www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization Bishop Kudrick creates "buzz" at parish

Glory to Jesus Christ!

The liturgy and spiriutaliy of Easstern Christianity has its own unique evangelical power. This means that if we discover and allow to flourish what I call the "inner dynamism" of our Liturgical life the Eastern Churches will evangelize and they will do so in a powerful way. This inner dynamism means to rediscover and live what has a perennial evangelical value. When that happens it is powerful. The past weekend at our parish offers testimony:

It began with the observance of the tradition of St. Nicholas: Picture this: St. Nicholas, dressed in full Byzantine episcopal regalia travels down a city street and up the driveway of our parish in a lantern lit wagon pulled by a magificent white horse. Just at that moment the snow begins to gently fall from the sky and land upon what is already a beautifully snow covered semi-rural property. The children are wathing outside as St. Nicholas approaches via horse and wagon while the cantors lead the singing of the the St. Nicholas hymn. The children all go for a ride with St. Nicholas in the wagon as the snow gently falls upon them. As St. Nicholas departs in the horse-drawn wagon the snow is seen to diminish, thus posing no problem for the drive home for the parents of the star-struck children.

Now we come to Saturday evening: Not one but TWO Eastern Catholic bishops, Botean and Kudrick, attended the full vespers service complete with the often challenging Podoben melodies chanted perfectly by the cantor.

Sunday: Bishop Kudrick attends Matins prior to Liturgy. But here is the best part: He does the complete Rite of vesting of the bishop in front of a church full of people, mostly young people, just prior to the beginning of Liturgy. The deacon incenses each vestment. There is a full choir who responds during this Rite as
well as throughout what would be a Hierarchial Divine Liturgy--deacon, servers, choir, cantors, packed church, tons of incense,
floor-to-ceiling icon murals and at least half of the congregation (including chilren) appropriately standing throughout the entire Liturgy.

In the afternoon is the Midwest region St. Nicholas banquet featuring vignettes of the life of St. Nichoals based on the icons in the G.C.U. Chapel and performed by the entire child poplulation of the parish. Throughout the day the parishioners are "buzzing" about witnessing the vesting of the bishop, especially the moment when the bishop assumed the posture as though on the Cross while the servers fasten the buttons of his sleves.

A powerful weekend and one that knocked the many visitors off of their feet. Yet, it was doing nothing more than being honest to the inner dynamism of our own tradition. Herein lies the "New Evangelization" for the Eastern Catholic Churches. Be who we really are without compromise and we will evangelize. We WILL impact the world because what we have to offer is of perennial value and it is abosultely relevant for our times.

On behalf of Annunciation parish in Homer Glen, IL. and on behalf of myself personally, we thank and commend Bishop John Kudrick for allowing the inner dynamism of Eastern Liturgical life to be unleashed at our parish.

P.S.--Look for the vesting Rite to appear on OLVTweb

--Fr. Thomas J. Loya, STB, MA.

GLORY TO GOD!

While I missed the arrival of St. Nicholas, and the Saturday Vespers, the Sunday liturgy with full vesting was glorious.

CDL

So Bishop Kudrick will do the public vesting while prohibiting the full Byzantine Liturgy? That's kind of like assemblying all the ingredients for Thanksgiving Dinner and then serving only potato chips and celery sticks. What a shame!

Bishop Botean is a wonderful bishop and a wonderful man! God grant him many years!If anyone out there can ever make it to a liturgy that he says you will be glad you came.

Dear DJ,

Perhaps you should rejoice in the good, yes?

Father Thomas, your blessing!

Thanks for telling us about this past weekend at your parish! And many years to Bishop John and Bishop John Michael!

Jeff

Helping Vladyka JOHN vest was a wonderful experience that I will not forget ... especially getting the buttons into the loops on the sakkos.

We will try to post some photos from the day on this forum.

Parma is blessed to have His Grace as our shepherd. Eis polla eti despota!

Mnohaja i Blahaja L'ita Vladyka Ioanna!

Ung

Glory to Jesus Christ!

"Thanksgiving Dinner"--Dostojno I am glad that you brought up such an analogy! Thank you! The bigger picture is exactly where we have to go in the whole discussion of liturgy and evangelization.

I would like to expand on the term "Thanksgiving Dinner: The experience of Thanksgiving goes even beyond all of the "fixins,"
Turkey, gravey, stuffing, etc. The "Thanksgiving" experience is actually part of a thankgiving "culture" that happily emerges in the USA leading up to, during and and after the actual "turkey day" itself. In fact it is the rest of this stuff that makes the
"stuffing" so good: It is the travel plans, the gift brought to the door, the anticipation of watching the football games, etc., etc. Our nation actually takes a more "Eastern Christian" a "Liturgical" approach to Thanksgiving which for me is what makes this the best civil holiday in America and one that we have not yet completely corrupted into some grand commercial, secular orgy.

I believe we who are ardently concerned about liturgy and especially the RDL ought to become more honestly "eastern" in our approach. This genius of the East is "integration," as opposed to compartmentalization. The propensity for comparmentalization (focussing in on one particular aspect only)
is characterstic of the western and secular worldview. Some of this comes out of the great gift intrinsic to the west with its rationalistic, analytic, ordered approach to things such as theology and liturgy. However, the down side is to become compartmentalized. This is where the genius of the east comes in.

The east is intrinsically integrated. Liturgy for us is about an entire culture. It is about everything we bring to the point of
"Blessed is the Kingdom..." and everything we do after the final dismissal (or in many parishes the last Marian Hymn.) It is about how we interface with all of life. It is about the liturgical schedule and life of a parish, the architecture, art, homilies, educational dimension, sense of fellowship, evangelization, the quality of chant, etc., etc.

For the Eastern Churches to have the fulness of the experience of "Thanksgiving Dinner" I believe we have to be more "liturgical" than rubrical, more textURal than just textual
(translation)more mystical than historical. In a word, more eastern than western and secular in how we approach the entire subject of liturgy.

As important as the turkey is, Thanksgiving is more than the turkey. I am always amazed at the fact that I can eat turkey several times during the year and it is no great shakes.
But for some reason the exact same turkey tastes so extraordinary on Thansgiving Day. It becomes an experience and I believe it is because the turkey on Thanksgiving Day becomes part of an entire integrated experience that we know as
"Thanksgiving Day."

The battle over how many litanies we actually say, the exact translation of a word from Greek to English are indeed significant. I do not diminish their importance in the least and we should battle over these things to a degree precisely because of their significance. Nonetheless, no matter how bloody the battle over these things we are doing nothing more than still playing it safe. We are focussing on whose' grandmother's recipe we will use for the Thanksgiving stuffing when we have not even made our travel plans, or figured out how we are going to be in the presence of that estranged brother or relative that will sit at Thanksgiving table with us.

If we are going to battle I would like to see an "integrated" battle, not just a rubrical and textual one. I would call upon the Eastern Churches to look at even simple things, say for example, like why so many of our sparsely populated parishes insist on an anit-Eucharistic, anti-liturgical, anti-eastern practice of multiple liturgies on a weekend, especially all of the Saturday night "Masses?" We will find that except maybe, in rare exceptions, there are no good reasons for this practice. This practice is a testimony to all that is wrong about our Churches and what has to be renewed--what has to become more "Liturgical." The perfect translation of a pew book is not going to change the very, very foundational level changes that must be made in the Eastern Catholic Churches. In the spirit of Dostojno's great analogy, even the full rubrical celebration of the Divine Liturgy will be like serving potato chips at what could be an integrated "Thanksgiving" experience.

It easy to battle over cyberspace about rubrics and text and as I said, I do not diminish the great importance of these things.
However, I dare us to have the fortitude to make simple changes that would bring about a more honest eastern "liturgical culture" such as Vespers only on Saturday evening, NO Saturday night "Masses." We dare not do this becaus we realize that this is where the REAL fight will begin, where the REAL pain will be felt, the rebellion, the threats to "leave the Church" and worst of all--a potential decrease in donations(or so we erroneously think.)

An indictment upon where we are at spiritually is the fact that we know darn well that we can argue rubrics, litanies and translations all day and night. BUT, if you tamper with what is a homage to comfort,convenience, complacencey, medocrity and sloth there will be a painful price to be paid.

My suggestion is that if we are indeed so concerned about liturgy that indeed become more liturgical, more eastern, more integrated. Let liturgy be the engine that powers the complete renewal of the Eastern Churches and this renewal will have to be exhaustive.

My motto continues to be set in the Bible and the Pachal Mystery: Raze the Eastern Churches to the ground in order to rebuild them according to their authentic, evangelical, powerful selves. Let the "seed fall to the ground" so that is can become a mighty tree once again. Let's not just have a Thanksgiving dinner. Let's have an entire integrated experience of Thanksgiving.

--Fr. Thomas J. Loya, STB., MA.

And congrataulations to Bishop John for wearing a klobuk (kamilafka and veil) to Vespers on Saturday evening as a proper bishop, along with Bishop John Michael. It was truly edifying to see both bishops properly attired for a Vesper service!

Jack

Glory to Jesus Christ!

As one of those visitors, I must admit to being knocked off of my feet--and lifted towards Heaven! I was privileged to attend Saturday vespers this past weekend. It was my first visit to Annunciation, and one that I will not soon forget. The building itself is magnificent, and the chanting was first rate. The presence of the Bishops John was a surprise blessing.

Many years to Fr. Loya and to all those who help make Annunciation a resplendent herald of Gospel.

-Chris

I had the pleasure of vesting Bishop +John on several occasions both as subdeacon and deacon, and at least one of those times as I recall he did wear the kamilavka as well upon entering the church. Many years.

By the way, vesting a bishop in the church should be "standard procedure"; many (even some Orthodox services I have been present at) have simplified this by coming already vested. Some good tips for those who wish to understand this very profound aspect of the Hierarchal Liturgy better:
http://www.saintelias.com/ca/hliturgy/vesting.php

Fathe Thomas:
Thank you for the great description of your celebration, and for the positive, educated, spirit filled response to the "Thanksgiving Analogy." Too often, these days, we have so much good happening around us that we fail to notice. Thanks for the good news about your joyful celebration!
Andy Kovaly Florida

Just one question--did anyone get pictures of the full event? I followed some links but am not sure if I saw the actual vesting event talked about? If someone has them, please post them. If I missed the link in a prior post in this thread, please direct me to them. I am familiar with Eparch Kudrick. He was pastor at my home church for several years and I don't recall seeing pictures of him. Unless my eyes are not as good as they used to be, which is entirely possible.

Tim