Dear Joe:
Thanks for this update. It is very interesting and I think makes some sense. At least, with the celebration of a Parastas, the focus can once again be on the requiem service, chants for the departed and maybe even red or black vestments (as it always was - now my hopes are getting too high), rather than the bland and pointless duplication of another Sunday Resurrectional Divine Liturgy, in bright vestments, ordinary tones and with little attention given to our beloved departed other than the token Panakhyda at the conclusion.
According to our history books, this is also in keeping with an older tradition, when a full Parastas would be celebrated in the cemetery by Bishops Ivancho and Elko, et al, on Saturday evening and even Sunday evening.
The cemetery liturgy used to be one of my favorite parts of the Otpust, (see my article on last year's Otpust posted in the fall of 2002) when it was a real requiem liturgy, with our melodious chants, "za pomerlykh" or if one prefers, "za usopshikh." While I certainly understand the liturgical and theological reasoning for celebrating a Resurrection Vigil instead of a requiem on Saturday evening, as of late, it has become nothing more than another Sunday Divine Liturgy that happened to be celebrated at an altar in a cemetery. Not even the troparia of the departed were chanted. The effects were obvious in the attendance and interest in this cemetery service over the last number of years.
In my opinion, the Otpust, like Passion Week, Pascha and other occasions is a spiritual experience outside of "human time" when the services and the times of day do not necessarily have to correspond exactly. I do not believe that it would have been so terribly incorrect to have maintained the Requiem Pontifical Divine Liturgy in the cemetery as was traditional. After all, as quoted in the Pilgrimage Guide each year, the Otpust is considered to be "one continuous religious service from its opening to its conclusion."
For all of the positive progress we have made in "Easternizing," I strongly feel that some things need to be maintained for what they are, or we chance losing both the message of the event/service as well as an important part of our spiritual heritage.
But, this is certainly a step in a sensible direction both as to the purpose of the service and the sentiments of the pilgrims. As many of us know, our people have always loved to sing the requiem melodies and sing them very well. There was nothing to compare with the sights and sounds of the "Calvary Cemetery Liturgy" when it was actually one for the departed. Perhaps this will restore a bit of traditional piety to the Otpust's Saturday "porjadok" (schedule).
I will now look forward once again, to attending the cemetery service this coming year, that is of course, God and the Bohorodice-willing. Thanks so much for the information.
God bless you all,
Fr. Joe
