www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization St. Basil's update

As a member of the Tennessee parish, I'd like to make two quick points:

1) On several occasions, we were without a pastor for months at a time because of medical issues. While it may sound ridiculous, those were among the best times for the parish's spiritual growth. People just had to "suck it up" and take charge of things. There were multiple reader's services of the Divine Praises every week, and Akathists, and so on. When we again were blessed to have a priest, some people naturally would fall back into the mode of "once on Sunday is good enough" but a core group had been formed who would keep trying to push the parish on to bigger and better things.

2) The parish most assuredly did NOT switch churches and join the Ukrainian church. The actual details of the situation are best left to another time or private message.

The Melkite Eparchy can't really be said to have enough priests. We continue to rely heavily on priests from the Old Country to meet our needs and we have several clergy who are nearing what should be their retirement years, but without immediate prospects for them to do so.

Many years,

Neil

Prayers for your situation!

One additional alternative...

I have heard of parishes who fly in clergy on the weekend from out of state. Not ideal by any stretch, but it may be an alternative if the parish can fund it.

In the meantime, reader led Divine Praises and Typica Services may be the only viable option at this time.

If you saw our Sunday take-in numbers...

There is a degree to which we want things "fixed" and a degree to which building a patch-work of solutions will allow His Eminence to consider the matter something that doesn't require immediate attention.

"Parishes changing the Church they belong to is not a solution to any problem; we need to place our trust in our Bishops that they will make proper judgments regarding the administration of our parishes. "

Even a cursory reading of the history of the Ruthenian Church in America does not encourage optimism in that direction.

I find great optimism in the Church. Have there been failures? Yes, of course there have been, it's a human institution. Has there been progress? Yes, of course, even when people are disappointed. If we do not trust in the leadership of our Bishops, then we are denying ourselves the opportunity of the growth of our Church.

Stuart, a personal question if I may, what Church (not parish) do you belong to?

An additional St. Basil's update: next month instead of a Sunday liturgy one weekend there will be vespers the evening before. As mentioned before lots of people are expecting this trend to increase as time goes on.

Erie Byz:

Happy Birthday and many happy returns of the same. Many Years.

BOB

My understanding is that they did indeed have Saturday Vespers and that it included Divine Liturgy. Not bad,huh?

Half Vespers and have Divine Liturgy is not the norm. Revolting.

Saturday Divine Liturgy? I suppose if no priest is available on Sunday it is better then nothing. But as a normal part of the schedule it is utterly Roman Catholic in thinking. But the whole RDL is Roman Catholic. The bishops seek a compromise and continue to "update" our liturgy to be acceptable to feminized Roman Catholics. It's not working and will not work. The bishops would be better off following the Vatican directives and become Byzantine in Liturgy.

Not bad comparatively or... ?

Only if billed as an "anticipatory" liturgy. The liturgcal day is from sunset to sunset; a Divine Liturgy on Saturday evening after Vespers is a Sunday liturgy.

Well,I was only thinking that had they not had a DL,which did indeed proceed Vespers,then fewer than half the people present would have attended Vespers. The rest of them would have probably begun their journey back to the RC church with a Sunday Mass. comparatively speaking,isn't it better that DL was offered and detracted from the temptation to return to the RC church for some? Yeah, I know that eventually,those so inclined will likely go back anyway ,but then,who knows? They may remain and be awesome parishioners when all the dust settles.

Also,I might be wrong,but I believe that originally there were going to be two DL deprived Sundays this month,and instead there was only one. compared to two, one ain't bad.Not ideal,but not bad.

"The liturgcal day is from sunset to sunset; a Divine Liturgy on Saturday evening after Vespers is a Sunday liturgy."

Within the letter, but not the spirit, of the law. One cannot simply jump at will from Vespers to the Divine Liturgy. There is a daily cycle of prayer, and unless the Typicon indicates otherwise, the Divine Liturgy must take place after sunrise, and preferably after the Morning Prayers (Orthros). I'd rather that Byzantine Catholics simply went to Vespers or celebrated the Vigil on Saturday, rather than get into the habit of celebrating the Sunday Eucharist on Saturday evening.