www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Is slavonic dead in your E.C. Church

Not a word used here in Erie. It would be nice to have some slavonic sprinkled into the Diving Liturgy, thrice holy hymn, Our Father, etc.

Well, I know that Matins at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Eparchy of Parma uses Slavonic during some of the psalms and tropars, and sometimes the Litany of Peace. Outside of that, during the Divine Liturgy, I have noticed some with the Otche Nash, maybe the Svjat, Svjat, Svjat, etc... All in all, those are really the only things I've noticed that even have this. Although there are certain occasions that some parishes may use a Full Slavonic Divine Liturgy for ordination anniversaries, or for what we had last Saturday in the Translation of the Relics of Blessed Paul Gojdic and Blessed Basil Hopko. I've noticed situations such as that. Outside of that, it seems like most Ruthenian Divine Liturgies have been in English for normal Feast Day and Sunday use.

It's pretty much gone over in ACROD save for a Christos Voskres,Rozdestvo, Mnohaja Lit,Vichnaja Pamjat and occasional hymn here or there. I've pretty much forgotten how to do the DL in Slavonic.

Well, actually, I know that Holy Ghost in McKees Rocks uses a lot of Church Slavonic parts to the Divine Liturgy, so at least we have that going for us. Those usually tend to be bilingual Divine Liturgies that I've noticed from their webcam (UStream) feeds.

We still do probably 50/50 on Sundays and about 80% Slavonic on Feastdays. It's a shame for Eastern Christians to give up their heritage.

I expect that the RDL has caused a mini-renaissance of Slavonic, since it liberates the people from the tyranny of the defective text and the unsingable music, as well as connecting them with their roots. When the choirs from the Theodore Romzha and Presov seminaries sang the Divine Liturgy in Slavonic at Epiphany of Our Lord, not only was the church packed, but the people sang along, many from memory, some with tears in their eyes.

Slavonic is not dead in our parish, but is very rarely used. I find Church Slavonic to be beautiful, but as a transplant from the Latin Church, I appreciate the Divine Liturgy being prayed in the vernacular.

In churches where a population exists that still understands Slavonic, I am all for praying the Liturgy in this language. However, in those places where the population no longer understands what they are singing, or worse yet, are just singing sounds, mimicking the sounds of the language used by the cantor, I think the vernacular should be used.

Sts. Cyril and Methodius brought the faith to the Slavic people by translating the Liturgy and Scripture into their language so that the people could understand what they were doing and praying. It seems to me, that these great and holy men would want us to do the same in the modern day, but focusing on a reverent Liturgy, making sure to use accurate translations into the tongue of the people.

Church Slavonic will always have a place in the Eastern Churches, as it is important to remember our venerable traditions, but we must not be tied to a language or anything else which gets in the way of our ability to transform into saints.

During Pascha, Father would sing "Christ is Risen" the first time in Slavonic, because he knew that nobody would mistakenly join him. Shortly after he arrived, he said "Christos razdajetsja!" and the vast majority greeted him with a blank stare. That was the last time he said it, although some of us have been encouraging him to use Slavonic and teach those who don't know. He just kind of shrugs and says "We're in America." He did travel to another parish several months to say a Slavonic liturgy for them and it was well received. I'd like to see him do it here, but I don't know if our cantor would be up for it. Maybe we could borrow the cantor from the other parish.

In reality few ever "understood" Slavonic, like me, people came to "know" what it meant from having a bilingual "Chilb Duse".

We are in America and while I get misty eyed and nostalgic listening to old recordings, I know what is right.

My late father, 66 years a priest and first generation would tell a story about a woman his age who complained about English. She insisted that since she had a passing familiarity with "po nashemu" that she had no problem understanding Slavonic.

After failing miserably on her attempts to explain the Sunday tropar my dad suggested something easy : "Svatyj Bose, Svatyj Krypkyj". She smiled, and firmly said, "Why that's about Jesus breaking out of the crypt!"

Sigh.....

Well you can bet that a lot more Greek Catholics and Orthodox for that matter understood more Slavonic because of its closeness to their ethnic languages than Roman Catholics understood Latin. From what I experienced growing up no one understood any Latin at all. Least of all the Irish who made fun of it!

Yeah, even as a Latin Riter, canonically, I have caught on to Slavonic way, way better than I've caught on to Latin. It's definitely the easier of the two ancient Liturgical languages to be sure. Not saying Latin isn't easy, but...I just think that there is that sense of faster learning through Eastern languages for some reason.

Language wise, it is good to speak and worship in the language of the people. The spirit of Pentecost!

This is true. Just this evening I attended a Full (well, almost full, the priest's prayers (not exclamations) and the Nicene Creed were in English) Church Slavonic Divine Liturgy for the 43rd Anniversary Ordination of Fr. Dennis Hrubiak and the 10th Wedding Anniversary of Deacon Andrew Nagrant, and they had a nice choir singing the best responses, chants and hymns to make icing on the cake. It was great to experience the beauty of how the Slavonic language and non-Prostopinije responses can be. I only wish more parishes could have choirs and have the freedom to sing to arrangements more freely...just sad a lot of that is dying off.

As the cantor in a church where many of the parish appreciate the old Slavonic liturgy I try to keep the old Slavonic liturgy alive. First Sunday of the month English. Last Sunday of the month focus on old Slavonic. The remaining weeks are determined by how the Spirit moves me. Generally at least one third old Slavonic.

Agreed, Zemplen. It would be great for some parishes to hold at least monthly Full Old Slavonic Divine Liturgies with a choir and to expect a rather decent turnout to those. Let's hope that idea will come to fruition sooner than later.

It's, unfortunately, not like 20+ years ago where there were parishes that had weekly Slavonic Divine Liturgies on Sundays, I remember those all too well.