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Concerning "books" for daily services:

I do have the New Skete 1976 rendition of the Daily Office; and find it adequate. As well as the Byzantine Daily Worship put out by ALLELUIA PRESS 1969.

I find both adequate, but certainly not complete with Troparia and Kontakia.

But, for beginners in prayer, certainly very useful, bringing one to pray the Divine Office daily, at some of the Hours, Laudes, Vespers, Compline or others. Being in the world makes it difficult for anyone to read/pray the whole Divine Office each day. But, Daily Prayer is certainly necessary.

Monastics don't even pray the whole office each day, personally. Each does it according to possibilities and blessing of Spiritual Father/Mother.

As Jesus does say in the Gospel, "Pray always" It is in starting small, at certain times of day or night, that "prayer takes root" in the heart! And becomes gradually "Prayer of the Heart"

The Church prays always, for parts of the Divine Office and Liturgy are being prayed at all times in all areas of the world, Mount Athos, and other Monastics Communites also. As well as in the individuals who pray the Jesus Prayer, the Rosary, the Liturgy, or the simple ejaculations that spring up from their hearts in the midst of their work and life.

Jesus Christ is with us to the end of time! So, let us strive to live in His Presence at Prayer as well as at work. This reminds me of the
"Ora et Laborer" of Saint Benedict.

Shestelle

The former Evangelical Orthodox communities (now OCA) did at one time use the New Skete translations and ordo. However, once the were received into the Orthodox Church (OCA) they were forbidden from doing so. They were to adopt the approved texts of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (published either by St. Tikhon's or Bishop Dimitri) and the accepted order of the other services as well.

No OCA bishop of whom I am aware allows anyone to use the New Skete ordo. I know my bishop, Archbishop KYRILL, strictly forbids it and suspended one priest for serving their form of Vespers after he was warned not to.

The OCA did not publish those texts. New Skete did. Yes, they are offically within the OCA, although their presence has caused no small controversy. I would also be remiss if I did not point out that their work has many supporters, including at St. Vladimir's Seminary. At my recent visit there, their daily services did reflect a small amount of New Skete influence, that of replacing several litanies with the silent prayer of the priest. However, the OCA's official publications to not suggest such things.

Both New Skete, and all OCA seminaries, are under the direct jurisdiction of His Beatitude, Metropolitan HERMAN.

So, the St. Athanasius Church website texts reflect a pre-OCA usage, and does not reflect what they or any of the former EOC communities do today. I know this community well and have advised them on several liturgical matters.

Priest Thomas Soroka
St. Nicholas Orthodox Church
McKees Rocks, PA

Sorry for the delay. I asked a fellow student who is from that parish. While they were yet Evangelical Orthodox they used the New Skete revised order. When they entered the OCA they conformed to standard OCA practice.

Deacon Lance, you may want to contact the other parishes and aske them what they do.

Fr. Thomas and Tony,

Thank you for the information. It seems clear then that nobody but New Skete uses New Skete's Ordo. I guess the question should then be why, given that it was successful in helping the 5 EOC parishes on their journey into the OCA? Why such a negative reaction to something that really isn't that radical and has had a positive impact?

Fr. Deacon Lance

Tony,

Could you post outlines for the 1988 book's services? I will post the 1976 book's. I would like to compare the cahnges they made from one edition to the next.

Vespers:
Beginning Prayers
Psalm 103 (Psalm 85 in Lent)
Prayer of Light 4 or Prayer from Prime
Psalmody with Prayer after each Stasis:
Prayers of Light 1, 2, 3, 5, or Vesperal Introit Prayer
Behold Christ, the light of the universe, with blessing with candle (as at Presanctified)
O Joyful Light and lighting of lamps
Psalm 140 as at Presanctified with offering of incense on weekdays.
Sunday:
Psalms 140, 141, 129, and 116 and stichera with incensation.
Prokimenon
Reading
Litany of Peace and Litany of Supplication
Prayer of Light 7
Vouchsafe, O Lord
Prayer of Inclination
Aposticha
Canticle of Simeon
Trisagion Prayers
Troparia
Dismissal

Matins:
Photogogikon
Lighting of Lamps
Opening Psalm:
Sun Ps 102
Mon Ps 3
Tue Ps 5
Wed Ps 62
Thu Ps 87
Fri Ps 89
Sat Ps 112
Prayer of Light 1 (6 on Sundays, 8 in Lent)
God is the Lord
Troparia
Weekdays:Psalmody with sessional hymn and Prayer of Light after each Stasis. (Prayers 2,3,7)
Sunday:
Polyeleos
Hypakoe
Evlogitaria
Prokimen
Prayer of Light 9
Gospel
Canticle 1
Resurrection Troparia
Ps 50
Prayer of Light 10
Variable Canticle:
Sun 8
Mon 2
Tue 3
Wed 4
Thu 5
Fri 6
Sat 7
Kontakion
Magnificat (Benedictus added on Sunday)
Prayer of Light 11
Sunday: Exapostilarion
Ps 148-150 (with stichera on Sunday)
Sunday:
Great Doxology
Vouchsafe O Lord
Trisagion Prayer from Liturgy
Trisagion
Troparia
Sunday:
Litany of Peace with Litany of Supplication
Prayer of Light 12
Prayer of Inclination
Dismissal

I suppose the question of what is radical is in the eye of the beholder. At ordination, we promise to serve the divine services as they are received.

Any opinons that I have on New Skete, although not uncommon, would be strictly my own.

The liturgical experimentation which was taking place at New Skete was originally sanctioned by His Beatitude, Metropolitan Theodosius, so anything that takes place there now is a matter of inheiritance. Their history, the way that they were brought in, their self-styled forms of monastic life, their liturgy, seem less about submission to the Orthodox faith as it is received, and more about conforming it to the style of their choosing, even if it is based on a critical rendering of the history of liturgy.

The bottom line is, any changes, additions, subtractions, to the Divine Services need to come from the bishop, not from a monastery, not from a seminary.

That is not to say that the work that they do does not have value. There is tremendous value in research and understanding the development of liturgy. And yes, we do not want to fossilize the present state of affiars, liturgically speaking. However, with good order, all of this would be done as a church, gathered around the bishop, and not each monastery or seminary doing their own thing, only adding to the confusion of the faithful.

Not much, if anything, has been documented about any approval that the Holy Synod, or Metropolitan Herman, is giving to what they are doing. But they've done it for so long, it's in a way senseless to stop it, which would only cause more division and ill-will.

Priest Thomas

Father Thomas,

Thank you for your comments. I understand and agree that change must be implemented by the hierarchs. However, how can the hierarchs judge if change is prudent if proposed changes are not piloted somewhere? It is almost a catch 22.

Also, change, it seems, is always going to be resisted. For example, in my Metropolia, changes to the Liturgy are coming from the hierarchs and many are complaining precisely because it is the hierarchs who are mandating them instead of letting them occur spontaneously through "organic" change, I term I cannot stand becasue in my studies I have yet to find a liturgical change that wasn't mandated by a hierarch.

Fr. Deacon Lance

I do believe the ultimate issue is the relationship between New Skete and the OCA, if not the Orthodox Church in general. Although officially, there is "no problem," the general concensus is that they have been given too much latitude in implementing change, to the point where my own hierarch said that he could not even recognize their form of Vespers as Vespers.

Maybe he is liturgically unenlightened?

That being the case, monastery as liturgical labratory seems to be rather contradictory, at least for me. For an Orthodox Christian community, which is specifically gathered to in obedience to the monastic rule, it seems a rather strange place to exercise such license.

That is not to say that it is not possible. But New Skete's role has never explicitly been definied as being blessed for that task.

Whatever their task, and whatever the task of the bishops in all this, it seems that they should explicity state, "We are studying making reforms to the divine services. Here is the schedule... Here is where we are testing it... We plant to implement this in this manner..." If it is simply "imposed" as a dictum from above, I could understand why there would be resistance.

It's the basic formula for an explanation. Who, what, why, where, when and how. I know of no such plan to either research, test, or implement such changes within the OCA. My hopes are then, that they simply do not exist. However, there is no doubt that this or that community is tinkering with such things. One such community exists in Virginia, in the OCA. But again, it is an unwise way to create such change, because it causes suspicion and confusion among the faithful.

Priest Thomas

The suggestion of piloting changes is very problematic to me. The Byzantine Church has never had the custom of preparing a revised edition of the Divine Services and allowing certain places to use it to see if it works. To me, the very suggestion is very un-Byzantine. Change comes to the Byzantine Church very slowly. For the most part, the Byzantine Church has merely documented liturgical change a generation or two (or even longer) after such changes have proven themselves.

There are plenty of examples of change that have occurred and have been documented after the fact. The Ruthenian custom of singing the Paschal antiphons on all Sundays is but one example. A few centuries ago the liturgical texts prescribed what we today call the daily antiphons (Psalms 91, 92 & 94) for Sundays and weekdays. Once the custom of singing Psalms 65 & 66 on Sundays became normative in the Ruthenian the texts were updated to include this new custom.

I am praying that the hierarchs reject the Revisionist Liturgy and that they see the wisdom of keeping our liturgical worship identical to that of the rest of the Byzantine Church, both Catholic and Orthodox.

I tend to agree with you. Now is a critical time in the efforts for unity with the Orthodox. Change often represents to them, an instability or a lack of respect for Tradition. Seeing Eastern Catholics updating the Liturgy will not go over well with the Orthodox, who suspect anything Catholic to begin with. On the other hand, throwing out Latinizations and restoring authentic practices has a positive effect.

"Now is a critical time in the efforts for unity with the Orthodox. Change often represents to them, an instability or a lack of respect for Tradition. Seeing Eastern Catholics updating the Liturgy will not go over well with the Orthodox, who suspect anything Catholic to begin with. On the other hand, throwing out Latinizations and restoring authentic practices has a positive effect."

But the fact is some Orthodox practice the changes we have made or are contemplating and others maintain latinizations we have shed. The Orthodox could care less how we celebrate the Liturgy. If we do it differently we are chided as unfaithful, if we do it exactly as they do we are called trojan horses. The Orthodox are much more interested in us declaring Papal Infallibility and Supremacy heresy as they do, leaving communion with Rome, and returning to communion with them. Once we do this I am sure they feel they can fix our Liturgy.

Fr. Deacon Lance

I am sure some Orthodox are engaged in a bit of fault-finding where we are concerned. I have not seen the "new, improved, revised" Liturgy and have no idea what's in it. I would just prefer the Liturgy to not be another source of disagreement. We have enough of those already.

Charles,

If you remember Deacon Stan's ordination Liturgy (sans ordination) or Liturgy at my parish it is pretty close.

Fr. Deacon Lance

Actually, I have never been to your parish and wasn't present at Deacon Stan's ordination. Deacon Stan has favored our Byzantine Mission with a visit, however, so I have met him.

No Orthodox Church has mandated any of the changes that are mandated in the Revised Liturgy (much of which is already mandated in 3 of our 4 eparchies).

Whether the Orthodox (not in communion with Rome) care or don�t care about how we celebrate the Liturgy is irrelevant. What is relevant is the need for our liturgical practices to reflect those of [Byzantine] Orthodoxy. I totally reject the �Third Way� that this liturgical revision will bring about.