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I found this to be a remarkably informative and interesting website with some great pics and links to the Syrian Orthodox Liturgy.

I don't think it has been posted before.

http://www.epilgrim.org/syrian_liturgy.htm

Lovely and joyful - thank you!

Fr. Serge

One of these days it would be my dream - if I discover that gold mine - to put out some really well done DVDs with narration going thrhough the various Eucharistic liturgies of the Church and their histories.

Mutatis mutandis, that has been a dream of mine for the past three decades. One wants to show each Liturgy at its best, of course - meaning full complement of clergy (who all know what they are doing and how to do it), excellent servers, superb choir, and optional subtitles giving the English translation (or translations into other languages, for use in other countries) - please, no voice-overs; we want to hear as well as see the Liturgy itself.

It really can be done.

Fr. Serge

Thank you for the link! The photos are beautiful.

Father Serge-if you ever get that dvd made, I will definately be one of the first people in line to buy it!

Fr. Serge, in the DVD era, one can turn on and off voice-overs, so just another extra -- and it won't ruin our enjoyment.

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Western Orthodoxy Blog [westernorthodox.blogspot.com]

Dear Doubting Thomas - thank you! I'll put you on the list (who knows, perhaps I can convince the Bishop to permit the entire Pontifical Liturgy here to be video-recorded, though it would take some doing).

Dear Western Orthodox - if you are correct, I'm delighted to learn this and shall thank you profusely. But alas, my own efforts to cut out the voice-overs only result in cutting out all the sound, and one does want to hear the clergy and choir or chanters.

Fr. Serge

Father Serge, generally you have to select the option in the menu when you first play the DVD. "Director commentary" is common amongst a lot of DVD releases. I went through a period where I was absolutely enamored with the film American Beauty... Watching the film with the director's commentary absolutely added a new element to my appreciation of the cinematography of that film.

It can be done. And the beauty of DVD (and now totally digital formats) is that the cost of manufacture and shipment is so much less than what we had to deal with when using VHS... It is becoming a more and more popular option for couples getting married to have the ceremony recorded to DVD and offered to guests later... No word on how enthused recipients are about watching someone else's nuptuals on DVD at a later date... but I digress.

It would be of immense value to many of us who will never be blessed to attend (because of geography or time) certain Eucharistic liturgies in settings designed for them...

I wonder who might be able to spearhead such an effort?

Unfortunately, the logistics would be difficult in the extreme. To be comprehensive, it would run into multiple DVDs, with several celebrations of the DL of St. John Chrysostom/St. Basil in different languages and styles (Ruthenian with Prostopinije, Russian Catholic, Ukrainian, etc.) Somehow they would have to come up with an equitable way to present some of these in English.

Also, quite a bit of travel might be involved, e.g., to film the Greek Catholics in Greece, Ethiopian Catholics, Coptic Catholics, Chaldeans, Malabar, etc.

If there's a liturgically minded Roman Catholic of independent means, it would certainly be interesting to see! You could advertize it like one of those CD collections of hits from the '50s: "Where else could you find all these liturgies? Before, you had to hunt for weeks to find grainy, hand-held videos -- if you could find them at all...."

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[url=http://westernorthodox.blogspot.com]Western Orthodoxy Blog[/url

Dear Occidental Orthodox brother,

Difficult and challenging, certainly, but by no means impossible. With a bit of awareness and organization, the need for travel can be kept under some reasonable control (there are specific places to go - Rome and Damascus come to mind at once - to find several of these Churches, not just one). The real problem is often to convince whichever Church is in question to put its liturgical "best foot forward".

As to money, I would not exclude the possibility of finding a degree of sponsorship. Those who try do not always succeed, but those who do not try never succeed.

Would you consider organizing and video-recording two solemn celebrations of the Western Rite Orthodox Liturgy, as provided for by the Antiochian Archdiocese?

Fr. Serge

Fr. Serge, inquiries have been made in the past (...by me...) and hopes occasionally got high, but nothing much has materialized. I'd love to see this take place.

I know several rites (in Roman communion) are available in major metropolitan areas in the U.S., but how they rate liturgically against other parishes of the same rite I couldn't say.

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Western Orthodoxy Blog [westernorthodox.blogspot.com]

On the linked page the author states that the Armenians only serve the Badarak--the Divine Liturgy--on Sundays. Is this the case? If so, can someone from the Armenian tradition explain the reason behind this venerable tradition?

Another note. I have read that it is also the Coptic Orthodox custom that no leather shoes be worn in the altar area. Could someone shed some light on this custom--its reason, the point in time that it began (or is it the most ancient tradition)?

One more question. The the Syrian and the Church of the East both seem to have altars where the unbloody sacrifice takes place that seem to be against the eastern wall. Is this the case or is it just the pictures I've seen? If so, how did the Byzantine tradition evolve to have the free-standing Table of Oblation that the clergy walk completely around?

Thanks.

BOB

You are so 1999 in your thinking, man!

While I conced it would take a great deal of work the days of needing big film crews to travel about and capture these things are in the past! As a YouTube.com enthusiast and novice podcaster I am enamaored and amazed by the technologies that are out there... One congregation in the US that celebrates the TLM exclusively has had an enthusiast of the parish install multiple wall mounted cameras and mic's the priest and congregation to record the litrugy at his church.

It is mostly a one-man operation and with this generation of technology, I have to admit, it does not look that bad. And the technology is improving - I easily anticipate greater quality cameras and applications for such being available cheaply sooner than later.

Really it comes down to networking - some of which could be done online - to get permissions and collaborators. And the money is out there. As someone who did some student work in an academic office (underpaid desk job lackey cheaper than a real secratary) I have to admit how amazed I am at all the grant money out there that goes unclaimed. What I am more amazed by still is what some of the "claimed funds" get used for! Certainly there is some money out there somewhere from someone (under the guise of theology research, anthropology, culture, religion, whichever) for such a work. And I don't think it would cost 25% of what it used to.

Bob,

I have no citation or source - only an explination offered to me by someone I suspect reliable in his info - several years ago. But it was explained to me that this ties into some dietary concearns about animals, cleanliness and the like, and leather, still understood for what it is - the skin of a dead animal - is considered to be inappropriate on the altar in those traditions.

It is also accurate to say that the it is not just a proscription on leather shoes, but a prescription for what could well be considered "vestment shoes". It isn't enough to just wear your canvas boat shoes with rubber soles or a pair of flip-flops (that might be seen as profane) embroidered silk slippers worn ONLY for divine services are worn.

Removing one's shoes in a holy place has been characteristic of some religions in the Middle East for a very long time -- one thinks of Moses at the Burning Bush.

Among the Copts, it is almost a reflex - as one approaches holy Relics to venerate them, or a particular Icon, or simply enters certain shrines, one removes one's shoes - when I went with Abba Seraphim to Egypt on the bishop's advice I bought a pair of slip-on shoes before leaving home, so that as we visited various shrines I would not have to bother with shoelaces.

Anyone who is to enter the Altar will instinctively remove his shoes before doing this - in the chanters' area, just outside the screen, one can usually notice some pairs of shoes occupying a bit of space held for that purpose; they belong to deacons, servers, or even the occasional priest who for some reason has had to go into the Altar.

Slippers are available in some places; among the Copts these slippers are quite simple, almost unnoticeable, and are purely functional. Among the Armenians, however, the slippers for the priest or bishop can be quite elaborate and beautiful.

There is a remnant of this in the Roman Rite; when the Bishop celebrates a Solemn Pontifical Mass (not exactly an everyday occurence at present), he dons special stockings and slippers used only for that purpose, and the Missal has a special prayer for putting on these sliplpers.

For whatever reason, this does not seem to have been customary in the Antiochian or the Constantinopolitan traditions.

Many years ago, someone writing a popular article about Widener Library at Harvard mentioned that a visiting scholar from Egypt was impressed by the great respect that the Harvard students had for the Library as a center of learning - many of the students actually took their shoes off!

Fr. Serge