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Have any of you guys ever heard of a choir refusing to sing for the cantor because of liturgical corrections?

Our choir director asked the choir to sing the appropriate psalm during communion. The rest of the choir refused to sing so she sang it herself. The congregation did not sing the alleluia response to the Psalm (excepting myself and a couple other people).

She also sings the alleluia (before the gospel) in the proper tone, which was never done before in our church. The congregation doesn't respond to the corrections/alterations, the choir refuses to sing them, and, at the behest of some of the choir members, the priest will not allow the choir director to print the music for the parishioners. He has also not allowed her to announce the time and place of choir rehearsals (which I find to be extraordinarily odd).

The choir director is new and she just came back from Pittsburgh. She is trying very hard to get it right and I know she would rather quit than concsiously do things incorrectly. I know she was trying to do it a little at a time. All she changed was the Psalm being sung at communion and putting the alleluia in the proper tone. She didn't remove the filioque, or add the third antiphon, or anything drastic.

What have your experiences been? Should she just give up and quit? I think it's becoming too great a burden for her.

As a side note, I'm thinking about giving up and joining the Orthodox church. There is only so much abuse the liturgy can take before it just isn't Eastern anymore. Last week our priest preached against the Russian Orthodox Church and talked about "the light going out in Eastern Europe when Catholicism was banned by the Russian Orthodox Church."

I'm no fan of some Russian Orthodox hierarchs, but I don't think that this is appropriate from a Roman Catholic priest in charge of a Byzantine Catholic parish. Russian Orthodoxy and its people suffered as well.

I visited the OCA parish this last Wednesday. Their priest took the opportunity to tell everyone at his parish how wonderful we Eastern Catholics are and how our situation is very difficult and that we should all pray for unity. Hey, I thought that was our line?

I know I probably shouldn't be airing dirty laundry here, but I have no other place to go for advice except to the OCA priest, and I would think that would be less appropriate.

I pray and pray about what I should do and every Sunday I go to "liturgy" and become pushed away by our priest and the parishioners. I REALLY want to stay in communion with Rome, but I get more exhausted by going to liturgy than I do after a weeks worth of work.

It would appear that you need a Byzantine Catholic priest, not a Roman Catholic priest. You sing the "filioque"? I thought this abuse had been corrected.

"All she changed was the Psalm being sung at communion and putting the alleluia in the proper tone. She didn't remove the filioque, or add the third antiphon, or anything drastic."

Dan Lauffer

Dan,

The Pittsburgh Archeparchy has AFAIK from my contacts there yet to officially remove the filioque or restore (not add!) the 3rd antiphon.

Parma, Passaic and Van Nuys have done this already.

Tony

Yet another case of Modernist heresy...

I don't get your point

Is this the same congregation that had the "Great Lectern Debacle?"

I would say that if you must go to the Orthodox, only you can decide. Isn't there a Ukrainian Catholic temple in your area?

Don't any hierarchs read these postings? Have they no interest in what's happening on the ground?

How do they get all their info "official reports?"

yecch!

Cizinec,

Why would the last two items be considered on par with "drastic" in a Byzantine Church?




Joe

Tony,

Can we have the longhand version of AFAIK for dummies like me?

I just figured out what ACROD was the other day. I guess I'm not really up to speed with all these acronymns. My mind really gets boggled when folks start talking about OCA, ACROD, HOCNA, ROCOR, UGCC, RC, BC, ASAP, GOA, MAMAMIA, ...

Joe

I would say if people are disturbed (either way) over the minor matters discussed above, we've failed at the whole enterprise of being Christian.

In the words of a great theologian "Can't we all just get along?"

Axios

Joe,

I think it means 'as far as I know'
which is an easy one compared to ROCOR, ACROD, UGCC, etc.

Sam

Axios,

This theologian being Dr. Rodney King?

Joe

Thanks for your responses.

Axios, I think it's important to recognize what our traditions are in relation to our faith. They aren't just a set of operating procedures to get us through something. It's much more than throwing our hands up in the air and allowing anything to happen just so we can all get along.

This last year I decided to build a Japanese garden. After struggling and reading and researching I came to the realization that, no matter how hard I tried or how authentic it looked, my Japanese garden wouldn't be authentic because I'm not a Zen Buddhist! I don't agree with the beliefs behind what I'm building and I can't really comprehend some of the most important aspects of the structural minutae. Sometimes a lot is revealed in small things.

I am not ethnically Ruthenian. Because of this, I want to respect the big and little "t" traditions that have been generously shared with me. God has revealed himself to us, not just through our saints and big T traditions, but through the small traditions in the liturgy and in our personal lives. It is in these small things we communicate our faith to our children and in them we are reminded of who we are and what we have suffered collectively. They keep our liturgy fresh and alive and force us to grapple with our failings.

I'm not advocating blind traditionalism that isn't concerned with the meaning behind a tradition or where it came from, but with authentic tradition that reveals more to us than we could find if we simply set out on our own journey, picking and choosing the easy parts we like. It means learning and stretching ourselves into areas we have never considered, dislike, or make us uncomfortable.

The Sunday Psalms are small, but important to the expression of our Byzantine Catholic Faith.

Real valid tradition cannot be replaced by blind traditionalism ("this is how we did it when we were growing up so we are right") or through superficial imitation ("I'm Roman Catholic, but I think I can make this Eastern Mass pretty good," or "I'm not a Zen Buddhist, but I can make an authentic Japanese Zen Garden.").

I still wonder what you all think. Since the choir refuses to follow her direction and the priest will not support her in public, should the choir director give up and quit or should she continue to stand up and sing the psalms alone?

Axios,

We have failed when the people no longer think such things as Homosexuality is a mortal sin that will keep a soul out of heaven. That is when the Church fails.