the Annual Bulletin, back in 1984-5. It was a special issue dealing with the martyrs and martyrdom in the Coptic Church. Now we are ready for volume 2, which will be available in November of this year. This time it will be a collection of 4 articles by our members. It will be send to all dues-paying members as part of their membership. Any one else interested in sampling this work, will be able to do so at a nominal fee.

c. Coptic Word Games Handbook:

In an effort to encourage the knowledge of the Coptic Language among our youth, we are preparing a Coptic Word Games Handbook. It is being prepared by 16 of our Coptic youth, affiliated with the new mini Coptic Center. The effort is coordinated by the most diligent Miss Mariam Fahim. The fruit of this wonderful endeavor will be available in December of this year.

THE SCRIPTORIUM

The cooperation with the Scriptorium in the field of Coptic Studies continued. We included news about the excavation they are conducting in Wadi N' Natrun in our Newsletters. Further, we are sending one of our students, Mr. Maged S. Mikhail, to participate in the 1996 dig season and the great educational program that will be offered in conjunction with it. Drs. Scott Carroll and Bastiaan van Eldren lectured about the results of the first season of the dig at our Mini Coptic Center in Orange County on September 10, 1995. They will also make a similar presentation along with an impressive display of Coptic and other biblical manuscripts and rare books at St. Peter and St. Paul Coptic Orthodox Church in Santa Monica, CA on October 28, at 8 p.m.. May God's work prosper now and forever.

COPTIC SLIDES COLLECTION

During the year we were successful in acquiring a 400-slide set of Coptic sites from the renowned photographer Mr. Paul Kuiper of Oregon. This set was acquired for research purposes only. It came in Slides form as well as digitized images on CD's. They are available at the Center.

ST. SHENOUDA CENTER FOR COPTIC STUDIES

The Coptic Center has been in operation now in its current location for nearly three years. Efforts to expand the facilities have not been successful due to financial restraints but we are still hopeful. Since its opening, many visitors have passed through its doors. Its visitors came from all over the United States, Canada, and Egypt. Most notable among the visitors were Dr. Donald Spanel of the Brooklyn Museum, Dr. Harvey Staal of Michigan, and Dr. Gawdat Gabra of the Coptic Museum. Everyone interested to sample or dig deep in our dearest possession, our Coptic Heritage, is welcome to come. The hours when visitors are welcome are weekdays from 6-9 p.m. and any time during the weekends. Because of staff limitation, we urge you to call ahead before coming so we can be ready. The telephone number is (310) 558-3973 or (310) 271-8329, or fax your message on (310) 5581863. The street address is 1494 So. Robertson Blvd., Suite 204, LA, CA 90035.

TREASURES OF THE COPTIC CHURCH (TCC)

The Society's monumental work in publishing the treasures that the Coptic Heritage possesses, has continued. We have expanded the scope that this series will cover to include literature written in Arabic for use in the Coptic Church such as Patristic, Hagiographic, and Liturgical texts. This would increase the number of volumes planned by over 50%. The work is concentrated now on the Biblical section, the life of St. Shenouda the Archimandrite, and the Martyrdom of St. John of Phanidjoit. A preliminary report was published in commemoration of the Center's Open House on December 4, 1993, copies are still available to be ordered.

COMPUTERS AND COPTIC

a. The Nagi Khalil Coptic Software Center (NKCSC):

A few years ago, a center to produce and distribute IBM computer software to promote the Coptic Heritage, was introduced. It was named after our energetic vice-president of the late 80's, Mr. Nagi Khalil, who fulfilled his mission on earth several years ago and is helping us with his prayers before the throne of the Almighty. His pioneering and bold attitude was symbolic of what we were trying to do.

During the past year, we added a third title to our Software list, the Coptic New Testament Viewer (NKCSC-CB1). This work includes the entire Coptic version of the New Testament in Bohairic and Sahidic Coptic as well as parallel copies of the King James English Version and the Greek Version. It is arranged in two modules, Bohairic/English & Sahidic/Greek. For those intereseted in only one of these modules, two separate versions were produced. Their order number are -CB1a for Bohairic/English, and -CB1b for Sahidic/Greek. This program allows to choose any New Testament Book by book and chapter for on-screen reading or hard-copy printing. There is not at this time any search engine included. The Coptic text, Bohairic and Sahidic, was inputted from several published sources, but modified orthographically for the sake of standardizing the text and making it more intelligible to those with non-academic Coptic knowledge. The Software works under Windows 3.1 or 3.11.

With the advent of Windows 95 Operating System, we made some modifications to all the programs that we have realeased so far. The order number for that is distinguished by the addition of the letter "M" at the end of the number, e.g. -CB1M.

The Annual Lectionary (Bohairic-English) will be released soon. This includes all the readings in the Coptic Church for any day of the year except Sundays, Lent, Pascha, and Paschaltide. Other editions of the New Testament with search capabilities and variant reading will be forthcoming. Also the first volume of the Coptic Old Testament Viewer is in preparation. This will include the first 5 books in Bohairic with a parallel English translation of the Septuagint. Projects for producing slide presentations of the Coptic Monuments, CD on St. Shenouda the Archimandrite, and others are currently under study.

b. Image Digitizing:

This past year, we experimented with digitizing microfilm images of some of the manuscripts being works on. We used a special photo-video imager that convert the film into a video signal. Such signal is then digitized and stored on an IBM PC with the aid of a peripheral called Snappy. The generated image is enhanced using a graphics enhancing software. This system can also be used to digitize images from fragile material that can not be placed on regular flat-bed scanners. The images will eventually be stored on CD's for archival. The size of our micrfilm and slides collection will keep us busy for a long time to come.

c. Global Access (Internet):

This year we succeeded in establishing a solid presence on the internet. We reserved a domain name "STSHENOUDA.COM", and secured an adequate space to publish several documents about the Coptic Language, St. Shenouda, Coptic Studies, our Coptic Newsletters, and many other documents to promote the Coptic Heritage and its study. Our Address now is: HTTP://WWW.STSHENOUDA.COM. We hope, God's willing, to be able to connect our own server. This will greatly expand the scope of material that we can present.

THE COPTIC LIBRARY

During the past year the library grew to nearly 1,400 volumes of material in the different branches of Coptic Studies. We expanded the library in nearly every section of its more than 14 different sections. We are continuing the expansion and the development of the library to contain all the necessary references required by those who want to learn and/or to research the Coptic Heritage. The most notable additions, including items on order, were as follows:

• Coptic Art/Architecture/Inscriptions: ---, Ägypten-Schätze aus dem Wüstensand Kunst und Kulture der Christen am Nil; Baer, Ayyubid Metal Work w/Christian Images; Doxiadis, The Mysteries Fayoum Portraits - Faces from Ancient Egypt; Leiden Univ., Essays on Coptic Art vol.1 &2; Parkinson/Quirke, Papyrus; Bp. Samuel, Ancient Churches and Monasteries in Lower Egypt, Cairo, and Sinai; Thompson, Coptic Textiles - Brooklyn Museum; Thomas, the American Discovery of Ancient Egypt; Van Moorsel, Catalogue Gen. du Musee Copte - The Icon.
• Coptic Bible, Old & New: Comfort, Early Manuscripts and Modern Translation of the New Testament; Comfort, The Origin of the Bible; Hans, Parsing Guide to the New Testament; Porcher, Le Livre de Job.
• Catalogs of Manuscripts & Bibliographies: Orlandi's 1995 Coptic Bibliography.
• Coptic Festschrifts and conference proceedings: Fluck/Langener, Divitiae Aegypti - Koptologische und verwandte Studien zu Ehren von Martin Krause.
• Canon Law and Legal Texts: Perier, Les Canons des Apotres; Coquin, les Canons d'Hippolyte,
• Coptic History and Geography: Arnold, The early Episcopal Career of Athanasius of Alexandria; Evetts, History of the Patriarchs, 4 vol; Malaty, The School of Alexandria book1. Before Origen; Lev, State and Society in Fatimid Egypt; Moreh,, Al-Gabarti's Chronicle of the First Seven Months of the French Occupation of Egypt; Partrick, Traditional Egyptian Christianity-History of the Coptic Church; Sarkissian, The Council of Chalcedon and the Armenian Church; Timm, Das Christlich-Koptisch Ägypten in Arabischer Zeit 6 vol.
• Coptic Hagiography: Bell, Mena of Nikiou- the Life of Isaac of Alex...; Butler, Lives of the Saints (4 vol); Godron, Textes Relatifs a S.Claude d'Antioch; Porcher, Vie d'Isaac; and several volumes of lives of the saints in Arabic.
• Coptic Language: Liddle & Scott, Greek English Lexicon 9th ed. Unabridged; Youssef, Dictionary of the Coptic Language (Arabic-English); and several Coptic Language teaching books, printed in Egypt.
• Coptic Liturgy: ---, The Holy Psalmodia (Coptic-English); Basset, Le Synaxaire Arabe Jacobite. Redaction Copte (6 vol); Burmester, Lecctionaire de la Semaine Sainte v.1; Fr. Hanna, the Book of the Ordination and Consecration..
• Coptic Literature/Patristics: Hamell, Handbook of Patrology; McGuckin, St. Cyril of Alex. on the Unity of Christ; Welch, Christology and Eucharist in the Early Thought of Cyril of Alex.; Samir, Christian Apologetics during the Abbasid Period; Chebli, Refutation d'Eutychius par Severe Eveque d'Ashmounain.
• Coptic Monasticism: Barnard, The Monastic Letters of St. Athanasius the Great; Rubenson, The Letters of St. Antony - Monasticism and the Making of a Saint.
• Coptic Theology: Burgess, The Holy Spirit - Ancient Christian Tradition; Burgess, The Holy Spirit - Eastern Christian Tradition; McGuckin, St. Cyril of Alexandria: The Christological Controversy; Morenz, Egyptian Religion; Samir, Al-Safi ben Al-Assal sur le Trinite et l'Incarnation; Shafer, Religion in Ancient Egypt; Tsirpanlis, Intro. to Eastern Patristic Thought & Orthodox Theology.
• Coptic Apocrypha/Gnosticism: P. Labib, Coptic Gnostic Papyri in the Coptic Museum at Old Cairo.
• Periodicals: The most recent volumes of the Bulletin of Coptologia and Le Monde Copte.

THE COPTIC MICROFILM LIBRARY

I. Manuscripts:

The greatest asset of the Society has been its Microfilm library, or more accurately its Microform library. It was formed as early as 1980 and has expanded ever since. It has grown to over 202,000 frames. The only limiting factors for developing this collection further are financial constraints (limited funds, and low dollar value) and resistance of some libraries to recognize the legitimacy of our requests!

This past year we elected not to have any new purchases. Meanwhile we started to utilize the collection more and more in the research projects that we are working on. We are planning during the upcoming year to acquire more Literary and Liturgical Christian Arabic manuscripts from several libraries in Europe along with some Coptic ones.

II. Research Material:

The Society this year added several more titles to its mammoth collection of microfiche of research material in the field of Coptic Studies. This additions were mainly part of the Society's SSCMC project for microfilming Coptic Studies printed material. The SSCMC collection has more than 2,000 microfiche. Many of these will be available for purchase by scholars and interested individuals. They can be ordered through our Internet site.

EDUCATIONAL CLASSES

The Advanced Coptic Seminar, meeting on Sunday evenings, is continuing to work on a 10th century Homily of St. Theodosius of Alexandria on the Virgin Mary. A second session for translating Sahidic Apophthgamata Patrum Texts is also continuing. The Manuscripts workshop is continuing, slowly but surely. The Society's president, Hany Takla, is currently teaching the 2nd year Coptic Course in Pope Shenouda III Theological Seminary in Los Angeles. An Intermediate Coptic Seminar is currently being conducted at the Center on Saturday evenings.

No progress has been done on the Comprehensive Coptic Studies Curriculum, that was announced earlier. However, the plans are still there to implement this 3-year program in the future. This will include about 21 courses with 30-hours of instructions each. It will cover all aspects of Coptic Studies that are necessary for the Preservation and Revival of the Coptic Heritage. The level of instructions will be at Upper Division to Graduate University Level. Instructions will emphasize Manuscript research and methodology. A fee will be charged for these classes.

PUBLICATIONS

a. Newsletter:

The Coptic Center staff continued to publish the quarterly newsletter which is bringing out some of the work being done using the resources available at the Center. Four issues of volume two were published and mailed to our members and others interested individuals throughout the world.

b. Annual Bulletin:

Volume 2, came out earlier this year. It included a collection of 4 articles by our members. It was sent to all dues-paying members as part of their membership. All others interested in sampling this work, will be able to do so at a nominal fee.

c. Traditional Egyptian Christianity:

Rev Dr. Theodore Hall Partrick of North Carolina has written a book on the History of the Coptic Orthodox Church, called Traditional Egyptian Christianity. This book was a culmination of 10 years of reseach on the subject. A project fueled by the author's deep admiration of the Coptic Church. We reviewed a draft manuscript of this work two years ago. As a result, we put up the necessay funds to print the book and have it available at a reasonable price. This made us the prime distributor of the book worldwide as we received about 85% of the quantity printed. The book came out in mid June of this year and only few hundred copies of the original 2100+ copies are remaining. The book's popularity stems from its excellent historical treatment of the subject, its brevity, and superb style. It was a worthwile investment for the Society of such a book that further the interest in the study of the History of the Coptic Church.

THE SCRIPTORIUM

The cooperation with the Scriptorium in the field of Coptic Studies continued. During the 1996 excavation season, Mr. Maged S. Mikhail, a research assistant at the Coptic Center, participated as a student as well as a member of the excavation team. The yield from the site was tremendous and much was uncovered. Some of the discoveries were the ancient monastery church, an ancient altar, wall paintings, gold coins, and a lot more. We were kept informed through a weekly-updated Internet program. Such ambitious project was not without great deal of difficulties. It is the Society's sincere hope that the work will continue to uncover this great treasure of Coptic Monasticism.

Drs. Bastiaan Van Eldern, Scott Carroll, and Jerry Pattengale, gave a very informative presentation at St. Peter and St. Paul Coptic Orthodox Church in Santa Monica, CA on October 28, at 8 p.m. This dealt with the Scriptorium's collection of Christian Manuscripts and Artifacts as well as the excavation work in Egypt. It was accompanied by an impressive display of Coptic and other biblical manuscripts and rare books. May God's work prosper now and forever.

THE FIRST ST. SHENOUDA COPTIC SYMPOSIUM

On June 28, 1997, the Society held its first symposium of Coptic Studies. It dealt with the subjects of Coptic Church History and Coptic Liturgy. Bishop Serapion, the Coptic bishop of Los Angeles and its surrounding areas, was in attendance and delivered the opening Address. The symposium was divided into four sessions that lasted from the morning to the late afternoon of that Saturday. Approximately 80 people were in attendance in one or more of these sessions. A total of twelve papers were presented, six in each subject, by eleven participants. This event marked another active step that the Society is taking to promote scholarly research among the Coptic Community.

TREASURES OF THE COPTIC CHURCH (TCC)

The Society's monumental work in publishing the treasures that the Coptic Heritage possesses, has continued. We have expanded the scope that this series will cover to include literature written in Arabic for use in the Coptic Church such as Patristic, Hagiographic, and Liturgical texts. This would increase the number of volumes planned by over 50%. The work is concentrated now on the biblical section, the life of St. Shenouda the Archimandrite, and the Martyrdom of St. John of Phanidjoit. In the biblical section we added more texts from many dialects such as the Sahidic Wisdom books of Solomon and Ben Sira, the Akhmimic Minor Prophets, Middle-Egyptian Psalms, and Asyutic Gospel of St. St. John. We also started on the assembling dismembered Sahidic books such as Genesis and Tobit. The latter was published in the last issue of the Society's bulletin. A preliminary report was published in commemoration of the Center's Open House on December 4, 1993, copies are still available to be ordered.

COMPUTERS AND COPTIC

a. The Nagi Khalil Coptic Software Center (NKCSC): During the past year, we added a fourth title to our Software list, the Bohairic-English Coptic Lectionary (NKCSC-CG1). This includes all the readings in the Coptic Church for any day of the year except Sundays, Lent, Pascha, and Paschaltide. The parallel English translation is from the King James Version, with the exception of the Psalms which were translated from Coptic directly. The Software works under Windows 3.1 or 3.11 and requires Word for Windows 2.0 or 6.0. A separate version for Windows 95 which runs under the Windows Help system has also been prepared.

b. Coptic CD: We began to develop our first CD of Coptic instructional and research material. The files will be in Adobe Acrobat format. It will include an Introductory Bohairic Grammar with sounds, Bohairic-English dictionary, Bohairic/Sahidic/English/Greek New Testament in at least six different parallel editions, and a Bohairic-English Annual Lectionary for the days (or feasts). This format allow search as well as printing without having the Coptic Fonts installed. The CD is scheduled for distribution in January 1998.

c. Image Digitizing: This past year, we continued our efforts to digitize microfilm images of some of the manuscripts being worked on. Nearly 500 images have been scanned and they are in the process of being put in archival storage on a computer CD The size of our microfilm and slides collection will keep us busy for a long time to come.

d. Computer at the Coptic Center: This year we upgraded our computer capability at our Coptic Center to better handle the needs of the users of the facilities. This included building a new PC system, installing a small office Ethernet Network (LAN); developing a computer instructional display; providing Coptic, English, and Arabic word-processing capability, and installing office Intranet system. There is more Hardware upgrade that we need to do as well as developing the Software tools needed to search our libraries.

e. Global Access (Internet): This year we continued our solid presence on the internet with our own domain name and with an adequate space to publish several documents about the Coptic Language, St. Shenouda, Coptic Studies, our Coptic Newsletters, and many other documents to promote the Coptic Heritage and its study. Our Address is still:

We are planning to add Adobe Acrobat documents that include bibliographies and other research material needed by people interested in Coptic Studies. We hope, God's willing, to be able to connect our own server. This will greatly expand the scope of material that we can present.

THE COPTIC LIBRARY

During the past year the library grew to nearly 1,400 volumes of material in the different branches of Coptic Studies. We expanded the library in nearly every section of its more than 14 different sections. We are continuing the expansion and the development of the library to contain all the necessary references required by those who want to learn and/or to research the Coptic Heritage. The most notable additions, including items on order, were as follows:

• a. Coptic Art/Architecture/Inscriptions: Butler, The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt, v-1 (Ar-Transl); Fagan, The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, Godlewski, Deir el-Bahri - Le Monastere de St. Phoibammon; Hondelink, Coptic Art and Culture; Huyghe, Three Lectures on Art; Innemee, Ecclesiastical Dress in the Medieval Near East; Leyden Univ., Essays on Coptic Art and Culture I (Ar); Messiha, Introduction to the Coptic Monuments (Ar); Rice & Rice, Icons -The Natasha Allen Collection Catalogue; Rice, Icons Art and Devotion; Bp. Samuel, Coptic Monuments that was discovered in the Era of Pope Shenouda III; D. Thompson, Mummy Portrait in the J. Paul Getty Museum; Tkaczow, The Topography of Ancient Alexandria - An Archaeological Map; Volback, Early Christian Art.
• b. Coptic Bible, Old & New: Aland, Synopsis Quattuor Evangeliorum; Kohlenberger, The Parallel Apocrypha; Kohlenberger, The Precise Parallel New Testament; Lust et al, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint pt.1 A-I; Metzger, An Introduction to the Apocrpha; Metzger, Manuscripts of the Greek Bible; Strong, The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible; Swanson, New Testament Greek Manuscripts Gospels (4 vol); Swete, The Old Testament in Greek according to the Septuagint 2nd ed. 1896.
• c. Coptic Festschrifts and conference proceedings: Bilde et al, Apocryphon Severini presented to Soren Giversen; Geller & Maehler, Legal Documents of the Helenistic World; Getty Museum, Alexandria and the Alexandrianism; Godlewski, Coptic Studies - Acts of the 3rd International Congress of Coptic Studies
• d. Canon Law and Legal Texts: Bilde et al; Ethnicity in Hellenistic Egypt; Haas, Alexandria in Late Antiquity - Topography and Social Conflict; Worp; Greek Papyri from Kellis I (P.Kell. G);
• e. Coptic Hagiography: Anonymous, Between the Faith and the Building - Lights on the Life of Hegemon Mikhail Saad 1909-1996 (Ar); Anonymous, St Mina - The Miraculous, His Life History and Miracles; Convent of St. George, History and the Biographies of the Great Martyr St. George the Roman and St. George of Alexandria; Kirolos, Coptic Orthodox Book of Saints part II; Martyros al-Suriani, The Great Saint St. John the Short known as Abu Yahnnis (AR); O'Leary, The Arabic Life of St. Pisentius
• f. Coptic History and Geography: Bauer, Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity; Cuno, The Pasha's Peasants - Land, Society, and Economy in Lower Egypt (1740-1858); El-Feki, Copts in Egyptian Politics; Frend, the Early Church; Grant, The Ancient Historians; Holt, Early Mamluk Diplomacy (1260-1290); M. Kamel, Coptic Egypt; Kepel, Muslim Extremism in Egypt - The Prophet and Pharaoh; Fr. T. Malaty, The School of Alexandria - Origen; D. al­Masri, Iris Habib al-Masri - Historian of the Story of the Coptic Church (Ar); Mitchell, Colonising Egypt; O'Conner, Ancient Nubia Egypt's Rival in Africa; F. E. Peters, The Harvest of Hellenism; Save-Soderbergh, Pharaohs and Mortals; Shoshan, Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo; Al-Tabari, The Early Abbasi Empire (2 vol.); Taschen, Description de L'Egypte; Toledano, State and Society in Mid-Nineteenth Century Egypt; Zachariah al-Antuni, Pope Cyril IV (Ar).
• g. Coptic Language: Loprieno, Ancient Egyptian - A Linguistic Introduction.
• h. Coptic Liturgy: Anonymous, Annual Psalis - Watos and Adam Pt. 1 Tut-Amshir (Bohairic-Ar); Burmester, Le Lectionnaire de la Semaine Sainte V.2; Kuhn & Wait, Thirteen Coptic Acrostic Hymns from M574 of the Pierpont Morgan Library.
• i. Coptic Literature/Patristics: Brakke, Athanasius and the Politics of Asceticism; Chadwick, Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition; Clark, the Origenist Controversy - The Cultural Construction of an Early Christian Debate; Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers (5 vol).
• j. Coptic Monasticism: Binns, Ascetics and Ambassadors of Christ - the Monasteries of Palestine 314-631; Burton-Christie, The Word in the Desert - Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism; Chitty, The Desert a City; Van Doorn-Harder, Contemporary Coptic Nuns; Elm, Virgins of God - The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity; Bp. Samuel, Life and Sayings of Saint Simeon the Stylite and the life of the Stylites (Ar); Vivian, Journeying into God - Seven Early Monastic Lives.
• k. Coptic Theology/Religion: Bundley, The Oecumenical Documents of the Faith (4th Ed.); Budge, Egyptian Religion; Budge, The Mummy - Funeral Rites and Customs in Ancient Egypt; Bp. Gregorious, Life after Death (Ar); Grillmeier, Christ in Christian Tradition v.1, v2-1, v2-2, v2-4; Widdicombe, The Fatherhood of God from Origen to Athanasius.
• l. Coptic Apocrypha/Gnosticism: Frankfurter, Elijah in Upper Egypt; Meyer, The Gospel of Thomas - the Hidden Sayings of Jesus; Robinson, The Nag Hammasi Library.
• m. Periodicals: A full set of Coptic Church Review back issues (17 volumes). Two volumes of bound St. Mark Magazine, issued in Egypt. The most recent volumes of Coptologia, Le Monde Copte, Coptic Church Review, Al-Risala Newsletter, Sunday School Magazine, and the monthly book of the Patristic Center in Egypt.
• n. Miscellaneous: Nunn, Ancient Egyptian Medicine.

THE COPTIC MICROFILM LIBRARY

I. Manuscripts: The greatest asset of the Society has been its Microfilm library, or more accurately its Microform library. It was formed as early as 1980 and has expanded ever since. During this past year we have made three major acquisitions that totaled about 23,000 frames. This brings the size of the library to about 225,000 frames. The acquisitions were of 17 Christian Arabic and three lexical Coptic manuscripts from the Paris National Library (P); 8,500 manuscript shelf items from the Austrian National Library (V); and eight Coptic and Christian Arabic manuscripts from the University of Göttingen Library (G). The Austrian material is a miscellaneous collection of literary and non-literary texts, containing nearly 16,000 frames. The microfilms are classified in the following categories:

• Biblical-New Testament: G 2°Cod.Ms.Kopt.1
• Biblical-Lectionary: G 2°Cod.Ms.Kopt.8
• Canon Law: P.Ar.251, 252
• Hagiographic: G 4°Cod.Ms.Arab.114; P.Ar.152, 4774-7, 4781-2, 4788, 4790-1, 4793, 4871-3
• Lexical: P.44, 51, 103
• Literature: P.Ar.144
• Liturgical: G 2°Cod.Ms.Kopt.9, 2°Cod.Ms.Kopt.10; 2°Cod.Ms. Arab.112, 4°Cod.Ms.Arab.113, 113b
• Misc: Vienna K1-2000, K2501-5000, K5501-6500, K7000-11000

II. Research Material: The Society this year added several more titles to its mammoth collection of microfiche of research material in the field of Coptic Studies. This additions were mainly part of the Society's SSCMC project for microfilming Coptic Studies printed material. The SSCMC collection has more than 2,000 microfiche. Many of these will be available for purchase by scholars and interested individuals. They can be ordered through our Internet site.

EDUCATIONAL CLASSES:

The Advanced Coptic Seminar, meeting on Sunday evenings, is nearing the conclusion of its work on the 10th century manuscript of the Homily of St. Theodosius of Alexandria on the Virgin Mary. A second session for translating Sahidic Apophthgamata Patrum Texts is also continuing. The Manuscripts workshop is continuing, slowly but surely. The Intermediate Coptic Seminar was also offered during the past year. A new Introductory Coptic is in session on Wednesday evenings. A Coptic Bible reading course has also started on Saturday evenings with text selections from the Bohairic version of Genesis. All classes are conducted at the Center by the Society's president, Hany N. Takla.

The first fruit of the comprehensive Coptic Studies Curriculum, that was announced earlier started with the Coptic Old Testament reading course. However, we have implemented this 3-year program yet. This will include about 21 courses with 30-hours of instructions each. It will cover all aspects of Coptic Studies that are necessary for the Preservation and Revival of the Coptic Heritage. The level of instructions will be at Upper Division to Graduate University Level. Instructions will emphasize Manuscript research and methodology. A fee will be charged for these classes.

PUBLICATIONS

a. Newsletter: The Coptic Center staff continued to publish the quarterly newsletter which is bringing out some of the work being done using the resources available at the Center. Four issues of volume three were published and mailed to our members and others interested individuals throughout the world. With the success that this effort was met with, we started with a separate, expanded Subscriber's Edition as well as an abridged regular edition for non-members

b. Annual Bulletin: Volume 3, came out earlier this year. It included a collection of 3 articles by our members. It was sent to all dues-paying members as part of their membership. All others interested in sampling this work, will be able to do so at a nominal fee.

c. Life of St. John the Little: Rev Dr. Tim Vivian of Bakersfield has collaborated with Mr. Maged S. Mikhail in the edition of the Coptic life of St. John the Little in English. The Bohairic version was translated by Mr. Mikhail and reviewed by Dr. Vivian who also translated the extant Sahidic fragments as well as prepared a scholarly, detailed introduction to the work. The Coptic text was supplied from the library of Coptic texts gathered under the auspicious of the Treasures of the Coptic Church project. This work, which appeared in English for the first time, was published as a double issue of the Coptic Church Review, a quarterly publication of work related to the Coptic Church. In recognition of the importance of that work as well as the affiliation of the authors to the Society, we decided to be a distributor of such an edition.

ST. SHENOUDA CONFERENCE FOR COPTIC STUDIES

Beginning July 31 , 1998, the Society held its first general conference of Coptic Studies which lasted for two full days. It was held at the campus of the California State University, Long Beach, through the courtesy of the University authorities and the hard word of the Coptic Collegiate Club there. It dealt with a wide range of subjects related to Coptic Studies. Bishop Samuel of Shibin al-Qanater, Egypt was both an attendee and a participant. He delivered the opening address for the first day. Bishop Serapion, the Coptic bishop of Los Angeles and its surrounding areas, was in attendance on the second day and delivered the opening Address on the work of the Diocese in the field of Christian Education. There were about 20 presentations over the two-day period delivered by scholars, Students, clergy, and laymen. Approximately 90 people were in attendance on either or both days. Four of the presentations were related to monastic subjects from either an archeological or a contemplative perspective. This event was a watershed mark in the Society efforts to promote scholarly research among the Coptic Community.

TREASURES OF THE COPTIC CHURCH (TCC)

The Society's monumental work in publishing the treasures that the Coptic Heritage possesses, has continued. The first fruits of this work appeared as part of the Coptic computer CD that was published. This included an edition of the substantially complete versions of the New Testament (CB43-CB60). The first 42 volumes of the Biblical Section, CB1-CB42, has had substantial work accomplished. The following step is to complete the review of the computerized texts against the printed or the manuscript that they were based on as well as the assembly of the dismembered books, especially among the Sahidic Old Testament books. The hagiographic section on St. Shenouda the Archimandrite and the Martyrdom of St. John of Phanidjoit are also being worked on. A preliminary report was published in commemoration of the Center's Open House on December 4, 1993, copies are still available to be ordered.

COMPUTERS AND COPTIC

a. Coptic CD: This year saw the completion of the first substantial work of the Society in the field of Coptic Studies. It included enormous resources of Coptic instructional and research material. The files were be in Adobe Acrobat format. The contents included an Introductory Bohairic Grammar with sounds in both the current pronunciation system as well a slightly modified one proposed by the lessons' compiler, Bohairic-English dictionary, Bohairic/Sahidic/English(KJV)/Greek New Testament in at least six different parallel editions, and a Bohairic-English Annual Lectionary for the days (or feasts). This format is suitable for IBM PC's and Apple Mac's. The CD was available for distribution in May 1998.

b. Image Digitizing: This work was dealt a painful blow late in November 1997 with the crash of the Hard Disk that housed the information. Much of the material was recovered but they needed to be enhanced. We will be resuming this work in the upcoming year which will keep us busy for years to come judging by the vast collections of the Society.

c. Computer at the Coptic Center: This year we expanded our computer capability at the Los Angeles Coptic Center (LA) and the Orange County Regional Center (OC) to better handle the needs of the users of the facilities. This included the addition of two new PCs to our existing office Ethernet Network at LA and upgrade of the existing unit at OC. There is two additional PCs being planned for the upcoming year at LA along with new Intranet to better serve the users of the facilities.

d. Global Access (Internet): This year we continued our solid presence on the internet with our own domain name and with an adequate space to publish several documents about the Coptic Language, St. Shenouda, Coptic Studies, our Coptic Newsletters, and many other documents to promote the Coptic Heritage and its study. Our Address is still:

The site was recognized by the Encyclopedia Britannica Internet Guide as a recommended site under the keyword Coptic. Also, sites all over the world have made links to our site, especially the Coptic Language section. This section became the default site for all interested in its study. We are planning to add Adobe Acrobat documents that include bibliographies and other research material needed by people interested in Coptic Studies.

THE COPTIC LIBRARY

During the past year the library grew to nearly 1,400 volumes of material in the different branches of Coptic Studies. We expanded the library in nearly every section of its more than 14 different sections. We are continuing the expansion and the development of the library to contain all the necessary references required by those who want to learn and/or to research the Coptic Heritage. The most notable additions, including items on order, were as follows:

• a. Coptic Art/Architecture/Inscriptions: A.Badawy, History of Egyptian Architecture V.1 from the Earliest Time to the End of the Old Kingdom; E.M.Chassinat, Fouilles a Baouit. Tome 1 (1911); M.Erikson, Textiles in Egypt 200-1500 AD - In the Swedish Museum Collection (1997); A.Gayet, L'Art Copte (1902); P.Grossmann, Elephantine II, Kirche und Spätantike Hauanlagen im Chnumtempelhof (1980); N.S.H.Janesma, Ornements des Manuscrits Copte du Monastere Blanc (1973); P.van.Moorsel, Le Monastere de Saint Antoine 2 vol; M.Zibawi, Eastern Christian Worlds (1995);
• b. Coptic Bible, Old & New: ---, The Septuagint Version Greek and English, Samuel Bagster & Sons (1851); ---, Vetus Testamentum ex Versione Septuginta Interpretum Secundum Exemplar Vaticanum ... 3­vol, Oxford (1875); Aland & Aland, The Greek New Testament (4th ed. rev.); Lust et al, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint pt.2 K-; S.Olofsson, The LXX Version - A Guide to the Translation Techniques of the Septuagint; Rahlfs, Septuaginta v.X Psalmi cum Odis; B.Taylor, The Analytical Lexicon to the Septuagint; Wevers, Septuginta v.1 Genesis; Wevers, Septuaginta v.II,1 Exodus; Wevers, Septuginta v.III,2 Deuteronomium; Ziegler, Septuaginta v. XIII Duodecim Prophetae;
• c. Coptic Festschrifts and conference proceedings: P.Borgen & S.Giversen (ed.), The New Testament and Hellenistic Judaism (1997); van den Broek, Studies in Gnosticism and Alexandrian Christianity; van den Broek, Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religions presented to G.Quispel; Byzantine Institute, Studies in Honor of W.E.Crum (1950); D.W.Young (ed.), Studies Presented to Hans Jakob Polotsky (1981);
• d. Canon Law and Legal Texts: R.S.Bagnall, Dakhleh Oasis Project Monograph 7. The Kellis Agricultural Account (1997); R.S.Bagnall & D.D.Obbink, Columbia Papyri X (1996); R.Cribiore, Writing, Teacher, and Student in Graeco-Roman Egypt (1996); Endress, A Greek and Arabic Lexicon. Materials for a Dictionary of the Mediaeval Translations from Greek into Arabic, 4 parts; I.Gardinar, Dakhleh Oasis Project Monograph 4. The Kellis Literary Texts. V.1 (1996); A.Grohmann, Arabic Papyri in the Egyptian Library (1934); P.A.L'Huillier, The Church of the Ancient Councils - The Disciplinary Work of the First Ecumenical Councils (1996); A.C.Johnson & L.C.West, Byzantine Egypt: Economic Studies (1949); Khoury, Chrestomathie de Papyrologie Arabe - Documents Relatifs a La vie Privee, Sociale et Administrative; J.G.Winter, Life and Letters in the Papyri (1933); K.A.Worp & A.Rijiksbaron, Dakhleh Oasis Project Mono-graph 5. The Kellis Isocrates Codex (1997);
• e. Cataloges of Manuscripts & Bibiographies: W.Kammerer, A Coptic Bibliography (Reprint 1969); Macomber, Final Inventory of the Microfilmed Manuscripts of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, Al-Azbakiyah, Cairo (unpublished); W.Pleyte & P.A.A.Boeser, Manuscrits Coptes du Musee d'Antiquites des Pays-Bas a Leide (1897);
• f. Coptic Hagiography: T.Mina, Le Martyre d'Apa Epima (1937);
• g. Coptic History and Geography: Behrens-Abouseif, Egypt's Adjustment to Ottoman Rule; H.I.Bell, Egypt from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest; P.Brown, The Body And Society - Men Women and Sexual Renunciation In Early Christianity; P.Brown, The Making of Late Antiquity; E.W.Budge, The Dwellers of the Nile, 2nd Ed. London (1888); J.H.Ellens, Alexander the Great and Hellenistic Culture: The impact of Political and Military Achievements upon the Life of the Mind and the Spirit (1997); W.H.C.Frend (ed.), The Archaeology of Early Christianity: a History (1998); Lietzmann, History of the Early Church Vol IV - The Era of the Church Fathers; R.Makar, Jacques Tagher - Christians Under Moslem Rule (English Translation); A.Marsot, Women and Men in Late Eighteenth Century Egypt (1995); J.M.Modrzejewski, The Jews of Egypt - From Ramses II to Emperor Hadrian; Mosheim, Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, 2-vol (1857); Stevenson, A New Eusebius - Documents Illustrative of the History of the Church to AD 337.
• h. Coptic and Other Languages: W.Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the NT and Other early Christian Literature; Lane, Arabic English Lexicon, 2 vol; T.Muraoka, Classical Syriac - A Basic Grammar with Chrestomathy (1997); H.W.Smythe, Greek Grammar; G.Steindorff, Kürzer Abriss der Koptischen Grammatik mit Lesenstücken und Worterverzeichnis, Berlin (1921) and associated archive; G.Steindorff, Lehrbuch der Koptischen Grammatik (Am. Ed. 1951); C.C.Walters, An Elementary Coptic Grammar (Reprint 1976);
• i. Coptic Liturgy: Duchesne, Christian Worship - Its Origin and Evolution, 4th Ed. London 1949;
• j. Coptic Literature/Patristics: B.Altaner, Patrologie - Leben, Schriften und Lehre des Kirchenvater; Giordani, The Social message of the Early Church Fathers; Metcalfe, Origen the Teacher..., London 1907; Meyendorf et al, Christian Spirituality - Origins to the 12th Century; Patristic Centre Cairo, Patrological and Theological Studies (1998 - Arabic); B.A.Pearson, The emergence of the Christian Religion - Essays on Early Christianity; Prestige, God in Patristic Thought; Reynolds, Church History - Council of Nicaea and St. Athanasius; Robertson, St. Athanasius on the Incarnation, London (1891); M.Sheridan, Rufus of Shotep - Homilies on the Gospels of Matthew and Luke - Introduction, Text, Translation, Commentary; M.Simonetti, Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church - A Historical introduction to Patristic Exegesis; Squire, Asking the Fathers; Fr. M.Wahba, Honorable Marriage according to St. Athanasius (1996);
• k. Coptic Monasticism: R.R.Jones, An Ethnohistory of Coptic Monasticism (Egypt Christianity) (UMI 1997); J.Patrich, Sabas, Leader of Palestinian Monasticism;
• l. Coptic Theology/Religion: Galavaris, Icon in the Life of the Church; McGlinchey, The Teaching of Amen-em-Ope and the Book of Proverbs, CUA Diss. 1939;
• m. Coptic Apocrypha/Gnosticism: B.Layton, The Gnostic Treatise on Resurrection from Nag Hammadi; Sox, The Gospel of Barnabas;
• n. Periodicals: Volumes 30, 33-36 of the Bulletin of the Society for Coptic Archaeology. The most recent issues of Coptic Church Review, Al-Risala Newsletter, Sunday School Magazine, St. Mark Magazine, and the monthly book of the Patristic Center in Egypt. We received numerous offprints from our corresponding colleagues/
• o. Miscellaneous: J.L.Foster, Hymns Prayers and Songs - An Anthology of Ancient Egyptian Lyric Poetry; M.Meyer, The Magical Book of Mary & the Angels in English Translation (1997); E.Wente, Letters from Ancient Egypt (1990).

EDUCATIONAL CLASSES

The Advanced Coptic Seminar, concluded its work on the 10th century manuscript of the Homily of St. Theodosius of Alexandria on the Virgin Mary. The new session is dealing with a Homily of St. Cyril of Alexandria on the Three Holy Youth as well as selections from the Bohairic Genesis. Two Introductory Coptic sessions were completed. All classes are conducted at the Center by the Society's president, Hany N. Takla.

The Society in cooperation with the Coptic Diocese of Los Angeles, is preparing a curriculum for training students in the methodology of researching liturgical subjects using primary sources, i.e. manuscripts. The training will include two sessions of Coptic grammar and text translation, followed by a series of seminars and workshops on the methodologies of using the liturgical manuscripts in research. Mr. Maged S. Mikhail and Mr. Hany N. Takla will be preparing and conducting these seminars at the Center.

PUBLICATIONS

a. Newsletter - Subscriber's Edition: The Coptic Center staff started to publish an expanded version of quarterly newsletter which is bringing out some of the work being done using the resources available at the Center. Four issues of volume one of that edition were published and mailed to our members and others selected individuals throughout the world. We also began an abridged regular edition for non-members.

b. Annual Bulletin: Volume 4, came out in July of this year. It contained nine of the papers presented at last year's Coptic Symposium. It was sent to all dues-paying members as part of their membership. All others interested in sampling this work, will be able to do so at a nominal fee.

c. Coptic Symposium on Video: Mr. Adel Mankarious has gratefully produced, on behalf of the Society, a video recording of the entire proceedings of last year's Coptic Symposium on two video tapes. Copies can be ordered from the Society.

ST. MARK FOUNDATION FOR COPTIC HISTORY

During the past year, the Society has continued a course of constructive collaboration with the newly founded St. Mark Foundation for Coptic History. This organization will be concerned primarily with the rewriting of the History of the Coptic Church and its people. Through this branch of Coptic Studies, the Society has found avenues of collaboration particularly in the technical aspects. The organization also, through the able direction of its founder, Dr. Fawzy Estafanous of Cleveland Ohio, is working on a wider scale of participation by the ecclesiastical authorities as well as the Coptic Laity in Egypt and Abroad. We wish them all divine help and guidance.

SECOND ST. SHENOUDA CONFERENCE FOR COPTIC STUDIES

Beginning August 13 , 1999, the Society held its second general conference of Coptic Studies which lasted for two full days, on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), through the courtesy of the University authorities and the hard work of the Coptic Collegiate Club there. It dealt with a wide range of subjects related to Coptic Studies. Bishop Samuel of Shibin al-Qanater, Egypt was again both an attendee and a participant. He delivered the opening address for the first day. Bishop Serapion, the Coptic bishop of Los Angeles and its surrounding areas, was also in attendance and delivered the opening Address on the second day. There were about 22 presentations over the two-day period delivered by scholars, students, clergy, and laymen. Over 100 people were attended on either or both days. The passing of Prof. Paul van Moorsel deprived the attendees from the pleasure of meeting him, but his colleagues made sure that his work was represented, including a wonderful address sent by Dr. J. van der Vliet about the upcoming Congress of Coptic Studies in Leiden. This event was a watershed mark in the Society's efforts to promote scholarly research among the Coptic Community.

TREASURES OF THE COPTIC CHURCH (TCC)

The Society's monumental work in publishing the treasures that the Coptic Heritage possesses, has continued. Work on the first 42 volumes of the Biblical Section, CB1-CB42, is 65% complete. It is hoped that a preliminary edition of them will be published in CD format by the Summer 2000.

COMPUTERS AND COPTIC

a. COEPA: This year, the Society made an agreement with COEPA to distribute their products in the US which is related to our work. So far two CD titles have been added to our list, one audio and on Computer one. There are another two that will be announced in the next issue of the Newsletter. COEPA also was granted distribution rights for our Coptic CD in Australia.

b. Image Digitizing: With the purchase of a new scanner with transparency-scanning capabilities, we are experimenting with image digitizing directly from the microfiche. We are also utilizing the equipment for the digitizing of the Coptic Encyclopedia images.

c. Computer at the Coptic Center: This year we added two new IBM PC's and one Mac to our Los Angeles Coptic Center (LA) as well as a new special scanner to handle transparencies. A new Intranet is still planned to better serve the users of the facilities.

d. Global Access (Internet): This year we continued our solid presence on the internet. Our current web address is still: HTTP://WWW.STSHENOUDA.COM. The site was recognized as one of the top 50 World-wide in the category of Language grammar on the basis of the number of links made to it from other sites. The traffic grew to an average of about 20,000 hits a month with visitors from nearly every state in the US as well as 45 different countries over all 6 continents. Two major bibliographies in the field of Coptic History and Coptic Liturgy has been posted and there are plans for more in the future.

THE COPTIC LIBRARY

During the past year the library grew to about 1,500 volumes of material in the different branches of Coptic Studies. We expanded the library in nearly every section of its more than 14 different sections. We are continuing the expansion and the development of the library to contain all the necessary references required by those who want to learn and/or to research the Coptic Heritage. The most notable additions, including items on order, were as follows:

• a. Coptic Art/Architecture/Inscriptions: Butler, Ancient Churches of Egypt , 2 vol. (1884); Daumas, F. & A. Guillaumont Kellia I Kom 219 Fouilles Executees en 1964 et 1965 Facs.I (1969); Junker, H. Das Kloster am Isisberg (1922); Marangou, L. Benaki Museum - Coptic Textiles (1971); Thomas, T.K. Textiles from Medieval Egypt AD 300-1300 (1990); Wessel, K. Coptic Art (1965); Zaloscer, H. Agyptische Wirkerein (1962)
• b. Coptic Bible, Old & New: Anonymous, Ethiopic New Testament (1927); Bauer, D.R. Biblical Resources for Ministry: A Bibliography of Works in Biblical Studies ; Böhlig, A. Untersuchungen über die Koptischen Proverbientexte (1936); Böhlig, A. Codex: Book of Proverbs (Facsimile of Berlin Ms of Akhmimic Proverbs) (Leipzig 1963); Bosson, N. Worterverzeichnitz zu G. Gabras Ausgabe des Psalters... (1997); Ciasca, A. Sacrorum Bibliorum Fragmenta Copto-Sahidica Musei Borgiani v.1 (1885); Conybeare, F.C. Grammar of Septuagint Greek (Updated 1995); Diebner, B.J & R. Kasser, Hamburg Papyrus Bil. 1 (1989); France, R.T. A Bibliographic Guide to New Testament Research (1983); Fitzmyer, J.A. An Introductory Bibliography for the study of the Scripture (1990); Hanhart, Septuaginta V.VIII,3 Esther ; Hanhart, Septuaginta V.VIII,4 Judith ; Hanhart, Septuaginta V.XII,1 Sapientia Salomonis ; Hanhart, Septuaginta V.VIII,5 Tobit ; Hoskier, H.C. Concerning the Date of the Bohairic Version covering a detailed Examination of the text of the Apocalypse (1911); Husselman, E. The Gospel of John in Fayumic Coptic (P.Mich Inv. 3521) (1962); Jousson, A. Die Koptischen Versionen Der Apostelgeschichte - Kritik und Vertung (1963); Muraoka, T. Hebrew/Aramaic Index to the Septuagint ; Oden, T.C. (Ed), Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (ACCS) New Testament II. Mark (1998); Oden, T.C. (Ed), ACCS New Testament VI Romans (1998); Oden, T.C. (Ed), ACCS New Testament VIII Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians (1999); Olofsson, S. God Is My Rock: A Study of Translation Technique and Theological Exegesis in the Septuagint ; Sharpe, J. et al The Bible as Book - The Manuscript Tradition (1996); Tattam, H. Prophetae Maiores - in Dialecto Linguae Aegyptiacae Memphitica seu Coptica , 2 vol. (Reprint-1989); Thompson, H. A Coptic Palimpsest Containing Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Judith ... in the Sahidic Dialect (Reprint); Thompson, H. The Coptic Sahidic Version of Certain Books of the Old Testament (1908); Till, W. Die Achmimische Version der Zwölf Kleinen Propheten (1927); Wessely, C. Sahidisch-Griechische Psalmenfragmente (1907); Wessely, C. Sahidische Papyrusfragmente der Paulinischen Briefe (1914); Wessely, C. Die Wiener Handschrift der Sahidischen Acta Apostolorum (1913); Wevers, Notes on Greek Text of Deuteronomy ; Wevers, Notes on Greek Text of Exodus ; Wevers, Notes on Greek Text of Leviticus ; Wevers, Septuaginta V.II,2 Leviticus ; Wevers Septuaginta V.III,1 Numeri ; Ziegler, Septuaginta V.XVI,1 Ezechiel (1977); Ziegler, Septuaginta V.XII,2 Iesu Filii Sirach (1980); Zeigler, Septuaginta V.XI,4 Iob (1982); Ziegler, Septuaginta V.XIV Isaias ; Ziegler, Septuaginta V.XV Jeremias, Baruch
• c. Coptic Festschrifts and conference proceedings: Coquin, R-G. Melanges Antoine Guillaumont - Contribution a l'Etude des Christianismes Orientaux (1988); Krause, M. & S. Schaten Themelia - Spatantike und Koptologische Studien Peter Grossmann zum 65 Geburtstag ; Polotsky, Collected Works (1971).
• d. Canon Law and Legal Texts: Ellis, S.P. Graeco-Roman Egypt (1992); Harnack, Sources of the Apostolic Canons (1895); Hefele, C.J. A History of the Councils of the Church v.2 AD 326-429 (1876); MacCoull, L.S.B. Greek and Coptic Papyri in the Freer Gallery of Art (Diss. 1977); Rolandson, J. Women and Society in Greek and Roman Egypt (1998); Steinwnter, A. Das Recht der Koptischen Urkunden (1955); Till, W.C. Die Koptischen Ostraca der Papyrussammlung der Osterreichischen NationalBibliothek (1960); Till, W. Koptische Schutzbriefe (1938)
• e. Cataloges of Manuscripts/Bibliographies: Blochet, E. Catalogue des Manuscrit Arabe de Nouv. Acq. (1925); Crum, W.E. Catalogue of the Coptic Manuscripts in the Collection of the John Rylands Library (1909); Crum, W.E. Short Texts form Coptic Ostraca and Papyri (1921); Crum, W.E. Varia Coptica. Texts and Translations (1939); Depuydt, L.W., The Historical Study and Catalogue Raisonne of the Coptic Collection in the Pierpont Morgan Library (I-V) (Diss. 1990); Hilmy, Prince Ibrahim Literature of Egypt and Soudan , 2-vol in one (reprint); Lucchesi, E. Repertoire des Manuscrits Coptes (Sah) Publ. de la Bibliotheque Nationale (1981); Zanetti, U. Les Manuscrits de Dair Abu Maqar - Inventaire (1986)
• f. Coptic Hagiography: Budge, E.A.W. The Martyrdom and Miracles of St. George (1888); O'Leary, D. The Saints of Egypt (1937); Pietersma, A. The Acts of Phileas Bishop of Thumis P.Chester Beatty XV (1984); Reymond & J.W.B. Barnes Four Martyrdoms from the Pierpont Morgan Coptic Codices (1998); Winstedt, E.O. Coptic Texts on St. Theodore the General ... (Reprint);
• g. Coptic History and Geography: Al-Sayyid, A.L. Egypt and Cromer - A Study in Anglo-Egyptian Relations (1968); Armanios, F. Egypt for which Egyptians? Copts and the Egyptian Nationalist Movement, 1882-1919 (MA Thesis 1998); Bell, H.I. Jews and Christians in Egypt - The Jewish Troubles in Alexandria (1924); Bowman & Rogan (Ed) Agriculture in Egypt from Pharonic to Modern Times (1999); Browne, G.M. Chrysostomus Nubianus-An Old Nubian Version of Ps-Chrysostom (1984); Butler, A. Arabic Conquest of Egypt and the Last Thirty Years of Roman Dominion (Reprint-1998); Charles R.H. The Chronicle of John, Coptic Bishop of Nikiou (Reprint); Hanna, Fr. Shenouda Who are the Copts (1967); Hourani, A. A History of the Arab People (1991); Hardy, E.R., Christian Egypt: Church & People - Christianity and Nationalism in the Patriarchate of Alexandria (1952); Ibrahim, S. The Copts of Egypt (1995-6); Petry, C.F. (Ed), The Cambridge History of Egypt (CHE), V.1 Islamic Egypt 640-1517 (1998); Petry, C.F. (Ed) CHE V.2 Modern Egypt 1517 to end of 20th Century (1998); Petry, C.F. The Civilian Elite of Cairo in the Later Middle Ages (1981); Philipp, T. & U. Haarmann (Ed.). The Mamluks in Egyptian Politics and Society (1998); Robertson, R. The Eastern Christian Churches - A Brief Survey 6th ed. (1999); Roberts, C.H. Manuscript, Society and Belief in Early Christian Egypt (1977); Sellers, The Council of Chalcedon: A Historical and Doctrinal Survey ; Tadros, Ramzy. Copts in the 20th Century vols 2,3,4 [Arabic] (1911); Wakin Lonely Minority ; Watterson, B. Coptic Egypt (1988); Wendell, C. The Evolution of the Egyptian National Image from its Origins to Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid (1972); Worrell, A Short Account of the Copts (1945); Zachoura, E. Kitab Mirat al-Asr Fi Tarikh ... Akaber al-Rigal li Misr pt.1 [Arabic] (1897)
• h. Coptic and Other Language: Callender, J.B. Studies in the Nominal Sentence in Egyptian and Coptic (1984); Cerny, Coptic Etymological Dictionary (1976); Cerny, J. & S.I. Groll A Late Egyptian Grammar , 4th ed. (1993); Chaine, M. La Proposition Nominale dans les Dialectes Coptes (1955); Depuydt, L. Conjunction, Contiguity, Contengency (1993); Kasser, R. Complements au Dictionaire Copte de Crum (1964); Mallon, A. Grammaire Copte 3rd Edition (1926); Murray, A. Elementary Coptic (Sahidic) Grammar (1911); Plumley, J.M. An Introductory Coptic Grammar (Sahidic Dialect) (1948); Shisha-Halevy, A. Coptic Grammatical Categories (1986); Spiegelberg, W. Koptisches Handwörterbuch (1921); Strasbach, Dictionaire Inverse du Copte (1984); Vergote Grammaire Copte Ib Part Diachronique (1983)
• i. Coptic Liturgy: Cuming, G.J. The Liturgy of St. Mark edited from the Manuscripts with a Commentary (1990); Fenwick, J.R.K. The Anaphoras of St. Basil & St. James - An Investigation into Their Common Origin (1992); Hammerschmidt Die Koptische Gregoriosanaphora (1957); Moftah, R. et al. The Coptic Orthodox Liturgy of St. Basil with Complete Musical Transcription (1998); O'Leary, D. The Coptic Theotokia (1923); O'Leary, D. The Difnar of the Coptic Church Part II (1928); Taft, R. Beyond East and West - Problems in Liturgical Understanding (1997); Yarnold, E. The Awe-Inspiring Rites of Initiation (1994); Woolley, R. Coptic Offices (1930)
• j. Coptic Literature/Patristics: Bamberger, Evagrius Pontius - the Praktikos - Chapters on Prayer (1981); Foat, M.E. I Myself Have Seen: The Representation of Humanity in the Writings of Apa Shenoute of Atripe (Diss. 1996); Halton, T (Ed), Message of the Fathers of the Church , 19 Volumes (1977-86); Johnson, M.E., The Prayers of Serapion of Thmuis (1995); Rius-Camps, J. The Four Authentic Letters of Ignatius, the Martyr (1980); Taylor, T. Arguments of the Emperor Julian Against the Christians (1999); Torrance, Christology after Chalcedon Severus of Antioch and Sergius the Monophysite (1988)
• k. Coptic Monasticism: Amelineau, Des Moines Egyptiens-Vie de Schenoudi (1889); Chaine, M. Le Manuscit de la Version Copte en Dialecte Sahides Apophthegmata Patrum (1961); Frankfurter, D. (Ed) Pilgrimage and Holy Space in Late Antique Egypt (1998); Goehring, J. Ascetics, Society, and the Desert: Studies in Early Egyptian Monasticism (1999); Krawiec, R.S. Women's Life in Shenute's White Monastery: A Study in Late Antique Egyptian Monasteries (Diss. 1996); MacDermot, V. Cult of the Seer in the Ancient Middle East ; Moussa, M, Abba Moses of Abydos (MA Thesis 1998); Ramsey, B. John Cassian, The Conferences ACW57 (1977); Steenken, J.G., The Holy and Sociopolitical Character of Early Coptic Monasticism (Diss. 1987); Wellard, Desert Pilgrimage (1970)
• l. Coptic Theology/Religion: Uqbit, T. Current Christological Positions of Ethiopian Orthodox Theologians (1973); Frankfurter, D. Religion in Roman Egypt - Assimilation and Resistance (1998);
• m. Coptic Apocrypha/Gnosticism: Attridge. Nag Hammadi Codex I,2 Notes ; Layton, B. Nag Hammadi Codex II,2-7 with XIII,2, BL.Or 4926(1) ... 2 vols; Parrott. Nag Hammadi Codices V,2-5 & VI with P.Berol.8502 1&4 ; Pasquier, A. L'Evangile selon Marie (BG1) ; Pearson, B. Nag Hammadi Codices IX and X ; Till, W.C. Die Gnostischen Schriften des Koptischen Papyrus Berolinensis 8502 (1955)
• n. Periodicals: The most recent issues of Coptic Church Review, Al-Risala Newsletter, Sunday School Magazine, St. Mark Magazine, and the monthly book of the Patristic Center in Egypt. We received numerous offprints from our corresponding colleagues.

EDUCATIONAL CLASSES

The Advanced Coptic Seminar, continued its work on the Homily of St. Cyril of Alexandria on the Three Holy Youth as well as selections from the Bohairic Genesis. Sessions of Coptic I , II of the Coptic Seminary were or are being held at the Center as well as in the Bellflower campus. A new Coptic class began for children 8-13 years old.

PUBLICATIONS

a. Newsletter - Subscriber's Edition: Four issues of volume two of the Subscriber's Edition were published and mailed to our members and others selected individuals throughout the world. We also continued with the abridged regular edition for non-members.

SECOND ST. SHENOUDA COPTIC SYMPOSIUM - COPTIC MONASTICISM

On July 22 , 2000, the Society held its second specialized symposium of Coptic Studies. This year the subject was Coptic Monasticism. This one-day event was held on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), through the courtesy of the University authorities and the hard work of the Coptic Collegiate Club there. Bishop Serapion, the Coptic bishop of Los Angeles and its surrounding areas, was in attendance as well as presented a paper and participated in the concluding panel discussion. There were about 7 presentations delivered by scholars, students, clergy, and laymen. About 70 people attended Some or all the presentations. This event was the fourth Society-sponsored scholarly event in the field of Coptic Studies in Los Angeles. It helped to further the Society's efforts to promote scholarly research among the Coptic Community in this field.

TREASURES OF THE COPTIC CHURCH (TCC)

The Society's monumental work in publishing the treasures that the Coptic Heritage possesses, is continuing, but at a slower pace. This was due to many difficult circumstances that faced the Society this year. Work on the first 42 volumes of the Biblical Section, CB1-CB42, is 70% complete. It is hoped that a preliminary edition of them will be published in CD format by the Summer 2001. The delay was caused further by commitment made to finish the electronic edition of the Coptic Encyclopedia for St. Mark Foundation.

COMPUTERS AND COPTIC

1. COEPA: The Society continued its cooperation with COEPA to distribute their excellent products in the US which is related to our work. This year another two CD titles were added to our list, one audio and on Computer one. There are more titles planned for the upcoming year that will be announced in the upcoming issues of the Newsletter. COEPA also was granted distribution rights for our Coptic CD in Australia.
2. Image Digitizing: A new special scanner slides/microfiche scanner was purchased. Experimentation with image digitizing directly from microfiche was satisfactory for the greater part of our collection. The other existing scanner will be used for books and pictures only.
3. Computer at the Coptic Center: This year we added a new IBM PC Notebook to our Los Angeles Coptic Center (LA) as well as a new stand-alone CD Writer/Copier. A new Intranet is still planned to better serve the users of the facilities.
4. Global Access (Internet): This year we continued our solid presence on the Internet. Our current web address is still: HTTP://WWW.STSHENOUDA.COM. the prestigious Britannica.com have selected our site " as one of the best on the Internet when reviewed for quality, accuracy of content, presentation and usability .". The traffic grew to an average of about 30,000 hits a month with visitors from nearly every state in the US as well as 70 different countries over all 6 continents. We added a more interactive look to our Coptic Language Section.

THE COPTIC LIBRARY

During the past year the library grew to about 1,850 volumes of material in the different branches of Coptic Studies. We expanded the library in nearly every section of its more than 14 different sections. We are continuing the expansion and the development of the library to contain all the necessary references required by those who want to learn and/or to research the Coptic Heritage. The notable additions were as follows:

• a. Coptic Art/Architecture/Inscriptions: Anonymous, l'Art Copte - Petit Palais Paris 17 Juin- 15 Septembre 1964. (1964); Brune, K-H. Der Koptische Reiter: Jäger, König, Heiliger . (1998); Cannuyer, C. l'Égypte Copte - Les Chretien du Nil (2000); Capuani, M. l'Égypte Copte (1999); Cramer, M. Koptische Buchmalerei. (1964); Empereur, J-Y. Alexandria Rediscovered 1998) ; Fluck, Linscheid & Merz. Textilien aus Ägypten. Teil 1: Textilen aus dem Vorbesitz vom Theodor Graf, Carl Schmidt und dem Ägyptischen Museum Berlin (2000); Ibrahim, K. Catalogue General des Antiquites du Musee Copte No 1-253. Coptic Funerary Stelae (1987); Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA). l'Art Copte in Égypte - 2000 ans de Christianisme (2000); IMA. l'Égypte Copte - 2000 ans de Christianisme (2000); Kybalova, L. Coptic Textiles (?) ; Leroy, J. Les Manuscrits Copte et Copte-Arabe Illustrés (1974); van Loon, G. The Gate of Heaven (1999); Lorquin, A. Les Tissus Coptes au Musée National du Moyen Age - Thermes de Cluny (1992); Lorquin, A. nat Étoffes Égyptienne de l'Antiquité Tardive du Musée Georges-Labit (1999); Musée du Louvre. Portraits de l'Égypte Romaine (1998); Peri, P. Tessuti Copti Nelle Collezioni del Museo del Bargello (1996); Rassart-Debergh, M. Textiles d'Antinoe (Égypte) en Haute Alsace (1997); Rutschowscaya, M.H. La Pienture Copte (1992); Rutschowscaya, M.H. Musée du Louvre - Catalogue des Bois de l'Égypte Copte (1986); Wessel, K. Kunst der Kopten - Koptische Sammlung des Ikonen Museums (1961)
• b. Coptic Bible, Old & New: Bibliotecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. Codex Vaticanvs Graecvs 1209 – Bibliorvm Sacrorvm Graecorvm Codex Vaticanvs B (facsimile/ Replica) & Prolegomena volume (1999); Brooke & Mclean. The Old Testament in Greek v.1 the Octateuch (Reproduction 1906-17); Brooke, Mclean & Thackeray. The Old Testament in Greek v.2 the Later Historical Books (Reproduction 1927-35); Brooke, Mclean & Thackeray. The Old Testament in Greek v.3 Esther, Judith, Tobit (Reproduction 1940); Goehring, J. The Crosby-Schøyen Codex Ms 193 (1990); Hanhart. Septuaginta vol. VIII,1 Esdrae Liber 1. (1974); Hanhart. Septuaginta vol. IX,2 Maccabaeorum Liber II (1959); Hanhart. Septuaginta vol. IX,3 Maccabaeorum Liber III (1960); Hanhart. Text und Textgeschichte des I Esrabuches (1974); Holy Transfiguration Monastery. The Psalter According to the Seventy together with the none Odes (3rd print 1997); Kappler, W. Septuaginta vol IX,1 Maccabaeorum Liber I (1936); Lagarde, A. Der Pentateuch Koptisch. (Reptint 1967); Neale, J.M. & R.E. Littledale. Commentary on the Psalms from Primative & Mediaeval Writers, vol. 1 (Reprint 1999); O'Connell. The Theodotionic Revision of the Book of Exodus. (1972); Schmitz, F-J & G. Mink. Liste der Koptischen Handscriften des Neuen Testaments I. Die Sahidischen Handscriften der Evangelien 1.Teil (1986); Schmitz, F-J & G. Mink. Liste der Koptischen Handscriften des Neuen Testaments I. Die Sahidischen Handscriften der Evangelien 2.Teil 1. Halbband (1987); Schmitz, F-J & G. Mink. Liste der Koptischen Handscriften des Neuen Testaments I. Die Sahidischen Handscriften der Evangelien 1.Teil 2. Halbband (1991); Shore, A.F. Joshua I-VI and Other Passages in Coptic (1963); Thompson, H. The Coptic Version of the Acts of the Apostles and Pauline Epistles in Sahidic … (1932); Tischendorff, C. Bibliorum Codex Sinaiticus Petropolitansus 4 vol (Reprint: 1969); Vinck, J.M.de & L.C. Contos. The Psalms Translated from the Greek Septuagint (1993); Wevers. Text History of the Greek Deuteronomy. (1978); Wevers. Text History of the Greek Numbers (1982); Wevers. Text History of the Greek Genesis. (1974); Wevers. Text History of the Greek Leviticus. (1980); Ziegler. Septuaginta XVI,2 Susanna, Daniel, Bel et Draco. (1957);
• c. Coptic Festschrifts and conference proceedings: Boud'Hors, A. Études Coptes VI - Huitième Journée d'Études Colmar 29-31 mai 1997 (2000); Emmel et al (Ed). Agypten und Nubien in Spatantiker und Christlicher Zeit 2 vol [Act of the 6th Congress of Coptic Studies] (1999); Loprieno, A. (Ed). Ancient Egyptian Literature - History and Form (1996); Meyer, M & P. Mirecki. Ancient Magic and Ritual Power (1995); van Moorsel, P. Called to Egypt - Collected Studies on Paintings in Christian Egypt (2000); Pearson, Rea, Turner & Coles. Proceedings of the XIV International Congress of Papyrologists Oxford 24-31 July 1974 (1975); Rassart-Debergh, M. Études Coptes V, Sixième Journée d'Études Limoges 18-20 Juin 1993, Septième J. d'Ét. Neuchâtel 18-20 mai 1995 (1998); Rosenstiehl, J-M. Etudes Coptes IV - Quatrième Journée d'Études Strasbourge 26-27 Mai 1988 (1995); Rosenstiehl, J-M. Christianisme d'Egypte - Hommages a Rene-Georges Coquin (1995); Verhoogt & Vleeming (Ed.). The two faces of Graeco-Roman Egypt (1998); Worrell, W. H. Coptic Texts in the University of Michigan Collection (1942)
• d. Canon Law and Legal Texts: Oxyrhynchus Papyri (several authors), Pt.XXI 2288-2308 (Reprint 1976). Pt.XXIII 2354-2382 (Reprint 1975). Pt.XXXV 2733-2744 (1968). Pt.XXXVII 2801-2823 (1971). Pt.XXXVIII 2824-2877 (1971). Pt.XXXIX 2878-2891 (1972). Pt.XL 2892-2942 (1972). Pt.XLI 2943-2998 (1972). Pt.XLII 2999-3087 (1974). Pt.XLIII 3088-3150 (1975). Pt.XLIV 3151-3208 (1976). Pt.XLV 3209-3266 (1977). Pt.XLVI 3267-3315 (1978). Pt.XLVIII 3368-3430 (1981). Pt.XLIX 3431-3521 (1982). Pt.L 3522-3600 (1983). Pt.LI 3601-3646 (1984). Pt.LII 3647-3694 (1984). Pt.LIII 3695-3721 (1986). Pt.LIV 3722-3776 (1987). Pt.LV 3777-3821 (1988); Browne, G.M. Papiri Laurenziani Copti (P.Laur. V). (1984); Coles, R.A. Location List of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri (1974); Coles, R.A. & M.W. Haslan. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri vol.XLVII, Nos.3316-3367 (1980); Ernshtedt. Koptskiye Teksty Gosudarstvennovo Ermitazha (1959); Gardner, I. et al. Coptic Documentary Texts from Kellis 1 (1999); Grenfell, B.P. & A.S. Hunt. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri vol.I (1898); Grenfell, B.P. & A.S. Hunt. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri vol.II, (1899) ; Grenfell, B.P. & A.S. Hunt. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri vol.VI, Nos.845-1006 (1908); Grenfell, B.P. & A.S. Hunt. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri vol.XII, Nos.1405-1593 (1916); Heuser. Die Koptischen Personennamen Agyptischen Ursprungis (?); Husselman, E.M. Papyri from Karanis, 3rd series Michigan Papyri Vol IX, (1971); Lewis, N. The Compulsory Public Service of Roman Egypt (1982); Lewis, N. Leitourgia Papyri Documents on Compulsory Public Service in Egypt (1963); Lobel, E. et al. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri vol.XVIII, Nos.2157-2207 (1941); Lobel, E. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri vol.XXI, Nos.2288-2308 (1951); Maspero, J. Catalogue General des Antiquites Egyptiennes du Musee du Caire: Papyrus Grecs d'Epoque Byzantine. 3 vol (reprint 1973); Meecham, H.G. Light from Ancient letters - Private Correspondence in the non-literaty Papyri of Oxyrhynchus (1923); Ragib, Y. Marchands d'Étoffes du Fayyoum au III/IX Siecle a'Après leurs Archives (Actes et Lettres) 1. Les Acts des Banu `Abd al-Mu'min (1982); Rees, B.R. Papyri from Hermopolis and Other Documents of the Byzantine Period (1964); Taubenschlag. The law of Greco-Roman Egypt in light of the Papyri 332 BC-640 AD (1944); Thomas. The Epistrategos in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, i. Ptolemaic Epistrategos. (1975); West & Johnson. currency in Roman and Byzantine Egypt (1944); Youtie, H.C. Tax Rolls from Karanis Pt. I - Text (1936);
• e. Cataloges of Manuscripts/Bibliographies: Hunt, Lucy-Anne. The Mingana And Related Collections (1997); Simaika, M. Brief Guide to the Coptic Museum and to the Principal Ancient Coptic Churches of Cairo - translated from French by G.H. Costigan (1938); Simaika, M. Guide Sommaire du Musée Copte et des Principales Eglises du Caire (1937);
• f. Coptic Hagiography: Godron, G. Recherches sur les Texte Coptes Relatifs a S. Claude d'Antioch (1976); Sobhy, G. Le Martyre de S. Helias et l'Encomium de le Eveque Stephens (1919);
• g. Coptic History and Geography: Curzon, R. Visits to the Monasteries of the Levant (2nd Ed. 1916); Fowler, M. Christian Egypt, Past, Present, and Future (1901); Griggs, C.W. Early Egyptian Christianity frpm its Origins to 451 CE (Reprint 2000); den Heijer, J. Mawhub ibn Mansur ibn Mufarriq et l'Historiographie Copto-Arabe (1989); Hunter, F.R. Egypt Under the Khedives (1805-1879) From Household Government to Modern Bureacracy (1984); Noshy, I. The Coptic Church: Christianity In Egypt (ca. 1960); Stern, S.M. Fatimid Decrees – Original Documents from the Fatimid Chancery (1964); Toussoun, Price Omar. La Geographie de l'Egypte a l'Epoque Arabe vol 1, Pt 1 (1926) Pt 2 (1928); Winter, M. Egyptian Society Under Ottoman Rule 1517-1798 (1992);
• h. Coptic and Other Language: Layton, B. A Coptic Grammar (2000); Mason. Greek Terms for Roman Institutions - A Lexicon and Analysis (1974); Sophocles, E.A. Greek Lexicon of the Roman & Byzantine Period, 2vol (Reproduction 1914); Westendorf, W. Koptisches Handworterbuch (9 pt) (1965-77); Worrell, W. Coptic Sounds (1934)
• i. Coptic Liturgy: Henner, J. Fragmenta Liturgica Coptica (2000); Malan, S.C. Original Documents of the Coptic Church I. The Divine Liturgy of St. Mark the Evangelist, II. The Calendar of the Coptic Church, III. A History of the Copts and their Church, tran. from el-Maqrizi (1872-3);
• j. Coptic Literature/Patristics: Behlmer, H. Schenute von Atripe – De Iudicio (1994); Haas, F.A.J.de. John Philoponus' New Definition of Prime Matter (1997); Pusey, P. The Three Epistles of St. Cytil of Alexandria (1872); Revillout. Memoires sur les Blemmyes (1874-7); Wickham, L.R. Cyril of Alexandria Select Letters (1983);
• k. Coptic Monasticism: Butler, C. The Lausiac History of Palladius - A Critical Discussion (1898) ; Leroy, J. Monks and Monasteries of the Near East ;Queffelec, H. Saint Anthony of the Desert - Trans. from French by J. Whitall (1954); Vivian, T. Histories of the Monks of Egypt and Life of Onnophrius (Rev. ed. 2000) [gift by author]
• l. Coptic Theology/Religion: Winkler, D.W. Koptische Kirche und Reichskirche - Altes Schisma und Neuer Dialog (1977) [gift by author]
• m. Coptic Apocrypha/Gnosticism: Box, G.H. The Testament of Abraham with the Testament of Isaac and Jacob (1927); Robinson, The Coptic Gnostic Library . Paperback edition, 5 vol (2000); Webb, E. & Wiebe. Nag Hammadi Texts and the Bible - A Synopsis and Index (1993);
• n. Coptic Paleography: Kenyon F.G. The Palaeography of Greek Papyri (Reprint of the 1899 Edition);
• o. Periodicals: Seventeen volumes of the Bulletin of the Scociety of Coptic Archaelogy have been added along with the most recent issues of Coptic Church Review, Al-Risala Newsletter, Sunday School Magazine, St. Mark Magazine, and the monthly book of the Patristic Center in Egypt. We received numerous offprints from our corresponding colleagues

EDUCATIONAL CLASSES

The Advanced Coptic Seminar, continued its work primarily on selections from the Bohairic text of the Book of Genesis. Four sessions of Coptic I , II for children 8-13 years old were or are currently being held at the Los Angeles Center.

PUBLICATIONS

1. Newsletter - Subscriber's Edition: Four issues of volume three of the Subscriber's Edition were published and mailed to our members and others selected individuals throughout the world. We also continued with the abridged regular edition for non-members.
2. Volume 5 of the Society Bulletin: During this year, Volume 5 of the bulletin was published. It included 11 papers from the proceedings of the first Coptic Conference held at Long Beach in 1998.
3. Coptologia: The first volume of the new series of Coptologia was published in 2000 and distributed to members and subscribers of the Society. This new series inaugurates the cooperation between St. Mark Foundation and our Society. This came about through the generosity of the founder and Chief Editor Coptologia, Prof. Fayek Ishak of Canada.

THIRD ST. SHENOUDA COPTIC CONFERENCE

Beginning July 27, 2001, the Society held its third general conference of Coptic Studies. This two-day event was held on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), through the courtesy of the University authorities and the hard work of the Coptic Collegiate Club there. Bishop Serapion, the Coptic bishop of Los Angeles and its surrounding areas, was in attendance on the second day. He also delivered the dedication speech of the Conference to the memory of Archdeacon Habib Girgis. There were about 17 presentations delivered by scholars, students, clergy, and laymen. About 90-100 people attended some or all the presentations. This was the fifth Society-sponsored scholarly event in the field of Coptic Studies in Los Angeles. It helped to further the Society's efforts to promote scholarly research among the Coptic Community in this field.

back to Menu

TREASURES OF THE COPTIC CHURCH (TCC)

The Society's monumental work in publishing the treasures that the Coptic Heritage possesses, is continuing, but at a slower pace. This was due to our commitment to St. Mark Foundation to prepare the electronic edition of the Coptic Encyclopedia. Work on the first 42 volumes of the Biblical Section (the Old Testament), CB1-CB42, is 70% complete. An exhaustive bibliography of the published texts in this area was published in volume 6 of the Bulletin. It is hoped that a preliminary edition of them will be published in CD format by the Spring 2002.

COMPUTERS AND COPTIC

a. COEPA: The Society continued its cooperation with COEPA to promote and distribute their excellent products in the US which is related to our work. This year another CD title was added to our list, the 4-CD remastered edition of the Coptic Midnight Psalmody with the accompanying text on CD-ROM. There are more titles planned for the upcoming year that will be announced in the upcoming issues of the Newsletter. COEPA also was granted distribution rights for our Coptic CD in Australia.

b. Image Digitizing: The Society began a program to digitize the existing microfilm portion of the collection that has not been converted to microfiche. This is being done by a service bureau in Southern California. The project will involve about 45,000 frames that include over 70,000 pages. The Society also is working on digitizing the existing offprints collection as well as the catalogs of Coptic and Christian Arabic manuscripts, especially the Egyptian collections. The latter work will be made available to scholars and students involved in Coptic Studies and related fields. It will be furnished in Computer CD format, and will be announced when ready.

c. Computer at the Coptic Center: This year we added a new internal CD Writer to our Los Angeles Coptic Center (LA). The new planned Intranet will give access to many of the newly digitized images of Articles, books and manuscripts.

d. Global Access (Internet): This year we continued our solid presence on the Internet. Our current web address is still: HTTP://WWW.STSHENOUDA.COM. The traffic grew to an average of about 40,000 hits a month with visitors over the last year from nearly every state in the US as well as over 100 different countries over 6 continents.

THE COPTIC LIBRARY

During the past year the library grew to about 2,000 volumes of material in the different branches of Coptic Studies. We expanded the library in nearly every section of its more than 14 different sections. We are continuing the expansion and the development of the library to contain all the necessary references required by those who want to learn and/or to research the Coptic Heritage. The notable additions were as follows:

• a. Coptic Art/Architecture/Inscriptions: Alexandre, A. & B. Alexandre. L'Incarnation de la Lumiere, (2000); Anonymous, Koptische Kunst - Christentum Am Nil - 3 Mai bis 15 August 1963 in Villa Hügel-Essen (1963); Del Francia-Baroces, L. Il Tessuto Copto - Introduzione Bibliographica (1997); Kakovkin, A. Coptic Textiles in the Hermitage Museum [in Russian] (1978); Martin, M. La Laure de Der Al-Dik a Antinoe (1971); Nauerth, C. et al. Die Koptischen Textilien der Sammlung Wilhelm Rautenstrauch im Stadtischen Museum Simeonstift Trier (1989); Regemorter, b. van. Some Early Bindings from Egypt in the Chester Beatty Library (1958).
• b. Coptic Bible, Old & New: Ehrman, B. D. The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings – A Reader (1998); Fields. Origenis Hexaplorum , 2 vol; Hintze, F. & H.M. Schenke. Die Berliner Handschrift der Sahidischen Apostelgeschichte (P.15926) ; Muses, C. A. (ed.). The Septuagint Bible - The Oldest Version of the Old Testament in the Translation of Charles Thompson (1954); Oden, O. [Ed]. Ancient Christian Comentary on Scriptures vol viii, Galatians, Ephesians & Philippians (1998); Quecke, H. Das Johannesevangelium Saidisch (1984); Schenke, H. M. Das Mattaus-Evangelium im Mittelagyptischen Dialekt des Koptischen (Codex Scheide) (1981); Schleifer. Sahidische Bibel-Fragments aus British Museum zu London (1909); Staal, H. Mt Sinai Arabic Codex 151, I. Pauline Epistles CSCO.452-Ar.40 (1983) [Text], CSCO.453-Ar. 41 [Translation] (1983); Staal, H. Mt Sinai Arabic Codex 151, II. Acts of the Apostles-Catholic Epistles CSCO.462-Ar.42 [Text], CSCO.463-Ar.43 [Translation] (1984); Thackery. A Grammar of the Old Testament in Greek (1909); Thompson, H. The Gospel of St. John according to the Earliest Coptic Manuscript (1924); Till, W. & Sanz. Eine Griechisch-Koptische Odenschrift (Papyrus Copt. Vindob. K8706) (1939).
• c. Coptic Festschrifts and conference proceedings: Anonymous, Internationaler Kongress fur Koptologie Kairo 08-18 Dez 1976 (Enchoria VIII, 1978); Giversen, S. et al. Coptology Past, Present, and Future (1994); Laga, C. et al. After Chalcedon, Studies in Theology and Church History (1985); Torp, H. Miscellanea Coptica - Acta ad Archaeologiam et Artivm Historiam Pertinentia (1981); Vermeulen, U. et al. Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluke Eras I (1995) ; Vermeulen, U. et al. Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluke Eras II (1998).
• d. Canon Law and Legal Texts: Grenfell & Hunt. Oxyrhynchus Papyri Part XV (1922); Hoenerback, W. & O. Spies, Ibn Al-Taiyib – Fiqh An-Nasraniya – Das Recht der Christenheit . II Teil Ar. Text, CSCO.167-Ar.18 (1957); Wessely, C. Corpus Papyrorum Raineri Archiducis Austriae vol. 1 (Reprint 1974); Wessely, C. Die Stadt Arsinoe (Krokodilopolis) in Griechischer Zeit (Reprint: 1975); Wessely, C. Toptographie des Faijum (Arsinoites Nomus) in Griechischer Zeit (Reprint: 1975).
• e. Cataloges of Manuscripts/Bibliographies: The British Library. The Christian Orient ; Cureton, W. Catalogus Codicum Manuscriptorum Orientalium qui in Museo Britannico asservantur Pars 2: Codices arabicos complectens 1846 (Reprint: 1998); Graf, G. Catalogue de Manuscrits Arabes Chretiens Conserves Au Caire (1934); Krek, M. A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Oriental Institute of Chicago (1961); Lantschoot, A. van. Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticani. Codices Coptici Vaticani Barberiniani Borgiani Rossiani. Tome II. Pars Prior. Codices Barberiniani Orientales 2 et 17 – Borgiani Coptici 1-108 (1947); Luddeckens, E. et al. Demotische & Koptische Texte (1968); Rieu, C. Supplement to the Catalogue of the Arabi Manuscripts in the British Museum (Reprint:2000); University of Michigan. Manuscripts and Papyri - an Exhibition (1967); Zoega, G. Catalogus Codicum Copticorum Manuscriptorum 1810 (Reprint: 1973).
• f. Coptic Hagiography: Hyvernat, H. Les Actes des Martyrs de l'Egypte (Reprint: 1977); Smith & Wace, Dictionary of Christian Biography , 4 vol. (1880).
• g. Coptic History and Geography: Bitschai, J. & Brodny. A History of Urology in Egypt (1956); Du Bourguet, P. Les Coptes (1988); Bredy, M. Das Annalenwerk des Eutychias von Alex. CSCO.471-Ar.44 [Text] (1985); Cadiou. Origen - His Life at Alexandria (1944); Cheikho. Eutychii Patriarchae Alex. I. CSCO.50-Ar.6 (Reprint 1962); van Doorn-Harder, N. and K. Vogt (eds.) Between Desert and City: The Coptic Orthodox Church Today (1997); Dzierzykray-Rogalski, T. The Bishops of Faras - An Anthropological-Medical Study (1985); Hamilton, F. & E. W. Brooks. The Syriac Chronicle known as that of Zachariah of Mitylene (Reprint:1979); Honigmann, E. Trois Memoires Posthumes d'Histoire et de Geographie de l'Orient Chretien (1961); Macrizi. Macrizi's Geschichte der Copten 1845 (Reprint: 1979); Roufaila, Y. N. History of the Coptic Nation [2nd Ar print] (2000); Bp Samuel. The History of the Patriarchs , 3 vol [Arabic] (1999); Smith, W. & Cheetham. Dictionary of Christian Antiquities 2 vol (1880).
• h. Coptic and Other Language: Vergote, J. Grammaire Copte vol Ia+Ib (1992); Vergote, J. Grammaire Copte vol IIa (1983); Vergote, J. Grammaire Copte vol IIb (1983); Vycichl. Dictionnaire Etymologique de la Langue Copte (1983).
• i. Coptic Liturgy: Abdalla, L'Ordinamento Liturgico Di. Gabriele V. [Introduction, text, and translation] (1962); Abdalla, L'Ordinamento Liturgico Di. Gabriele V. [Text only] (1962); Burmester, O. H. The Horologion of the Egyptian Church [Introduction, Coptic & Arabic text and translation] (1973); Burmester, O. H. The Horologion of the Egyptian Church [Coptic text only] (1973); Junker, H. Koptische Poesie des Jahrhundert 2-vol in one (Reprint 1977); Matta El-Maskin. Eucharist, the Lord's Supper , 2vol [Arabic] (2000).
• j. Coptic Literature/Patristics: Cashia, P. Eutychius of Alexandria – The Book of the Demonstration (Kitab Al-Burhan) Pt. I CSCO.192-Ar.20 [Text] (1960); Cashia, P. Eutychius of Alexandria – The Book of the Demonstration (Kitab Al-Burhan) Pt. II CSCO.209-Ar.22 [Text] (1961); Ebied, R. Y. & M. J. L. Young. The Lamp of the Intellect of Severus Ibn Al-Muqaffa‘ Bishop of Al-Ashmunain CSCO.365-Ar.32 [Text], CSCO 366-Ar. 33 (1975) [Translation]; Erman, A. Bruchstucke Koptischer Volklitteratur (1897); Graf, G. Geschichte der Christlichen Arabischen Literatur - Zweiter Band - Die Schriftsteller Bis Zur Mitte des 15 Jahrhunderts (1947); Graf, G. Geschichte der Christlichen Arabischen Literatur - Dritter Band - Die Schriftsteller von der Mitte des 15 Bis zum ende des 19 Jahrhunderts [Melchiten & Maronite] (1949); Graf, G. Geschichte der Christlichen Arabischen Literatur - Vierter Band - Die Schriftsteller von der Mitte des 15 Bis zum ende des 19 Jahrhunderts [Syrer, Armenier, Kopten] (1951); Graf, G. Geschichte der Christlichen Arabischen Literatur - Funfter Band - Register (1953); Griffith, S. H. Theodore Abu Qurrah – A Treatise on the Veneration of the Holy Icons (1997); Hansbury, M. Jacob of Serug On the Mother of God (1998); Mistrih, V. Juhanna ibn Zakaria ibn Siba - Pretiosa Margarita de Scientiis Ecclesiasticis (1966); Schmidt, C. Der Erste Clemensbrief in Altkoptischer Übersetzung (1908); Schwartz. Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Ephesenvm Concilivm - Concilivm Vniversale Tome 1 vol. 1 Pt 1-8, vol 2-5; Schwartz. Acta Conciliorum Œcumenicorum - Concilivm Vniversale Chaledonense Tome 2, vol 1 pt.1-3, vol 2 pt. 1-2, and vol 3 pt. 1-3; Schwartz. Acta Conciliorum Œcumenicorum - Collectio Sabbaitica (1940) ; Wadi, A. Summa al-Mu'taman ibn al-‘Assal 5 vol. (1997-2000); Watt, W.M. Eutychius of Alexandria – The Book of the Demonstration (Kitab Al-Burhan) Pt. I CSCO.193-Ar.21 [Translation] (1960); Watt, W.M. Eutychius of Alexandria – The Book of the Demonstration (Kitab Al-Burhan) Pt. II CSCO.210-Ar.23 [Translation] (1961).
• k. Periodicals: Bulletin de la Société d'Archéologie Copte vol. 28 (1986-9) , 29 (1990), 37 (1998), 38 (1999); Coptic Church Review vol 21-4 (2000), vol.22-(1-3) (2001); Studia Orientalia Christiana, Collectanea , vols 4 (1959); 5(1960), 6 (1961), 7 (1962), 8 (1963), 9 (1964), 10 (1965), 11 (1966), 12 (1967) 13 (1968-9), 14 (1970-71); 15 (1972-73), 16 (1981).

The Coptic Microfilm Library

The greatest asset of the Society has been its Microfilm library, or more accurately its Microform library. It was formed as early as 1980 and has expanded ever since, though very slowly in the past few years. During this past year we made a major acquisition with about 5,500 frames. This brings the size of the library to about 230,000 frames. The acquisitions were of 18 Christian Arabic and 8 Coptic manuscripts from the Paris National Library (P).

EDUCATIONAL CLASSES

The Advanced Coptic Seminar, continued its work primarily on selections from the Bohairic text of the Book of Genesis. Three sessions of Coptic I , II for children 9-14 years old were or are currently being held at the Los Angeles Center. Two workshops are currently being held for a total of 5 of these children on how to read and use Coptic Manuscripts. Also a group from UCLA, studying Sahidic Coptic has been meeting at the Los Angeles Coptic Center since March 2001. The group includes six adult students and the instructor is Dr. Monica Bontty of UCLA. The instruction emphasizes the Egyptian background of the Coptic language.

The Society also sponsored a monthly lecture series on topics in Coptic History at the Los Angeles Coptic Center. Eight of these lectures were held during this reporting period, and were delivered by Deacon Severus (Maged) S. A. Mikhail, a Ph.D. Candidate. in History at UCLA.

PUBLICATIONS

a. Newsletter - Subscriber's Edition: Four issues of volume four of the Subscriber's Edition were published and mailed to our members and other selected individuals throughout the world. We also continued with the abridged regular edition for non-members.

b. Volume 6 of the Society Bulletin: During this year, Volume 6 of the bulletin was published. It included 7 selected papers from the proceedings of the Second Coptic Conference in 1999 and the Second Coptic Symposium at 2000, both held on the campus of UCLA.

c. Coptica: Negotiations with the founder and Chief Editor Coptologia, Prof. Fayek Ishak of Canada concluded during the year with the withdrawal of all parties from the project. Consequently the Society and St. Mark Foundation decided to pursue their earlier commitment for a joint publication under the new name of COPTICA. This name was nominated by our esteemed friend Dr. Mark Swanson of Minnesota during the Business Meeting of the Society, held at the conclusion of the 3rd Coptic Conference in July, 2001.

Coptic Encyclopedia

Over the past year, the Society coordinated the preparation work for the electronic version of the Coptic Encyclopedia on behalf of St. Mark Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio. This work is by far the largest and most important single work in Coptic Studies, written in English, that was ever published. This electronic version will make such monumental work more accessible and affordable to lay Copts as well as scholars. The preparation of the first seven volumes is complete. The work on the most challenging Vol. 8 is 90% complete. We are hopeful for a release date in December 2001. The electronic edition is formatted in a similar fashion to the Coptic CD, i.e. Adobe Acrobat format.

WADI AL-NATRUN SYMPOSIUM

During the period of 2/1/2002-2/4/2002, St. Mark Foundation in cooperation with the Coptic Patriarchate in Cairo and our Society, organized an international symposium for the study of Wadi al-Natrun. The symposium, attended by participants from ten different nations, dealt with the study of the different aspects of the land and people of this most important monastic center in Egypt. This included, Geology, History, Monasticism, Archeology, Art, Literature, and Liturgical practices in there. H.H. Pope Shenouda III, who graciously hosted the Symposium at his Papal Residency in the area, presided over and was a presenter in the first session of the Symposium. He also attended and participated in the discussions at various times as well as hosting the attendees in the evening in an informal reception. The event, by the grace of God, was a success in and out of Egypt, leaving all with long-lasting memorable moments. The next symposium being organized, God's willing, is scheduled for early February 2004 in al-Fayoum. It will deal with Christianity in Fayoum Oasis.

FOURTH ST. SHENOUDA COPTIC CONFERENCE

Beginning July 26, 2002, the Society held its fourth general conference of Coptic Studies. This two-day event was held on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), through the courtesy of the University authorities and the hard work of the Coptic Collegiate Club there. There were about 17 presentations delivered by scholars, students, clergy, and laymen from the US and Canada. About 80-90 people attended some or all the presentations. This was the sixth Society-sponsored scholarly event in the field of Coptic Studies in Los Angeles. It helped to further the Society's efforts to promote scholarly research among the Coptic Community in this field.

TREASURES OF THE COPTIC CHURCH (TCC)

The Society's monumental work in publishing the treasures that the Coptic Heritage possesses, is continuing, but at a slower pace. This was due in part to our earlier commitment to St. Mark Foundation to prepare the electronic edition of the Coptic Encyclopedia. Work on the first 42 volumes of the Biblical Section (the Old Testament), CB1-CB42, is 70% complete. Publication of the work was delayed to allow for the addition of a literal English translation of the Bohairic texts. The Bohairic text of New Testament portion of this section CB43-CB60, published earlier in volume 1 of the Coptic CD, was also rechecked for vowel point placement, word divisions, and minor typos. A literal English translation of that text has also began. Volume 2 of the Coptic CD will include texts from CB1 through CB60 as well as the literal English translation of the Bohairic texts included. Projected date will be announced in the upcoming issues of the St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter.

COMPUTERS AND COPTIC

a. COEPA: The Society continued its cooperation with COEPA to promote and distribute their excellent products in the US, which is related to our work. With the departure of Prof. Rageb Moftah, the distribution of the three audio titles; St. Basil Liturgy, Pascha Hymns, and Midnight Psalmody; will be limited to current inventory. There are more CD-ROM titles planned for the upcoming year that will be announced in the upcoming issues of the Newsletter. COEPA is still holds the distribution rights for our Coptic CD in Australia.

b. Digitizing of Coptic Microfilms: The Society has finished the digitizing of over 160,000 35mm frames and 26,000 16 mm frames of its microfilm/microfiche Coptic & Christian Arabic collection manuscript collection. This represents over 95% of its 35mm and 35% of the 16 mm collections. Work is being done now on cataloging this huge collection, which include over 250,000 pages and/or fragments. Upgrade of the computer facilities at the Coptic Center is under way to provide the users with the ability to view and use the collection. Several projects are planned for next year, which will involve such use.

c Image Digitizing: The Society also is working on digitizing the existing offprint collection, catalogs of Coptic and Christian Arabic manuscripts, and rare volumes dealing with Coptic Studies. Several thousand images have been scanned so far. This work will be made available to scholars and students involved in Coptic Studies and related fields. It will be furnished in PDF format on CD-ROMs, and will be announced when ready.

d. Computers at the Coptic Center: This year we added a new 30-GB External Hard drive to allow for the portability of the new collection of digitized images. We also added a 19-inch monitor. Work is under way to upgrade the current computer equipment at the Coptic Center. The new planned Intranet will give access to many of the newly digitized images of articles, books and manuscripts.

e. Global Access (Internet): This year we continued our solid presence on the Internet. HTTP://WWW.STSHENOUDA.COM is still our current website address . The traffic grew to an average of about 45,000 hits a month with visitors over the last year from nearly every state in the US as well as over 110 different countries from six continents.

THE COPTIC LIBRARY

During the past year the library grew to about 2,000 volumes of material in the different branches of Coptic Studies. We expanded the library in nearly every section of its more than 14 different sections. We are continuing the expansion and the development of the library to contain all the necessary references required by those who want to learn and/or to research the Coptic Heritage. The notable additions were as follows:

• a. Coptic Art/Architecture/Inscriptions: D.Benazeth, Catalogue General du Musee Copte du Caire 1. Objects en Metal (2001); E.Bolman et al, Monastic Visions (2002); H.Buschhausen et al Der Lebenkreis der Kopten (1995); P.Grossmann, Christliche Architektur in Ägypten (2001); P.Grossmann, Die Gruftkirche und die Gruft (1989); P.Grossmann, Mittelalterliche Langhauskuppelkirchen und Verwandte Typen in Oberägypten (1982); U.Horak, Illuminierte Papyri, Pergamente und Papiere v.1 (1992).
• b. Coptic Bible, Old & New: P.Boetticher(=P.deLagarde), Epistulae Novi Testamenti Coptice (Reprint 1967); J.L.Ideler, Psalterium Coptice (Reprint 1974); P.deLagarde, Agyptiaca (Reprint 1972); P.deLagarde, Catenae in Evangelia Aegyptiacae quae Supersunt (Reprint 1971); N.F.Marcos, The Septuagint in Context-Introduction to the Greek Version of the Bible ; G.A.Perez, El Evangelio de San Mateo en Copto Sahidico (1984); A.Rahlfs, Die Berliner Handschrift des Sahidischen Psalters (Reprint 1970).
• c. Coptic Festschrifts and Conference Proceedings: N.Bosson, Etudes Coptes VII: Neuvieme Journee d'Etudes (2000).
• d. Canon Law and Legal Texts: A.Biedenkopf-Zeihner, Koptische Schenkungsurkunden aus der Thebais (2001); A.Biedenkopf-Zeihner, Untersuchungen zum Koptischen Briefformular unter Berucksichtigung Agyptischer und Griechischer Paralleten. (1983); M. Hasitzka, Ein Neues Archiv Koptischer Ostraka (1995); M. Hasitzka, Koptisches Sammelbuch (1993); M.Hasitzka, Neue Texte und Dokumentation zum Koptisch Unterricht 2 v.(1990); W.C.Till, Die Koptischen Rechtsurkunden aus Theben (1964).
• e. Cataloges of Manuscripts/Bibliographies: A.Biedenkopf-Zeihner, Koptische Ostraka, v.1. Ostraka aus dem Britischen Museum in London, v.2 Ostraka aus dem Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (2000); O.Khs-Burmester, Catalogue of Coptic Manuscript Fragments from the Monastery of Abba Bishoy in Scetis, now in the Collection of the Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek Hamburg (1975); W.E.Crum, Coptic Monuments (Reprint 1975); T.Orlandi, Papiro Copti Contenuto Teologico (1974); P.deLagarde, Orientalia (Reprint 1973); L.Störk, Koptische Handscriften , 2 vol (1995-96).
• f. Coptic Gnosticism & Apocrypha: A.Wroe, Pontius Pilate (1999).
• g. Coptic Hagiography: J.Horn, Studien zu den Martyrern des Nordlichen Oberagyptischen. Bd.1: Martyrerverehrung und Martyrerlegende im Werk des Schenute. (1986), Bd. II: Martyrer und Heilige des XI bis XIV. Oberagyptischen Gaues; (1992); J.Horn, Untersuchungen zu Frömmigkeit und Literatur des Christlichen Agypten: Das Martyrium des Viktor, Sohnes des Romanos (1988); O.Meinardus, Coptic Saints & Pilgrimages (2002).
• h. Coptic History and Geography: A.Al-Gabarti, 'Agaib al-Athar fi al-Taragim wa al-Akhbar pt1: The Ottoman Invasion of Egypt (1197), pt2. The Rise and Fall of Ali Bey (1997), pt.3 The end of Mamlukes (1997), pt.4 The French Invation (1997) [Arabic]; E.C.Amelineau, La Geographie a l'Epoque Copte (Reprint 1973); E.W.Lane, Description of Egypt (2000); D.M.Solihin, Copts and Muslims in Egypt: a Study on Harmony and Hositility (1991).
• i. Coptic and Other Language: W.Kosack, Lehrbuch des Koptischen (1974); A.Shisha-Halevy, The Proper Name: Structural Prolegomena to its syntax; a case studyin Coptic (1989).
• j. Coptic Literature/Patristics: A.Camplani, Le Lettre Festali di Atanasio di Alessandria: Studio storico-critico (1989); I.Gardner, Coptic Theological Papyri II , 2 v. (1988); G.Gabra.Abdelsayed, Untersuchungen zu den Texten uber Pesyntheus. Bischof von Koptos (569-632) (1984); C.D.G.Müller, Die Engellehre der Koptischen Kirche. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Christlichen Frommigkeit un Agypten (1959); C.D.G.Müller, Die Homilie über dir Hochzeit zu Kana und Weitere Schriften des Patriarchen Benjamin I Von Alex. (1968).
• k. Coptic Monasticism: K.Knapp-Menzl, Mönchtum an Donau und Nil: Severin von Norikum und Schenute von Atripe (1997); D.W.Young, Coptic Manuscripts from the White Monastery: Works of Shenute , 2 v. (1993).
• l. Coptic Paleography: M.Cramer, Koptische Palaographie (1964); H.Hyvernat, Album de Paleographie Copte (Reprint 1972).
• m. Periodicals: Journal of Coptic Studies vol. 3 (2001); Coptic Church Review vol 22-4 (2001), vol.23-(1-3) (2002).

THE COPTIC MiniConferences

The Society began a program of limited one-day MiniConferences at the Coptic Center on a quarterly basis. So far two of them have been held this year in December 2001 and April 2002. Each included 2-3 short presentation on a variety of subjects, and one single major presentation on Coptic History. There was an accompanying Library Book exhibit for each meeting. The first featured original manuscripts and published ones, including facsimile edition. The second featured books with editions of Coptic biblical texts. Between 15-17 persons attended these meetings.

EDUCATIONAL CLASSES

The Advanced Coptic Seminar, continued its work primarily on selections from the Bohairic text of the Book of Genesis. One new Coptic I session for children 8-14 years old is currently being held at the Los Angeles Center. Two workshops are currently being held for a total of 5 of these children on how to read and use Coptic Manuscripts. A text from a Coptic Psalmodia manuscript is being used in the instruction. Also a group from UCLA, studying Sahidic Coptic has been meeting at the Los Angeles Coptic Center since March 2001. The group includes six adult students and the instructor is Dr. Monica Bontty of UCLA. The instruction emphasizes the Egyptian background of the Coptic language.

PUBLICATIONS

a. Newsletter - Subscriber's Edition: Four issues of volume five of the Subscriber's Edition were published and mailed to our members and other selected individuals throughout the world. We also continued with the abridged regular edition for non-members.

b. Coptica: The long-awaited joint periodical between St. Mark Foundation and our Society is finally out. A total of 10 articles by scholars and students from four different countries were included. The reception of this volume was very favorable among scholars and lay Copts alike. The second issue will feature the papers presented in the Wadi al-Natrun Symposium (February 2002).

Coptic Encyclopedia

Over the past year, the Society completed the work on the electronic version of the Coptic Encyclopedia on behalf of St. Mark Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio. This work was by far the largest and most important single work in Coptic Studies, written in English that was ever published. The release date of late December 2001 was met but its distribution was halted before it started early this year. The reason was the Patriarchate felt that its distribution in its original form would give the false impression that the Coptic Church agrees with all its contents. It was felt that some of the articles needed more corrections than just an annotated comment as was planned earlier. The alternative was to create a committee to identify all these articles and compose a replacement ones. Due to the busy schedule of H.H. Pope Shenouda, such committee has not been formed. Thus the release date has been pushed down for a couple of years. The electronic edition is formatted in a similar fashion to the Coptic CD, i.e. Adobe Acrobat format.

socp02-03_V

socp03-04_V

socp04-05_V

socp05-06_V

socp06-07_V

socp07-08_V

socp08-09_V

socp09-10_V

socp10-11_V

socp11-12_V

socp12-13_V

socp13-14_V

SOCP14-15_V

SOCP15-16_V

SOCP16-17_V

SOC2018-Final