Please forgive me if I bring up a topic that has already been addressed. I am at work and could not take time to read all eleven pages of this thread. I did get a chance to look through the new translation this past weekend. My main concern is much more simple that the concerns I have been reading---why is there no Church Slavonic in the DIvine Litugry? I understand the reasoning with putting the musical notations. Too many churches don't have cantors on a regular basis if they have them at all. I grew up immersed in the church and old slavonic. Serving DL six days a week when it was mostly the preist, me and a dozen or so baba's, we did the DL in Old Slavonic. I love it and don't need the notes. My wife, who was raised United Church of Christ and is a musician, complains that the DL is hard to follow since there are no notes. And the books tend to jump around a bit. It seems to me the main problem with the new translation for the majority of people has nothing to do with the translation. It's in the lay out--four or five pages of a hymn that is only slightly different. People will find themselves jumping around and getting lost. And the lack of Slavonic is appalling to me. I understand most people don't know the language as they once did. People like me (and I'm in my late 40's) are a dying bread. I don't mean to have the entire DL in Slavonic, but why not a few prayers? If not every week, at least every few weeks. It saddens me when I go to church and say "Slava Isusu Christu!" and I get blank stares.

TJM,

I do know the Music Commission has been working on an English/Slavonic hymnal with both devotional hymns, and the major hymns of the Divine Liturgy in Slavonic (with parallel English translation).

As far as using the new book - many parishes are choosing to use the same musical settings for, say, two months at a time, and distribute bookmarks or inserts that show which settings are being used. (You can see some examples here, at the bottom of the page.) And of course, each musical setting is following by a symbol that shows the "next page" (after all the settings of the current hymn )whenever there is a page skip.

I'm glad my own parishes continue to use a fair amount of Slavonic; I'm looking forward to the new hymnal, and would love to see more parishes keep Slavonic alive while it is still a living memory.

Jeff

Slava Isusu Christu!

Thanks for the information. I am glad to hear there will be an edition with both English and Slavonic. I live about two hours from my home town and due to health problems I don't get back to my "home" church often. The hymn book I used this past weekend was the same one from my younger days and had split columns with both languages. When talking to the current priest, he said that the congregation simply does not like the new books. They are out, but no one uses them. He's hoping they may pick it up by osmosis. I also went to another Byzantine church over the past weekend and spoke with that priest and he said the same thing--people don't like them, they don't want them. They find them very hard to follow and no one seems to like the way it has been layed out. The older parisioners are confused, and let's face it, what is the average age the parishioners in any Byzantine Church? That's only two parishes, but everyone in those parishes is hearing the same thing from other parishes. We do not have the new ones in my church yet, but will soon.
But as one priest said--"Imagine the reaction when the Divine Liturgy went from Church Slavonic to English!"

I've said this about the lack of Slavonic for some time now. The first all Slavonic liturgy I'd been to in probably 20 plus years was last year at the Uniontown pilgrimage. It was so nice to hear it again, and it almost brought tears to my eyes.

When I joined the Orthodox church last year, I settled into a parish that uses a little Slavonic every Sunday. Once a month we have "Slavonic Sunday" with about a quarter of the Divine Liturgy in Slavonic. My goal was to memorize the Otce Nas so I could sing it without the book. After a few weeks of casually going over it, I finally memorized it. It's really not that hard to do, and as you said, it's our heritage!

Tim,

If you ever get to visit Pittsburgh, stop by Holy Trinity in Wall, Pa around 9:00 AM on Sundays. Fr. Anselm (who still drives down from Butler) serves a DL that is 70-75% Church Slavonic,as everyone can sing the Church Slavonic music by heart. He would be glad to see an old familiar face!

S'Bohom

Ungcsertezs

I saw the picture of Fr. Anselm and Fr. Seginak in the Greek Catholic World several months ago when they were signing the papers for the monastery. It was good to see him hale and hearty! Fr. Oravetz, the pastor in our community, says he has had his problems but is doing pretty well. How I remember the times he came to Windber to say DL and then dropped by our house for Sunday supper an to watch a football game before heading back to Butler. Most of the time he fell alseep, but considering his schedule, that is certainly understandable! If I can, be sure I will try to get to one of his services. I can't imagine the majority of the DL in Slavonic! It would bring tears to my eyes and I don't know if I could stop. I'm happy if we do just a few things in Slavonic--if we did the Otce Nas I would probably start crying also.
It's what makes us us. As someone else mentioned--can you imagine a Jewish service without Hebrew? It would never happen. And a Byzantine service without a little bit of Slavonic would be just as bad. If all we are going to say in Slavonic is "Christos Voskrese" one out of three times, well, that would be really sad. It's not that hard to learn and only a few things would be enough to keeep it alive and well.

By the way, I see the CR-S is doing an event in Johnstown the weekend of July 29. I'm going to try to make it. I'm writing my membership check out tomorrow and dropping it in the mail box!

Slava Na Viki!

Timbo the bimbo

Tim,

Yes, those were the days my friend! The parishes that still use some Church Slavonic have kept the 1978 Fr. Levkulic books. No need of the RDL book when singing the liturgical parts in Church Slavonic.

U-C