www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Vespers, Matins & the Divine Liturgy The Revised Divine Liturgy Are we there yet?

Has anyone begun thinking about having discussions from a cantor's viewpoint on how we are to rollout use of the new service book in the parish? There doesn't appear to be a lot happening outside of the Forum one way or the other so far. Might the Liturgical Commission and/or the Music Commission launch some form of catechesis well in advance of any book use, with a schedule of meetings for all eparchies? It might help minimize stress.

Funny, I began this thread in Kliros, and it got moved. Oh well.

It is nice to know that even the moderators need moderating every once in a while. :p

(Just teasing you. I hope the other cantors come to your rescue soon. )

I don't think "Catechesis" is the proper term in regards to the new music, although there is a religious dimension to the chant. Better to use the term "instruction". Catechesis deals with the "content" of the faith.

Lazareno, as a cantor I WILL get questions about ALL of it, not just the music. So, I'm gonna need to be ready to discuss the words AND the music. Nowadays, people still confuse the messenger with the message. Some things never seem to change.

Dear Jim,

This is not aimed at you or your work in the Church. Not at all personal.

This is part of our historic problem as a Church. Far too often it is the Cantor or some other person, besides the priest, who gets asked first. Those questions should be referred to Father, and Father should have more than a dim clue about what is going on!!!!

That's why I keep hooting about the fact that now the central adiministration is passsing over the priests, and it will be some of the cantors and educators who will be prepared to answer questions in all this, and not the priests concerning this liturgy.

ALL of that should come to the pastor FIRST and HE should be the one to take it to his educators and cantors. That is if the parish even HAS a cantor or dedicated education coordinator.

It is a terrible muddle and has led to some fairly notable damgage in our internal governance, and opens the lines of authority up to great abuse.

Eli

Eli, thanks for your words. I've seen them in action when I was in an Orthodox parish, too.

There is also the matter of some people's being more careful about what they say to their priest than to someone else. People will ask me questions or complain to me RATHER THAN say something to Father. If I can help them, fine. If not, I refer they to Father.

Eli, so true. The Priest is head of the parish and is the conduit to the people. How often this is overlooked by laity and bishops alike.

Oh yes and in Orthodoxy Matushka gets to carry some of the those burdens as well. It takes a certain wisdom to know what to answer and what to refer. You've seen that work by observation and in action.

But that's also supportive of my point. Bishops know how all this works too and so they should be eager to keep their priests 'in the loop' so to speak while also protecting them from unnecessary pressures.

Part of our problem, again, as a whole Church is the fact that people loose sight of the fact that Father is not just there to "do stuff". The parish priest has as much, if not more, personal need to have time to pray, read and feed his spiritual life as anyone else. But that we don't see as "work."

It is amazing to me that so much of what we'd call "priceless" in public is really valued as worthless privately, since who can name its price?

Eli