www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Spanish and Slavonic in Byzantine Worship in America

I suspect that if DL is in Spanish it is because it is the native language of those attending and they probably do not speak English. To learn Slavonic would probably seem pointless to them since they are also learning english too.

Anyone who immigrates anywhere loses their language within 2 or 3 generations once they spread out of their ethnic enclaves and even within it if there jobs include contact with those who do not speak their language. It's natural.

If you're concerned about losing your ancestral language, why not have two DL's - one in english and another in Slavonic,Polish, etc? or a matins or vespers in that language?
I recently attended a Coptic Orthodox vespers and they alternated every other verse or prayer between arabic and english, which does mean that english speakers lost every other verse. (The Egyptians here are very well educated, so they lost nothing in English or Arabic)
But if the majority of the parish speaks only their language it would seem profitable to have DL in that language, whether it be Spanish, English, Persian or Polish.

Dear Fr. Ihar,

Considering your audience is primarily third and fourth generation Americans whose parish operates primarily in English, you were doing well to have tourists who were in it for the linguistic novelty. My presumptions of language and generation are based on the age of the church, the now-defunct webpage that indicated DL was in English and the age of my dad's Orthodox cousins.

You were probably the only one who realized the choir replaced (word I don't know printed in Cyrillic) with (other word I don't know).

Nan

"Господи Помілуй" - Lord Have Mercy

"Подай, Господи" - Grant It O Lord

Actually it's impressive to hear that there's actually a parish celebrating the Litany of Supplication. All Byzantines should have the opportunity to pray for 'an angel of peace....'


Monomakh

If a priest is willing to recieve you into Orthodoxy with the impetus of your move being prompted and informed by an attachment to an ethnicity, that will be very telling, on many levels.

If you are unmarried, perhaps this is something you might consider - this sort of service might bring you great blessing and peace:

http://blog.ancient-future.net/2007/08/teach-english-learn-ukrainian-serve.html

see also: http://www.ucef.org/whatwedo.htm

Very well said, Monomakh!

And of course, we should be doing this.

We should reach out both to new people, and people who have fallen away, or who have come from our shared heritages.

We need to evangelize better, period.

Hello,


I can understand you prefer a Slavic language and I do not have a problem with that.

What I do have a problem with is with your tone and the WILDLY inaccuracy of your statement above.

Currently, there are a total of around 12 million undocumented aliens in the United States. Granted, a substantial portion of those 12 million are Hispanics.

However, there are over 40 million Hispanics in the U.S. That means that even if ALL undocumented aliens in the U.S. were Hispanics, Citizens and Legal Residents of Hispanic origin still outnumber these by 3 to 1.

You may not like the Spanish language.

You may regret that the Eastern Churches are being "Hispanicized", together with the rest of this country.

But I think it is unbecoming of the Christian faithful to despise Spanish as the "language of the illegals".

I will have to report this thread to the Moderators.

Shalom,
Memo

God bless you, Memo!
Fr. Ihar

I just read an article about "Hispanic church adds English services" and didn't post the link because I have gained the impression that is frowned upon. And it's Pentecostal.

Does it mean, that if Byzantines, Orthodox and RC wont go out to Hispanics - they will come to convert Anglophones to Pentecostalism?

Not in your neighborhood.

God let's hope so!

More than likely, THEIR kids and grandkids are growing more comfortable in English. Remember, that the "first language" spoken in a home can be, more or less of the "Kitchen Spanish(/Rusyn/Slovak/Jungarian) variety. I spean my share of kitchen spanish, I do not write or read it, and cannot pray in it - unless I am asking God for more salsa!

One Slovak Rusyn kid I knew in Pittsburgh asked his great grandma what she had done that day. The answer was (phoneticly) "Ya ridem na caru y buyem shoesi" (Anyone care to take a crack at the translation?)

Certainly there are many folks who pass on a working literate knowledge of a non-English first language, but not everyone who self-identifies as speaking something other than English as a first language can turn around and identify themselves as being literate or fully conversant outside of certain common domestic realms.

You mean, in American?

A few years ago the Eastern Christian Supply company was offering supplies for "Those who had fallen asleep (in English)" I could not find any prayer cards for those who had fallen asleep in alebra - a much more common problem for me!

"I went (god knows where)....and was buying shoes"
Doesn't sound Slovak, rather Uki "surzhyk"