St. Sophia Website

CHURCH ARCHIVES & LIBRARY

Dr. Christopher Kendris, Director

This is an update to keep you informed about the recent accomplishments in the Church Archives & Library Center It was given as a gift and has been maintained as a gift to our parish since 1976 when it was founded, funded, and furnished by Chris and his deceased beloved wife Ariadne-Yolanda. This information is also written here for the new parishioners.

Iakovos (Jake) Personnius is the Associate Director with Dr. Christopher Kendris, Director of the St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church Archives & Library Center where they are both doing work that is essential; for example, cataloging and indexing of books in English and in Greek with call numbers as in school, college, university, public libraries, and in the Library of Congress. Chris also earned his M.S. degree in Library Science and Services at the School of Library Science of Columbia University in the City of New York.

We also maintain up to date archival documents and archival photographs about the history of our parish, and six catalogs and indexes which are printed on the new printer in the Library Center. It must be stated clearly here that we are not on the church payroll because some parishioners think we are paid salaries. Our work and services are voluntary, as were the services and work by ^Adriadne-Yolanda Fenyo Kendris, the deceased beloved wife of Christopher Kendris who both paid (as a gift to our parish) for the expenses of maintaining the rare historical collections and the services that Chris and Iakovos continue to provide now.

The screen in the glass display case, which is in the main hallway next to the coat room and opposite the main business office, is now working again. During the past two months or so there were frequent power outages in the neighborhood of our parish. The outages shut down the electricity and the screen was not scrolling the display of photographs and documents in the library’s collection. And, it was not playing the Greek music in the background. It’s all working again – thanks to Iakovos who made it happen.

In addition to the screen in the glass display case, we are at present making changes and improvements in the Archives and Library so that no expansion is necessary and any move to another part of the Church complex would be financially unwise; in other words, would be a waste of money.

In case you were not aware of it, Iakovos is feeling much better now. He is on the slow road to recovery from his several surgeries on his legs and vena cava on his body that are still painful during the healing process, caused by the automobile accident with a tractor trailer that he suffered. Because of his permanent disabilities, he is limited in his physical activities.

In this column, he wants to thank sincerely all the persons in our parish who expressed their best wishes for his speedy recovery on thoughtful greeting cards, especially Father Pat and for his prayers. His primary services are his expert knowledge of high technology; for example, the screen that contains photographs of our parishioners since 1922, the cultural activities that they are participating in group photos, the Greek music in the glass display case, his outstanding skills with the library’s latest model of computer, the new printer that produces copies in color or black and white, and in other areas of technological services that are normally required in libraries and museums.

Here, below, we would like you to become acquainted with three outstanding books that have recently been cataloged in the Library Center:

1. An Introduction to the OLD TESTAMENT IN GREEK, by Henry Barclay Swete, Honorary Doctorate in Literature from Dublin, Honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Glasgow, and Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Regius Professor of Divinity, Published by Cambridge University Press, England, January, 1902, and reissued in March, 2003 by Wipf and Stock Publishers of Eugene, Oregon, USA. 594 pages. The library call number is: REF 220.5 / Bible / O.T./ Greek / 1902, 2003. Here is a statement on p. 3 of the book, which is interesting and enlightening: "I was on Egyptian soil that the earliest Greek version of the Old Testament was begun."

2. El Greco ( Domenikos Theotokopoulos), 1541-1614. Beautiful photographs of his paintings, iconography. Text written by Michael Scholz-Hänsel. Printed in 2006 by Taschen Publishers, Germany. 96 pages. El Greco means "the Greek" in Italian because of his cultural heritage. His Greek name is Domenikos Theotokopoulos. He was born in 1541 in Candia (now Heraklion), the capital of the island of Crete. The library call number is: 704.94 / El Greco Sch / 2006.

3. The Basic Works of ARISTOTLE. Edited and with an Introduction by Richard McKeon, Dean of the Division of the Humanities, University of Chicago. New York: Random House, 1941. The library call number is: 185. / BAS / 1941.

It would be very much appreciated if you would kindly help revive the donations that parishioners have been giving to support the Saint Sophia Church Archives & Library Center for expenses, for example, such as paper supplies, special library plastic envelopes to preserve rare items, newspaper articles and photographs of Saint Sophia and parishioners, tapes, index binders, library catalog cards, purchase of books, payment of glass frames for archival photographs to be added to new acquisitions. There +is a Saint Sophia Church Archives & Library Fund established in the Business Office and it has been getting low. Your support will be gratefully appreciated and acknowledged. Thank you sincerely.

In conclusion, we would like to thank Angelo Kontis for his recent gifts of old issues of THE TESTAMENT dating from 1968. They have been added to the Archives Collections and they are being preserved. They are part of the historical documentation of our parish.