www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Old-Ritualists Forum Catholic Old Believers

According to the article, the Old Believers are concentrated in rural agricultural settlements. Some of the communities number 10-15 people.

Stojgniev

Randy,

A welcome back gift for you.

Normalization of the Canonical Position of the Catholics of Byzantine Rite in Russia [stmichaelruscath.org]

Just came across this on St. Michael's site - it's obviously a computer translation of one of the multiple Russian language documents linked on their library page, and a human translation of the original would make it all a bit clearer - nothing really new but, there is a line of interest ...



Many years,

Neil

How do the priestless communities serve the Divine Liturgy?

Do they have someone designated to perform the rituals or does this task rotate among the men of the community?

BOB

Theophan/Bob asks "How do the priestless communities serve the Divine Liturgy?"

I assume this concerns the priestless groups of Old Ritualists, not just a parish which - sadly - might be without a priest for a brief time.

How exactly the priestless Old Ritualists do things depends on the specific "concord" (soglasije) which the parish or community belongs to. The "Pomortsi", who may be the largest such concord, have what amounts to a new line of clergy, able to do such things as baptize, solemnize marriages, hear Confessions, and of course preside at the services, though not in the manner of a priest. Other concords have different rules. But I'm not the best qualified person to give a more detailed answer.

One consequence of all this is that in many priestless churches, or edifices for worship, the Icon-screen is flush against the eastern wall of the church. In others the space is used for storage, or a meeting-room, or whatever might be convenient.

CHRIST IS TRULY RISEN!

Incognitus

Dear Friends,

St Maria Skobtsova of Paris once wrote about how thepriestless Old Believers were so involved with ritual that they forgot totally about the Presence of Christ on the altar and Holy Communion.

That, for her, was their great tragedy.

Alex

incognitus:

Thank you. Yes, I did mean the priestless Old Believer communities.

How are these men trained? Are they "ordained" in some manner?

The icon screen fastened against the eastern wall--very interesting. So do they simply use the small table in the middle of the church instead of a Table of Oblation?

In Christ,

BOB

Neil, thanks so much for the gift. The thought that counts... I should have more on this situation for you with more direct contact in a few weeks.

Bob, generally with priestless parishes you have four prominent "startsi" or elders, a nastayatyel, an ustavnik, a naspevnik and the pomoshnik. The nastayatel is the liturgical presider and takes a role which might approximate the "Senior Reader" role in Reader's services. He is the canon lawyer, and if there is any moral or canonical dispute in the community, he has the last word.

The ustavnik is the "liturgy geek" who knows all of the services, the rubrics, and is the go to man for the nastayatel for setting up all the liturgical logistics. Something like how a priest relies on his very liturgy-savy deacon.

The naspevnik(i) or dyachok is the cantor/psaltist. The larger communities may have several of these. The nastayatel and ustavnik all begin life as a dyachok.

The pomoshnik is a more general server, and may be a bell ringer, altar server, candle lighter, etc. Now remember I am only speaking about bezpopovtsy (priestless) communities here.

Often if not usually the dyachok trains his sons to take his role and it is very often hereditary.

Christ is Risen!
A Table of Oblation? What would they need one for if they are priestless?

As for the iconostasis against the eastern wall, a quick anacdote: There is a priestless Old Believer parish in Erie, PA that had a vote about converting to the Orthodox Church. About 2/3 of the memers wanted to do so, and so another church building was built for the minority who wanted to remain priestless and the majority kept the original church building, and having knocked down the east wall, added on a room to become an altar. Subsequently, the temple was consecrated, the people received into the Orthodox Church, and the rector (nastajatel') was ordained a priest. They have a website:
http://www.churchofthenativity.net/

Christ is Risen!
Photius, Reader

Photius and/or Diak:

Do the Old Believer priestless communities then have no Eucharist or even some substitute?

BOB

Bob, they do not have Eucharist. Often there is not even an altar, but the "iconostasis" is simply an eastern wall decorated as would be an iconostasis at a priestly church but with no Holy Doors or altar.

The desire for the Eucharist has sometimes been a factor for a bezpopovtsy group to "regain" the priesthood. Remember some of the bezpopovtsy did want to be priestless, but some others orginally with ordained priests and deacons were forced to become priestless because of emigration, persecutions, etc. and never intended specifically to be priestless.

Christ is Risen! The Pomortsi clergy of the new line, so to speak, are "ordained" in a presbyterian fashion by other Pomortsi clergy of the same provenance - they assert that the few remaining priests who were serving them and who were left from the pre-Niconian ordinations "ordained" the new line of clergy in this way. This ordination is not regarded as a sacrament, nor do they practice any form of Eucharist, Chrismation, and other services which require a priest - except Confession and Matrimony. One can also find other bezpopovtsy who forbid matrimony, on the ground that only a priest can bless a marriage. For obvious reasons, these groups tend to be relatively small. So far as I know, all the bezpopovtsy groups practice Baptism, though I suppose one could argue that even though a layman can baptize validly in case of emergency, this requires him to act in the name of some Church - and "ubi episcopus, ibi ecclesia". But never mind. Best to pray for them all to return to a normal sacramental model and way of Church life, and the sooner the better.
People whose expertise is greater than mine tell me that it is not impossible to distinguish the various concords by linguistic differences in their particular usages of Church-Slavonic; I wouldn't know.

Incognitus

There seems to be little or no awareness of the presence of Archbishop Sofrony and priests and deacons serving the Old-Ritualists in Oregon and Alaska; the Archbishop, his clergy, and his faithful are obedient to Metropolitan Leonty of Bila Krynytsia. There had been bishops and clergy in China also, but the bishops and clergy died out and were not restored until it became possible to have contact with the Metropolitan of Bila Krynytsia; perhaps the first such contact resulted in the ordination of Father Timofei Ovchinnikov, still the Pastor of the Church of the Assumption of the Theotokos, Sydney, Australia.

"Patriarch" Alexander had and has no connection with the Bila Krynytsia hierarchy; he has perhaps two dozen parishes in Russia and derives his Orders from, of all things, the so-called "Living Church" sponsored by the Communists in the nineteen-twenties.

Two years ago the Old-Ritualist Church of the Ascension, Gervais, Oregon (not far from Mount Angel) issued a lovely recording (on two CDs) of the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, sung in znamenny chant.

The Old-Ritualists have had good relations with the Greek-Catholics since Old-Ritualists began to come to Bukovyna, where Bila Krynytsia is located and where the Greek-Catholics made their printing presses and other useful facilities available to the Old-Ritualists. Metropolitan Andrew was particularly close to the Old-Ritualists and visited their Metropolitan, besides providing a place of worship for them in L'viv.

Fr. Serge

There is a great deal of info about Old Believer converts to Eastern Catholicism in the book "The Exarch Leonid Feodorov: Bridgbuilder Between Rome and Moscow," published by Fr. Paul Mailleux in 1964. You might especially like to look into the life of the Servant of God Father Potapy Emelyanov, who led his entire parish from the Edinovertsy to the Russian Catholic Exarchate in 1918. Fr. Potapy was imprisoned and repeatedly flogged by the Germans and well as the Red and White Armies during the Russian Civil War. He survived a long GULAG sentence without compromising his Catholic Faith and died after his release in the 1930s. He is currently being investigated for possible Beatification.
In the Mother of God,
Brendan D. King