I'm amazed and a bit confused why anyone would want to repudiate this customary hymn text. How does singing it (with prostrations is even better) hurt anything?
I have not heard anyone repudiate this hymn text (except once in an exceptionally "Great Russian" church). What has happened is that the liturgical commission of the (Ruthenian) Metropolitan Archeparchy of Pittsburgh has recommended that it NOT be sung immediately after the reception of Holy Communion, since it is intensely penitential - and in our tradition, fasting / penitence / sorrow is not really consonant with the reception of our Lord's Body and Blood.
Some (here and elsewhere) have used this to argue that the church has entirely "forbidden" this practice - usually as part of broader discontent with recent changes in the service books. For example, the same liturgical commission recommended that only psalms or liturgical compositions, and not paraliturgical hymns or "concerts", be sung during Holy Communion, and some have claimed that as a result, "they have completely forbidden the singing of hymns in our churches." Not so; they are simply not to be sung as at a particular point in the service (and even that does not apply to hymns based on liturgical texts, such as T'ilo Christovo and Viruju Hospodi).
Now, a parallel: in our tradition, we do not customarily intone for the departed at the Divine Liturgy on Sunday - and so one COULD, in the same way, claim "the bishops are forbidding us to pray for the dead!" In some cases (for example, where weekly liturgies are not held), pastors will in fact intone for the departed on Sunday, and this is generally seem as a reasonable accomodation.
In the same way, some parishes which ONLY celebrate the Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts, and no other services, on weekdays in the Fast, may certainly sing Preterpivyj. This option is mentioned in the materials prepared for use with the new Presanctified books, but those materials recommend that Preterpivyj be sung BEFORE rather than after the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, and paraliturgical Eucharistic or thanksgiving hymns be sung afterwards.
I have never seen any suggestion that this hymn, or other "hymns of the Passion", NOT be sung after Vespers, Sixth Hour, or devotional services during the Fast - and the service book used for Forgiveness Vespers at the cathedral in Pittsburgh included it in both English and Slavonic.
http://metropolitancantorinstitute.org/songs/Slavonic/Preterpivyj.htmlYours in Christ,
Jeff
