Hymnody School

Class 1
Guidelines
Memorization
Anaghnostis
Curriculum

Hymnody School

Welcome to the main page of St. Philopateer’s Hymnody School. We are excited that so many have signed up to attend the classes!
Here on this page you will find all the information about the classes, including all the recourses needed to successfully participate in the classes. Please ensure that you go through this page thoroughly. 

Ordinations – Dec. 3 & 4

By God’s Grace, on Saturday – December 4th, 2021 – we will celebrate the Feast of the Martyr of our church, St. Philopateer Mercurius. We will be blessed with the presence of H.G. Bishop Peter, who will ordain some youth and servants into the rank of Psalter and Reader.
For all those interested in the ordination, please read the following carefully, as no exceptions will be made.
✥ You must be a standing member of St. Philopateer Church
✥ You must have been attending the Hymnody Classes
✥ You must attend Vespers on Friday December 3rd, and arrive no later than 6:30 PM
✥ You must attend Liturgy on Saturday December 4th, and arrive no later than 8 AM
✥ Please make sure you have a clean and ironed Tonia
✥ All Psalters (Psaltos), do not bring a Stole (Badrasheel)

Anaghnostis Elevations

As a reminder, if you wish to be elevated to the rank of Reader, you must complete the set project and be able to present it prior to the date of the Ordination. You must be an ordained Psalter and at least 16 years of age. Please click here for the Anaghnostis Elevation section on this page for the details, or reach out to Mr. Albaer Moawad.


Class 1:  Matins & Vespers

 

Guidelines

By God’s Grace, on Saturday – December 4th, 2021 – we will celebrate the Feast of the Martyr of our church, St. Philopateer Mercurius. We will be blessed with the presence of H.G. Bishop Peter, who will ordain some youth and servants into the rank of Psalter. For all those interested in the ordination, please read the following carefully:
To be ordained a Psalter on Dec. 4th, a minimum attendance of 90% is required for all classes and Sunday Liturgies. This means that you can only miss one single lesson and Sunday between the times the classes start and the day of the ordination. If you need to miss a lesson or liturgy, justification must be provided to your teacher ahead of time. 
Both classes will be held at the same time, so you can only choose one class at a time.
Class 1: Congregation Responses of Matins & Vespers
*Class 2: Congregation Responses of the Offertorium and Liturgy of the Word
✥  The minimum age is 6 years old.
✥  Both classes will be held every Friday at 7PM. The first class will be on Friday, September 17th.
✥  The sign up deadline was on Wednesday, September 15th.

*Class 2 will be moved to a future semester. During this semester, we will only learn Class 1.

All diaconal ranks, including psalters are required to attend one of the two classes with a minimum attendance rate of 90% to be considered for the ordinations on the Feast of St. Philopateer, December 4th 2021.
We will learn all hymns and responses in both Coptic and English, with Arabic being optional, in all their possible forms respectively; short, long, and melismatic. There will be a dedicated page on the church website with the curriculum, including the text and audio. The source of our lessons will be the Higher Institute of Higher Studies and Cantor Ibrahim Ayad.

Memorization

Although completely optional, all participants are encouraged to memorize the list below. You can do it in any language you prefer unless otherwise indicated. We do this to help enhance the our participation in the liturgical prayers and make them more engaged during the different services.
Because this is an extra activity on top of the classes, those who excel in memorizing some or all of these parts will be rewarded with valuable trophies. Whenever you think you have memorized any of these prayers, let your teacher know. You can do one prayer after the other throughout the semester without particular due date assigned to any of them. The only due date is the end of the semester. 
N. B. This is not part of the ordination requirements.
Memorization list:
✥  “Our Father..” in Coptic
✥  Introduction to the Creed
✥  The Orthodox Creed
✥  Holy God, Holy Mighty…
✥  Hail to you, we ask you…
✥  Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Sabaoth

Anaghnostis Elevations

If you are already an ordained Chanter and desire to be set apart (elevated) into the rank of Reader, you are required complete the below tasks and present them to Abouna Benyameen and Mr. Albaer Moawad:
✥  Studying the Oder of Setting Apart of a Reader.
✥  Reading and commenting on the below:
          • Psalm 84
          • Nehemiah 8
          • John 17
          • 1 Corinthians 13
✥  Listening to this lecture by Dr. Joseph Faltas on how the early fathers understood and interpreted the Word of God.
If you are interested, please reach out to the teacher of the class you’re enrolled in. We will get back to you with the information on how and when these sessions are to begin. 

Curriculum

Class 1: Matins & Vespers
✥ Khen Pekhristos Isous Pentshois 
✥ Ke to pnevma tisou
✥ Kyrie Eleison
✥ Verses of Cymbals
✥ Doxologies
✥ Tengosht, Amin and Kyrie Eleison
✥ Psalm and Gospel responses
✥ Conclusion Responses
✥ Khen Pekhristos Isous Pentshois
✥ Enopion sou Kyrie
✥ Concluding Hymn – Amin Alleluia
✥ Combined Seasons Response
 
 
✥  As we learn together, we will continue to work on the production of the audio and text files of the remainder of the curriculum.