Departure of Nabih Fanous

We would like to express our condolences to the family of Nabih Fanous who passed away on Sunday 21 February. Nabih was one of the original faculty of the Theological College in Sydney, having joined in 1983 (less than a year after the College was founded) to teach Liturgy and Liturgical Chant. He is also the father of Fr Samuel Fanous, currently Lecturer in Church History at St Cyril’s. In the 1980s, he worked with Fr Tadros Yacoub Malaty to produce one of the first widely used English translations of the Liturgy of St Basil.

Some of his reflections on Coptic liturgical chant (quoted below) can be read here: Brief Notes on Coptic Hymns (Nabih Fanous).

“Coptic hymns are deep, harmonic and exactly defined songs meant to express the innermost emotions of the praising spirit. They do not follow musical notes or dedicated rhythm but rather they translate the pulses of the spirit.”
(From Nabih Fanous, “Brief Notes on Coptic Hymns”)

May the Lord repose his soul in the paradise of joy.