www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization OCS Divine Liturgy in the Greater Scranton area

SLAVA ISUSU CHRISTU!

I'll be vacationing in the Greater Scranton area and wanted to know if any of our parishes have an OCS Divine Liturgy.

Any info would be appreciated....

Saints Cyril & Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church in Olyphant has had a 10:30 Slavonic Divine Liturgy for probably a hundred years. But check as there is a new pastor in the past year so things may have changed.

There are also a myriad of Orthodox parishes to check out. It's been years, but there are probably a few that still celebrate in Church Slavonic.

A call to one parish in each Orthodox and Greek Catholic jurisdiction would probably get you good information.

Yes - SS. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church,135 River Avenue, Olyphant, PA 18477 - a few miles north of Scranton. The 9:00am Sunday Divine Liturgy is in Old Slavonic and often the beautiful trained parish choir participates except in August when they take a "vacation".
Pastor is Father Nestor Iwachiw
Rectory phone #: 570 489-2271

Magnificent church.
Parish founded in 1888.

Its nice to see that some Greek Catholic churches still use the beautiful Old Church Slavonic for the DL. I know that unfortunatly many, especially Ukrainian parishes no longer do this but use vernacular, modern Ukrainian instead. Although Ukrainian is the mother tongue of Ukraine, Church Slavonic is the grandmother tongue of all East and South Slavic peoples.

Do you really speak and understand your grandmothers' language(s)?

Yes!
Ruzumeeyu e vohoryu po Ukraeenske!

Actually, they celebrate in Church Slavonic. Only some manuscripts of Old Church Slavonic have survived to this day. Church Slavonic evolved as a simplification of Old Church Slavonic, some kind of adjustment to the vernacular already present, so this grandmothership is rather spiritual.

The difference is substantial. Cf. the beginning of the Gospel of John in Old Church Slavonic ("In the beginning was the Word")
and Church Slavonic:

Old Church Slavic was also used in the West on the Great Moravian territories that later became Poland and Germany, probably up to 11th century in some places. Sadly it has been abandoned in the West nearly entirely. Church Slavonic adds much beauty, solemnity and sacrality to the liturgy.

An interesting article: http://meta.orthodoxwiki.org/Old_Church_Slavonic

Actually, tons of Church Slavonic texts have survived, many of them secular in nature as Slavonic was the diplomatic tongue of the Slavic kingdom. From its inception, Slavonic was something of an artificial language, meant to be comprehensible to the majority of Slavic tribes in the 10th century. It might best be described as Old Bulgarian, and Bulgarian continues to be closes to Slavonic, but nobody ever actually spoke Slavonic except in Church and diplomatic circles. Also, contrary to popular belief, because Slavonic was not a "dead" language, but continued to be used at least by a small coterie of experts, it did evolve over time, and one can speak of early, middle and late Slavonic texts, in the same way that one can distinguish between classical Latin, vulgate Latin, and medieval Church Latin.

How a particular biblical text might be translated into Slavonic depends on when it was translated. One cannot speak of a "simplification", but of an evolution.

Like this modern artificial language, Slovio/Slavsk [slovio.com], which AFAIK like all modern artificial/international languages has never caught on (people don't need them; they learn English) but is interesting to linguists and today's Slavophiles. It's like a Russian-based creole, simplified and easy to understand. My guess is if you learn this, a native Russian speaker could understand you.

Owwwww!! It hurts my ears! If you spoke this in Kiev or Moscve, well, let's just say I could see the laughter already!

Alexandr

Well, yeah, they'd laugh but its inventor claims it's easier to learn than Russian and a foreigner trying it would at least be understood.

Gentlemen,

This could become a fascinating discussion in itself - and could garner a number of replies; if you suspect such will be the case, may I suggest moving over to Town Hall with it.

Many years,

Neil (who seriously - for all of 1 second - debated typing this post in Slovio to see what response he got)

"slovis, imenis i virazxenies" Does anybody actually use Slovio?

I somehow perceive Slavonic as much more dignified.

Slavonic at least has some clear sacred purpose. I don't believe much in Slovio as a business aid, but I may be wrong.


Bulgarian language is a very interesting and peculiar case due to the Turkish origin of Bulgars. Its agglutinative grammar is different than other Slavic languages, but resembles extensive Turkish use of agglutination. South Slavs laugh their heads off when they hear somebody speaking Bulgarian.

No, the modern Bulgarians have very little in common with the Turkik Bulghars. The latter conquered the the Balkan penninsula in the 8th century, some two hundred years after the original Greek population had been overrun by the Slavs. The Slavs displaced the Greeks, but the Bulghars did not did not displace the Slavs. The Bulghars were soon assimilated into the Slavic population, becoming Bulgarians in the process. They spoke Slavonic, and left very little of their Finno=Ugric tongue behind. Thus, as Patriarch Photios told Cyil and Methodius, both from Thessalonica, "In Thessolonica one can hear the most perfect Slvonic spoken>f

The presence of Turkish influence in Bulgarian language, culture and music today is largely the result of four centuries of Ottoman occupation.