Wednesday 25 August 2010

Coptic Conference Alexandria September 21st-23rd

The Coptic conference in Alexandria organised by the calligraphy Centre of the Egyptian Bibalex.org has now been brought forward to September 21st - until 23rd

I hope to arrange a video conference link at Swansea University, however, it will be covered via the Internet - inshallah!

More details here - http://www.bibalex.org/CalligraphyCenter/CopticStudiesConference/Home/Home.aspx

The subjects covered are:
Conference Themes
1. History and Archaeology in Egypt in the Byzantine Period,
2. History and Archaeology in Egypt in the Coptic Period,
3. Minor Art in Coptic Egypt,
4. Coptic Language, Architecture,
5. Restoration (wood, metal work, textile, etc) ,
6. Coptic Icons and Murals,
7. Touristic Sites Development,
8. Environment, Architecture,
9. Comparative Studies between Ancient Egyptian and Coptic Eras.

Friday 20 August 2010

New film to benefit Coptic church

I Have ben informed that a new film has been made that will hopefully benefit the Coptic Church. It is called 'Visions and Miracles' By Paul Perry the Producer and Director of the acclaimed Documentary

“Jesus: The Lost Years

For further information and how to get the DVD - go here;
http://www.visionsandmiracles.com/

Thursday 5 August 2010

Coptic conference Wake forest university Carolina USA

A colleague of mine, Nelly Van Doorn-Harder is organising a coptic conference in September at Wake Forest University Winston-Salem North Carolina USA - here are the provisional details;


CONFERENCE
THE FUTURE OF COPTIC STUDIES: THEORIES, METHODS, TOPICS
September 17-19, 2010


With generous support from Wake Forest University’s
Provost’s Office
Religion Department
Divinity School
Carswell Fund


PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE

DAY I: FRIDAY, September 17, 2010
Location: Wingate Hall 302

12:30-1:30 pm

I. Dislocation and Ethnomusicology Practices

Carolyn Ramzy (University of Toronto, Canada)
Exploring Coptic Music Narratives: Collaborative Ethnography and the Study of Coptic Folk Taratīl.

Severine Gabry (France)
Contemporary studies on Coptic music: the impact of the current musical practices on the community.

Respondent: to be confirmed.

1:30 – 2:30 pm

II. Gender, Monasticism, Miracle, and Mystery

Caroline Schroeder (University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA)
The Perfect Monk: Ideals of Masculinity in the Monastery of Shenoute.

Nelly van Doorn-Harder (Wake Forest University, Winston Salem, NC)
Vehicles of Holiness: Gendered Visual Culture to Define Identity and Set Boundaries

Respondent: Akram Khater, (North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC).

2:30 – 3:00 coffee break


III. Church-citizen-state engagements

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Vivian Ibrahim (SOAS, London)
‘Ode to the Fezzed Shaykh’- Coptic resistance against the Muslim Brotherhood in 1940s Egypt.”
Laure Guirguis (France)
The rise of a "Coptic question" and the contemporary transformations of
Egyptian authoritarianism.

Respondent: Michaelle Browers (Wake Forest University)

4:00-4:30 Discussion

5:00-7:00 pm
Location: Annenberg Forum, Carswell Hall

Opening greetings

Keynote speech by Karel Innemee (Leiden University)

Sixteen Centuries of Wall Paintings in an Ancient Desert Church
7:00 – 9:00 pm Green Room at Reynolda Hall
Reception

DAY II: SATURDAY, September 18, 2010
Location: Pugh Auditorium, Benson Hall

IV. Coptic Art &Visual Culture

9:00-10:30 am

Darlene Brooks Hedstrom, (Wittenberg University Springfield, OH)
Reconsidering Late Antiquity and the Emerging Monastic Desertscape.

Angie Heo, (Barnard University, NY)
Virgin of Zeitoun in 1968: Holy Images of Expansion and Return.

Karel Innemee (Leiden University, the Netherlands)
The Paradox of Monasticism.

Responding: David Morgan, (Duke University, Durham, NC) & Lynne Neal (Wake Forest University)
10:30 – 11:00 am Coffee break

V. Maintaining and Defining Identities

11:00 am – 1:00 pm

Maged Mikhail (California State University, Fullerton, CA)
Demetrius of Alexandria (d. 232) in Medieval Egypt.

Mark Swanson (LSTC, Chicago, IL)
Telling the Church’s Story: genre, belief, event, and portrayal in the History of the Patriarchs.

Jason Zabarowski (Bradley University, Peoria, IL)
Religion for God and Homeland for People:” Coptic Identity and the Egyptian National Myth

Responding: Vincent Cornell, (Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia) & Kari Vogt (Oslo University)

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Lunch
Location: Refectory on lower level of Wingate Hall.

Continuation Panel Maintaining and Defining Identities
2:00 pm – 2:45 pm

Keynote speech by Gawdat Gabra (Claremont Graduate University)
Constructing the Coptic Encyclopedia

2:45 pm – 4:30 pm

Febe Armanios (Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont)
Coptic Religious Life in Ottoman Egypt (1517-1798).

Paul Sedra (Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada)
Bringing the Copts Back In: Why the Copts are Essential to Understanding Modern Egyptian History.

Responding: Vincent Cornell, (Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia) & Kari Vogt (Oslo University).
Discussion

4:30 – 4:45 pm Break

4:45 – 6:00 pm

Keynote speech by Stephen Davis (Yale University, New Haven, CT)
New Frontiers in Archeology: Findings at the White Monastery.

6:30 - 8:30 pm Dinner
Location: START Gallery, Reynolda Village


DAY III SUNDAY, September 19, 2010
Location: Pugh Auditorium Benson Hall

VI. Re-inventing Identities

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Magdi Guirguis (Coptic Studies Chair, American University in Cairo, Egypt)
The limits of the Coptic “community:” who represented this community during the 16-18th centuries.

Gaétan du Roy (Louvain, Belgium)
Research on garbage collectors of Moqattam and more specifically about the history of the religious institutions.

Responding :Akram Khater, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

2:00 – 2:30 pm break

2:30 – 3:30 pm

Keynote speech by Magdi Guirguis (American University Cairo)
Challenges in Studying Coptic Church and Society in 16th – 19th Century.

3:30 – 4:30 pm

Keynote speech by Vivian Ibrahim (SOAS, London)
Reconsidering Studying the Copts during a Time in Motion: the 1900-1940.

4:30 – 5:00 pm

Final Discussion.

St. John the Baptist relics found on Bulgarian island

St John the Baptist's bones 'found in Bulgarian monastery'
The remains of St John the Baptist have been found in an ancient reliquary in a 5th century monastery on Sveti Ivan Island in Bulgaria, archaeologists have claimed.


The remains – small fragments of a skull, bones from a jaw and an arm, and a tooth – were discovered embedded in an altar in the ruins of the ancient monastery, on the island in the Black Sea.

A Greek inscription on the stone casque contains a reference to June 24 – the date on which John the Baptist is believed to have been born.
"We found the relics of St John the Baptist - exactly what the archaeologists had expected," said Bozhidar Dimitrov, Bulgaria's minister without portfolio and a former director of the country's National History Museum, who was present when the stone urn was opened.

"It has been confirmed that these are parts of his skeleton."

Exactly how the relics ended up on the island is a mystery, but Mr Dimitrov said they may have been donated by the Christian Church in Constantinople when Bulgaria was part of the Byzantine Empire.

But other experts cast doubt on the claim, saying carbon dating tests were needed before the bones could be identified as belonging to Christ's baptiser.

Many countries around the Mediterranean claim to have remains of St John, including Turkey, Montenegro, Greece, Italy and Egypt.

Full article from the Daily Telegraph UK - link here;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/bulgaria/7926657/St-John-the-Baptists-bones-found-in-Bulgarian-monastery.html