www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Vespers, Matins & the Divine Liturgy The Revised Divine Liturgy The New Liturgy when the Bishop celebrates.

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Our Carpatho-Rusyn Church has come to a fork in the road. Either we are Roman or we are Byzantine, but not both. Let the parishes that want to be Roman go west. And we shall remain firmly planted in the East continuing to fully embrace our Orthodox heritage and ethos.

A.C.R.O.D...

Ungcsertezs

May it ever be so. We still have some steps to take. One of the ways I saw this in a rather humorous way was at Whiting during the liturgy. I still fondly remember how many of us tried to find places to stand and how many of the parishioners complained about our standing.

CDL

LOL!

The solemn vesting of a hierarch doesn't necessarily add any time to the Pontifical Liturgy - often enough I've encountered schedules for festive celebrations which announce the time of the vesting and then a time (about 20 to 30 minutes later) for the beginning of the Enarxis.

Less happily, the last time I attended the consecration of a church, I was startled to discover that even though I arrived well before the announced hour, the actual consecration was already over and the Divine Liturgy was just beginning. To add insult to injury, the pastor told me later that in printing the invitations they had assumed that the guests would not want to have to endure the long consecration ritual. Grrr! I've never set foot in the place again. [It was also noteworthy that the hierarch doing this departed from the prescribed rubrics more than once - at the Great Entrance he loudly commemorated a layman as "the President of this holy community", which tempted me to respond "if Mr. So and So is the President, who are you?". After the hierarch received Holy Communion, he at once repaired to his seat outside the ikonostasis and begin soliciting monetary donations from the people.]

Fr. Serge

Visiting Slovakia: The Bishop is vested in front of the faithfull: also i had seen where a priest is vested on the side alter:n Both are beautifull to see and here the prayers that go with the vesting: I have never seen this in our churches: Once I did see Father Knapick vest himself and the prayers that went with the vesting: It took him every bit of 5 minutes or better to complete: I know this our faithfull are missing a lot of tradition in our { Byzantine Catholic Faith of America }

You are cordially invited to Dublin this Sunday, where I fully expect Bishop Hlib to do the vesting and all the rest of the Pontifical Liturgy. It's quite enjoyable.

Fr. Serge

When Bishop John visited our parish of St. Luke's in Sugar Creek, he was vested in the middle of the church at the beginning of the Divine Liturgy. It was beautifully done and much appreciated by the people.

My pastor indicates that the episopal vesting ritual was part of the Hierarchical Liturgy in the Pittsburgh Metropolia up until the Kocisko era, at which time the Hierarchs decided to suppress it.

Dn. Robert

As a subdeacon I enjoy it when the bishop vests in the church. The people like it and it brings a sense of the fullness of the Church with the bishop surrounded by the people. But make sure the subdeacons know their stuff. It is beautiful when vested smoothly and "prayfully" and not so when things are rushed and done in such a way to distract the people and the bishop.

Yes--apparently that was one Eastern tradition Bishop Elko loved.

I've heard that Archbishop Basil's Franciscan nature shuns such overtly heirarchical acts. I tried to make that sound as PC as possible, but the gist is that vesting in church is too flashy for a Franciscan. But Bishop John does it.... then again, Bishop John also ordains married men.

Ung-Certs, last ACROD Hierarchical Divine Liturgy I attended, was recently and because of Metropolitan Nicholas' injury, the vesting was a bit subdued and confined to the altar area behind the iconostas, but we could still see him. What a truly great bishop.