Ex Oriente LECS - About Project

Introduction: With the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR, there has been a veritable explosion of new serial publications emanating from the Balkans to the Caucasus, as well as from the Western Hemisphere (where most Eastern Christian communities from Europe and the Middle East have established a presence). The opening of the archives and libraries once closed to researchers has made it inexcusable to remain unaware of the extensive serial publishing of earlier times. Therefore, a new need arises to rediscover the world of periodical literature of the Eastern Churches, to make possible new academic endeavours and enhance ecumenical openness.
Project Objectives: Ex Oriente LECS is a project that arises from the need for a searchable database of serial/periodical literature that gives access to the four families of Eastern Christian Churches:

• The Assyrian Church of the East;
• The Pre-Chalcedonian (also known sometimes as Oriental Orthodox or incorrectly as “Monophysite” Churches);
• The Eastern Orthodox Churches;
• The Eastern Catholic Churches (those Eastern Churches which are in full and visible communion with the Church of Rome).

The Project’s primary focus is to collect the maximum possible amount of bibliographical data about periodicals produced either by or about the Eastern Christian Churches and to make this collection accessible to a wide range of researchers, scholars, librarians, and others interested in Eastern Christianity.
Project Description: The name of the developing database, Ex Oriente LECS (Library of Eastern Christian Serials), is a memorable play of words, drawing in an unexpected way on the venerable adage ex oriente lux, ex occidente lex. In this title, the term serial was chosen over the word periodical, because it is broader in meaning. ODLIS The Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science explains that a serial is defined as “a publication in any medium issued under the same title in a succession of discrete parts, usually numbered (or dated) and appearing at regular or irregular intervals with no predetermined conclusion”. According to this same authority, serial publications may include “print periodicals and newspapers, electronic magazines and journals, annuals (reports, yearbooks, etc), continuing directories, proceedings and transactions, and numbered monographic series catalogued separately”. At this early stage, the researchers of Ex Oriente LECS have not made any decision that would eliminate any of these categories, and the project is set up in such a way as to make it possible to add more document types and a broader diversity of periodicity at any time.
Further Perspectives: The breadth of linguistic and theological skills required for such a project to be achieved with the necessary comprehensiveness underlines the task’s complexity. Inter-institutional cooperation is the only feasible way forward. The first stage of the Project involved the delineation of basic parameters of research and the creation of the database. The next stage will involve the establishing of alliances with other institutions, expansion into more languages and ecclesial traditions, and making the database web accessible, while increasing holdings. Thus, the Project will need to expand well beyond the confines of Ottawa, through a fourpronged approach:

• development of alliances with other institutions that have the necessary expertise;
• contacting various Eastern Christian ecclesiastical and educational bodies for leads concerning publications;
• use of questionnaires in order to establish where the periodicals germane to this Project are to be found;
• gathering of information about these publications in accordance with the fields already identified in our database.
You Can Help: We are interested in any kind of collaboration, which would support and nurture the main objectives of the Project and help to make our task more feasible. Please contact us if you have any interesting suggestions, constructive ideas or wish to help us in any other way. We are always open to your input and cooperation!
Acknowledgements: The researchers express their thanks for continuing cooperation and the support of our vision to the
Jean-Leon Allie O.M.I. Library
and the
Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky
Institute of Eastern Christian StudiesJean-Leon Allie O.M.I. LibraryFounded in 1937, the Saint Paul University Library is a specialized research library of exceptional quality with approximately 450,000 volumes, 100,000 microforms and some 1,200 current periodical titles. As a recognized centre of excellence for theological research in Canada and beyond, the library maintains a collection embracing a wide variety of languages and intellectual traditions.
Visit the Library website at
www.ustpaul.ca/library
The Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky
Institute of Eastern Christian StudiesThe Sheptytsky Institute, an academic unit of the Faculty of Theology at Saint Paul University, specializes in Eastern Christian Studies, with special but not exclusive emphasis on the tradition of the Church of Kyiv. Its main interests lie in the fields of theology, spirituality, history, and ecclesial polity of the Eastern Churches, both Orthodox and Catholic. The Institute studies all four families of Eastern Churches: Eastern Orthodox, Pre-Chalcedonian, Assyrian and Eastern Catholic. The Sheptytsky Institute publishes a peer-reviewed journal, Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies. Degrees and Certificates in Eastern Christian Studies at the Sheptytsky Institute in Ottawa include: Undergraduate: Certificate in Eastern Christian Studies, B.Th. (Civil and Ecclesiastical); Graduate: M.A. (Th.), L.Th. (Licentiate), Ph.D. (Th.), D.Th.; Summer Intensive Programs.
Visit the Sheptytsky Institute website at
www.ustpaul.ca/sheptytsky