I just have one commment.

What about those good people in our church who know nothing but pews in the church? Are we to throw them out with the pews?

David

Dear David,

I am for leaving them alone, letting them continue to sit in their own pew(s).

Sorry . . .

Alex

Alex,

My friend, no need to be sorry.

I just thought that what I said needed to be said. It seemed that this thread was getting the "I know better than you do" airs about it.

It is easy to say that we want to return to our Byzantine Traditions and to throw out everything that isn't. But we must remember that, for many, many, people the old way, with all of its unByzantine things, is all they know of the Byzantine Rite.

To throw it away without a concern for them is not correct. We must take our time and educate them as to what proper Byzantine Traditions are.

If we do not take them into account we will chase them off to the local Latin parish, or even to protestantism.

In Christ,
David

[ 01-29-2002: Message edited by: DavidB ]

Dear David,

And how right you are!

One very Byzantine Priest, who was full of kiss and vinegar, went out to bring back our Latinized folk to the true traditions.

Two years later, however . . .

Two years later, he told me that there are certain devotions that are VERY important to our people and that it is best to leave them alone.

Sometimes it is good to just go with the flo', eh?

God bless you, my dear and wonderful Friend in Christ!

Alex

I agree with the desire to remove pews, having been working slowly with our priest here to do just that. But the problem is one of pastoral strategy: how to convince severely Latinized Byzantine Catholics to return to the pewless tradition? I have it on good authority, from a priest of eminent judgment, that removing pews in such a parish is a sure fire ticket out of there for the priest. Has anyone any suggestions for how to do it with a minimum of conflict?

Dear Adam:

You better have full, interactive, and flowing services so the people will not miss sitting down.

Better keep as many seats as you can for people with problems.

Place them along the walls and in discreet places.

If you are worried about the initial shock just keep rearranging the pews while lessening their quantities gradually.

No easy solutions.

Just my 2 cents.


defreitas

Very clever defreitas! That could work.
You can then sell them (as someone here mentioned their parish had done), or use the boards for icons or ecclesiastical furniture!
Daniil

hey everyone!
i am new to the forum but when i saw the pew issue come up, i knew i had to chime in. we just purchased a new building and our eparch said we should go withchairs on sides and have the main body open for us to stand. well he convinced the ukrainian part of our parish because it was true to our rite and its how they did it in the 'old country' but the anti-vatican II factions who can accept the fullness of our rite and traditions in the east got a nasty letter of complaints sent to the eparch. well we have pews now, but at least in our new temple we have a square holy table and no stations and only icons on the walls and not to mention a new kivot. we can't wait 'til we get our walls written with icons in the sanctuary. well with the great lent comming up, the menita's (sp?) are going to be a little tough but we'll manage.
-ukrainiancatholic

opps!
half way into my first post i meant to say..." who **can't** accept our traditions etc. etc."
sorry!
-ukrainiancatholic
p.s. are we the only eastern rite church that has these souls in our parish?

That's great ukrainiancatholic! Your eparch sounds like a smart guy. With Great Lent fast approaching, you'll be able to do poklony (prostrations) no sweat!

Daniil

daniil,
you are rights its poklony but isn't mentia or menita another word for the prostrations we do in the east? our eparch is a great guy but we are expecting a new one shortly. but the only thing is with the letter sent to him, he just said go with pews. in a way i dont blame him because why have a parish split over that.

ukrainiancatholic,

The word you're looking for is, in English, metany.

In Ukrainian, it's poklin.

(Those are singular. Plural is metanies / poklony .)

[ 02-01-2002: Message edited by: RichC ]

SLAVA ISUSU CHRISTU!
SLAVA NA VIKI!

Ukrainian Catholic wrote: "...are we the only eastern rite church that has these souls in our parish?..."

Unfortunately NOT! I'll have to share horror stories with you....

mark

SLAVA ISUSU CHRISTU!
SLAVA NA VIKI!

Ukrainian Catholic wrote: "...are we the only eastern rite church that has these souls in our parish?..."

Unfortunately NOT! I'll have to share horror stories with you....

mark

Claba Icycy Xpucmy!
We do need to share stories. I think we could write a book. If you take a good look at it, it can be actually pretty funny. When we came back from seeing the Pope in Ukraine, we got asked many questions because they found out the pope said 2 Roman Masses. I just kindly told them we only went to the Divine Liturgies and that we stood for 6 hours in mud and rain in L'viv without pews. I also informed them that in every single church we went to in Ukraine had a only few benches on the side that they elderly used, but in Baba's selo, her 85 year old brother stood for the 3 hour Sunday liturgy. Did anyone here see the pope in Ukraine? Seeing him sure changed my faith and I know gave a huge boost for our Martyr Church. Now lets wait for him to make our Patriarch a Patriarch hehehe.
-ukrainiancatholic