SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

came from of our two-year old Leiden 2000 Fund, which was financed by income derived from the Coptic CD distribution as well as donations from two other members of the Society. 17. The Electronic Edition of the Coptic Encyclopedia : Work is progressing slowly on this project because of other commitments. So far all of the contents of the ASCII files received from the publisher has been reviewed and scanning of the illustrations is about 100% complete. Other appropriate illustrations may also be included in the electronic version. According to Dr. Fawzy Estafanous, the organization's founder, this edition will be an electronic version of the original printed edition, with the exception of the inclusion of short annotations on articles that are being disputed by Coptic Church authorities and corrections of obvious errors. These extra items will be included in a separate volume and electronically be linked to the articles they pertain to. Each annotation will include the name of the presenter. In other words, the original text will not be altered unless authorized by Macmillan. Hany N. Takla, the Society's president, will be in charge of this project, in his capacity as member of the Foundation's Executive Board. Currently Mr. Joseph Fahim of our Orange County Regional Center is assisting with the illustration scanning and the formatting of the text. Projected completion date is late July, 2000, God's willing. 18. Modern Coptic Iconography on the Internet: We have been informed by Mr. Ehab Roufail of London, UK, that a new site for Modern Coptic iconography has been developed by him on behalf of our long-time friend Ms. Monica Rene. The site address is as follow: http://www.firstimageicons.com Ms. Rene is the wife of Dr. Stephane Rene, the renowned Coptic iconographer in London, whose work has been exhibited in Los Angeles twice in the past few years. His work in Southern California is found mainly at Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church in Orange County, where the Society has its regional center. His works are also found in other churches in the Greater Los Angeles Area. 19. Controversial text publication: In January 1995, a staff member of the Coptic Center assisted the editors of the newsletter of a local Coptic church, by publishing an Arabic text, under the title "A Virgin ... Gives Birth". The newsletter that included this article was distributed to the regular church members in attendance on that

Sunday. The text created some protest, concerning its contents at the time. However, the objections to its publication resurfaced again in an inappropriate form with regard to the Society and this writer. H.G. Bishop Serapion, the Coptic Orthodox Bishop of Los Angeles, requested that we briefly write about this text and its relation to the Society. In short, the text deals with an interesting, but peculiar, tradition found in an Arabic manuscript, Paris Arabe 301, dealing with a conversation between a Christian merchant and a Jewish priest that occurred during the time of Roman Emperor Julian, known as the Apostate. The text, as published, dealt with a story that the Jewish priest told his Christian friend about the Lord Jesus Christ being recommended for a priesthood position before the start of His ministry. The text also tells of a conversation that this committee of Jewish priests had with the Virgin Mary, in order to investigate the Lord's lineage and circumstances of His mysterious birth. The published text concludes with a statement that the priests believed in the virgin birth of the Lord on the basis of the evidence that the Virgin Mary gave them. First it should be noted that the Society and this writer did not have any hand in the selection or the method of publishing this text. Texts of that nature may not be suitable to be introduced to a lay audience without proper qualifications. However, if such guidelines are followed, then the text would probably be too technical to benefit such audience. The methodology of publishing this text was virtually non-existent. The text was published in an abridged form without referencing this fact. This shifted the emphasis of the composition from Christ to the Virgin Mary. The text is extant only in Arabic and is found in three different manuscripts of the first volume of the History of the Patriarchs, as published by B. Evetts in Patrolgia Orientalis Tome 1, Fascicule 2, Paris 1904. The beginning and the end of the text as well much of the details were omitted due to space limitation, but that made the text sounds like an unsubstantiated and isolated legend, not suitable for any audience. This is neither the place nor the time to discuss the authentication of this section of such an important manuscript. But it suffices to say that publication of unathenticated documents should be done in a certain manner and circulated among a more sophisticated audience. 20. Acts of The Sixth International Congress Of Coptic Studies: The acts of the past Coptic Congress has finally came out in print. It was published under the

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

-15-