Denominational Group Meetings  43

Orthodox
John Thompson, Convener 

The Orthodox librarians at ATLA welcomed two visitors from abroad. 

KELEM KASSHURUN (Botho University, Botswana) is an Ethiopian 
librarian who lives in Botswana. She is involved in a research project 
on behalf of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church titled “Research Knowl-
edge Management Towards an Integrated Research Support-System 
Framework: The Case of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church” The purpose 
of this research will be to assess the current research data manage-
ment (RDM), academic scholarship, and knowledge management 
system of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and provide a conceptual 
framework for an integrated research support system. This system 
will enhance research-based knowledge practices of the Ethiopian 
Orthodox Church. John Thompson and Andy Carter from the ATLA 
office met with her on Saturday to discuss her project. 

JUSSI HYVÄRINEN (University of Eastern Finland) works in the library 
that serves the only Orthodox seminary in Finland. The 60,000 Ortho-
dox Christians in Finland are dependent on the seminary to supply 
priests for their parishes. On Saturday morning during the conference, 
he gave a presentation titled, “East or West: Maintaining an Orthodox 
Collection Inside a Lutheran-Oriented Theological Library,” in which 
he discussed how he organizes the Orthodox resources to make them 
available to the theological students in the Orthodox seminary. 

FR. ISKANDAR BCHEIRY (metadata analyst for ATLA) also gave a 
presentation related to the Orthodox Church at the conference. His was 
titled, “Digitizing and Schematizing the Archival Material from the Late 
Ottoman Period Found in the Monastery of al-Za’faran in Southeast 
Turkey,” and explored documents from 19th and early 20th century 
Syriac speaking communities. This provided a fascinating look about 
ordinations, everyday life, and persecution of Christian communities 
in the last decades of the Ottoman Empire. Fr. Iskandar is a priest in 
the Syriac Orthodox Church. 

John will work with the ATLA staff to set up a discussion list for 
Orthodox librarians. This will hopefully include librarians from Holy 



44  ANNUAL YEARBOOK

Cross, St. Vladimir’s, St. Tikhon’s, and Holy Trinity seminaries. 
If possible, we would like to arrange for Morning Prayer in the 

Orthodox tradition at the 2019 ATLA conference in Vancouver. Once 
the discussion list for Orthodox librarians is set up, we may be able to 
discuss other projects. 

There was one other event at the conference that was of interest  
to Orthodox librarians. At the business meeting on Friday afternoon, 
the Association honored ATLA members who had passed away in the 
previous year. After brief presentations on the lives of the recently 
deceased members, the ATLA choir under the direction of Ellen Frost 
(SMU) sang the Orthodox “Kontakion for the Departed.” This was a 
beautiful and moving tribute to those who had served the association 
for many years. 

[Left to right] Gregory Morrison (Wheaton College), Elizabeth Young Miller (Moravian 
College and Theological Seminary), Iskandar Bcheiry (ATLA), Kelem Kassahun (Botho 
University, Botswana), Jussi Hyvärinen (University of Eastern Finland), John Thompson 
(Waynesburg University)


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