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Here in Australia, Melbourne, we are having a push from our imported priests from Ukraine to follow the Typicon complied by Isodore Dolnysky/Isydor Dolnyskyj 1896 with 1946/8 update. I have a copy of the Typyk of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the Ukrainian Spiritual Library No.81, Rome 1992, but it is in Ukrainian. Does anybody know about this ? as it has rubrics for deacons etc. Is there an English version of this typicon available ? Can anyboby discuss this area please, as it is all new to me.

Dear Deacon Ed:

I myself basically follow Dol'nitskyj's Typik but only know of the version you mention that is in Ukrainian. It is the same one that I use. A similar typik, in Church Slavonic was published by Fr. A. Mykita, in Uzhorod, in 1901.

The 1992 version of Dol'nitskyj is actually a contemporary Ukrainian version of the original that was in Slavonic. It was made in order to avail more people to an understandable translation of the work since many do not now understand Church Slavonic well. In the appendix (dodatok) it contains the diaconal rubrics as found in the "recension." It is these that you are referring to and people should have directed you to the source below.

For these diaconal rubrics, an English source is the "Ordo Celebrationis" or "Order of Celebration of Vespers, Orthros (matins) and the Divine Liturgy according to the Ruthenian Recension" now available in an updated version from Eastern Christian Publications (1996). It contains the full rubrical instructions for the services as celebrated in all Ruthenian Recension churches, including the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church that you serve. What you will not be able to have in English are the liturgical rubrics for the order of services (tropars, stichera, combinations of feasts, etc) that Dol'nitskyj and Mykita offer.

I have always thought that it would be a great service to the church, to have these typiks translated into English. If such exist, I do not know of them and would be happy to hear about it. More than likely, the unwieldy amount of material to be translated has circumvented anyone from taking on this vast project, including myself.

Fr. Joe

[ 04-17-2002: Message edited by: Joe ]

The origianl version was published by Dolnytsky in Lviv in 1899 or 1900 (something like that) -- but it is in Church Slavonic.

What have you been following up to now, Deacon Ed?

Daniil

Dear Friends,

And remember that it was Fr. Dolnytsky who composed the Akathists to the Sacred Heart and some others . . .

A good man all around, wouldn't you say?

Alex

I should add that the original version of Dol'nitskyj did not contain the text of the "recension" that is now in the appendix of the Ukrainian edition. In fact, it did not even exist at that time. The "Ordo Celebrationes" is a separate work, originally published in Latin by the Holy See in 1944. The Ukrainian translation of it was added to the 1992 Dol'nitskyj typikon, as a helpful corollary to the typikon, to guide clergy in the celebration of the services.

Fr. Joe

When we were in Ukraine for JPII's visit, we saw hundreds of these little booklets I believed published by the Ukrainian Catholic University, of a bio of this Fr. Dolnytsky and a prayer for his beatification. They had them in Ukie, English, and Polish. They mentioned he composed some Akafists and/or Molebens. I think I have a few of them lying around.
-ukrainiancatholic

[ 04-17-2002: Message edited by: ukrainiancatholic ]

Yes, I think he is being proposed for beatification. He was very "by the book," although he often did venture into the western camp. He tried to bring the best of the west to the east. He also composed a service to St. Joseph (Obruchnyk -- the Betrothed?). I saw an original copy of the booklet. It was printed in Zhovkva at the Basilian press. At that time, their typography looked straight out of Moscow. Quite interesting.

Daniil

Hey, I see that Deacon Ed is from the land down under.

Id like to know what the Eastern rite Catholic community is like in Australia and how big it is?

Do you have seminary or any kind of religious schools and are the faithful still pretty ethnic or turned into Australians?

Thanks for any info. Im always happy to hear of Eastern Christians in other parts of the world and like to learn about their communities.

Robert K.

Dear Daniil and UC,

Some of Fr. Dolnitsky's Akathists were even adopted by the Orthodox Church including his Akathist to St Joseph.

As one writer, Myron Fedoriw from Chicago, said, Fr. Dolnitsky's Byzantine compositions on Latin devotions such as the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Conception filled a need in his day.

Ukrainian Catholics began attending Latin Churches for devotions to the Sacred Heart et al. and Fr. Dolnitsky felt his compositions could help the people fill their needs in this regard within their own Church.

However, later on, Met. Andrew Sheptytsky apparently forbade the use of the later Moleben to the Sacred Heart.

Alex

Many thanks to the tremendous replies. They have filled a gap in my understanding in this area. I was particularly impressed with Joe's knowledge, so Joe a big thanks and I will persue this in more vigour from Down Under and will endeavour to translate a tiny part of it into English, but only the Liturgy ! To date we have been using hybrid from what various priests think it should be, but I am going to steer it into what is used @ St. George in Lviv, as we are more and more lining ourselves with their practices.

To Robert K. our eparchy is small, about 10,000 people spread over 2,000 miles. Our main groupings are in Melbourne & Sydney and these have the biggest no. of priests about 5 each, so we are not large, but have been here since 1948. It is still pretty much ethnic based with an aged population. The young ones are more and more Aussieised and we are only now looking at this area and have established new statutes and formed varies parish committees, but it will be a long painful process. I would certainly like much more English in the services, but tradition and stubborness is hard to shift.

Regards, Deacon Ed.

To Robert K. our eparchy is small, about 10,000 people spread over 2,000 miles. Our main groupings are in Melbourne & Sydney and these have the biggest no. of priests about 5 each, so we are not large, but have been here since 1948. It is still pretty much ethnic based with an aged population. The young ones are more and more Aussieised and we are only now looking at this area and have established new statutes and formed varies parish committees, but it will be a long painful process. I would certainly like much more English in the services, but tradition and stubborness is hard to shift.

Regards, Deacon Ed.[/QB][/QUOTE]


Wow, I have heard that there are around 30,000 Ukrainians in Australia, where do the rest go to Church? Are there any Ukrainian Orthodox down there?

Thanks again for the info.

Robert K.

St. George's in Lviv, eh? They do All-Night Vigil every Saturday. That would be great if you did that, however, they shorten it quite a bit.

However, I would not follow what they do as some kind of authoritative source. They are often indecisive. They all know what to do because they were trained in (then) Leningrad and Moscow, but are afraid to do it right out of fear for being called Russian or Muscovite or Orthodox.

So what is right! Goo luck, and God bless your endeavours.

Daniil

Wow, I have heard that there are around 30,000 Ukrainians in Australia, where do the rest go to Church? Are there any Ukrainian Orthodox down there?

Thanks again for the info.

Robert K.[/QB][/QUOTE]

Wow, I have heard that there are around 30,000 Ukrainians in Australia, where do the rest go to Church? Are there any Ukrainian Orthodox down there?

Thanks again for the info.

Robert K.[/QB][/QUOTE]

30,000 eh! I've heard these figures spoken about for years. I will wait until the 2001 census figures come out & see what we do have. Our regular mail outs also do not equate to 30,000.
Anybody not coming to church has probably given up or going to local RC places. Our Orthodox people have their structures & there is very little ecumenical dialogue between us.

We do not have seminary type training for deacons, as we decided years ago NOT to follow this archaic practice, as it was perceived to be the wrong model for us & I still support this view. All this is new for us, especially deacons so we will have to suck & see. We still have to work out the place, respect for deacons, married / unmarried priests & still, believe me will take sometime, especially as the bishop has come from a seminary model.

Regards, Deacon Ed.