Thank you to all who post here. I have been reading the posts for a long time and felt it was finally time to post and wish you all God's help in overturning Archbishop Basil’s Revised Divine Liturgy and restoring the Byzantine Divine Liturgy. I am old enough to remember when we took a lot more of the liturgy and the people sang really well. All we have now is politics. I know now what the Roman Catholics felt like after the liturgical revolutionaries hijacked their Mass away from the changes Vatican II really wanted.

Has anyone talked about approaching the Ukrainian Catholics to see if they will allow a full Divine Liturgy with our plain chant? Even if it were on a week night I would go to it. I just can’t put up with the pc liturgy they invented at that seminary.

If I were to write a letter to the Holy Father what would I say besides I don't like the Archbishop's Revised Divine Liturgy? I know it's wrong and that they didn't even use our own books to translate it from. Why can't they see that they are driving the people away?

In the eparchy of Parma books published by Bishop Moskal, there are settings for Prostipinje in the back for feast day hymns (I'm going from memory, but 'Christos Voskrese' is one of them). I think that if enough folks wanted to have Prostipinje and a fuller liturgy and could justify having a priest sent to them that it could happen. I am not familiar with the other eparchies so I am not sure what the reception would be, but in Parma UGCC it could happen. There's a real possibility that the Cleveland area and Pittsburgh area could each have one parish. The numbers are there.

Monomakh

Wow! Bishops Takach and Bohachevsky are probably rolling over in their graves!

The excellent Anthology published by the Sheptytsky Institute for the UGCC Divine Liturgy in English contains a number of alternate settings indicated as "Carpathian Chant" that are prostopinje. I myself have on occasion used some of those at UGCC services, most notably "Blessed be the name of the Lord...".

The parish in Manasses, Virginia, has belonged to the Archeparchy of Philadelphia for decades and still uses prostopinije.

Fr. Serge

Take your time. Be polite. Clearly and concisely list each segment of the RDL which has caused you concern. Give reasons backed up by documentation (such as LA). Fr Serge's excellent book is a great resource.

Blessings,
R

thanks for the plug for my book! When it comes to letter-writing to necessarily busy officials, do your level best to keep the number of words down. Whoever reads the letter will want to know who you are, what you want, and why you want it. If you can do all that in one page (or at most two pages), so much the better.

The Pope obviously cannot read all the letters which arrive addressed to him. You might increase the chances, though, by writing in superbly good Latin! Benedict XVI is a magnificent Latinist.

Fr. Serge

Dear Father Serge,

What is the title of your book?

Respectfully in Christ,
Elizabeth

Diak,

Would that be the same as the Archbishop Senyshyn "Prostopinije" LP with the drawing of a Boiko Church on the cover? I have a bad Maxell cassette copy from about 20 years ago (I walked away from the recording not knowing the LP was skipping, so I have about 25 minutes of repetitive "nyni i prisno, nyni i prisno x30).

Ung

Brother in Christ,

After you thoughtfully and prayerfully craft your letter to the Holy Father you may also wish to copy your letter by fax to Metropolitan Basil, the Papal Nuncio in Washington, DC, and to the Prefect of the Congregation of the Oriental Churches in Rome. Rome is often interested to know that you have kept your local hierarchy "in the loop" and of course the Papal Nuncio is the Holy Father's local outreach to the Church in the U.S.A. The Holy Father has also designated His Eminence Leonardo Cardinal Sandri as "point person" for the Eastern Churches.

For your reference:

His Excellency, Metropolitan Basil Schott
Metropolitan Archbishop
Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh
66 Riverview Avenue • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15214
Telephone: 412-231-4000 | Fax: 412-231-1697

http://www.archeparchy.org/page/metropolitan/metropolitan.htm


http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dxxus.html
http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bsambi.html

His Excellency Archbishop Pietro Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio
Nunciature to the United States
3339 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W, Washington, DC, USA
Telephone: (202) 333-7121
Fax: (202) 337-4036


The Congregation for the Oriental Churches
His Eminence Leonardo Cardinal Sandri
Cardinal Prefect
The Congregation for the Oriental Churches
Palazzo del Bramante
Via della Conciliazione 34,
00193 Rome, Italy

• Telephone: 011-39-06-69.88.42.82
• Fax: 011-39-06-69.88.43.00
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congre...20_profile.html

Z Bohom,
-Pustinik
----------------------
"Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved." –St. Serafim of Sarov

Thanks for the information on where to write. At this point I am so disgusted with Archbishop Basil and his new liturgy that I don't even want to write. I just want to walk away and forget it.

If someone organized a Ruthenian Liturgy under the Ukrainians or another jurisdiction please post it here and I'll come and bring everyone I know.

PB,

1. Metropolitan Basil deserves more respect.

2. "His" new liturgy? This Liturgy was finished almost in entirety before he became Metropolitan. The entire Council of Hierarchs voted to go forward with the RDL. Priests from every Eparchy worked on it. Hardly the Metropolitan's personal creation or imposition.

Fr. Deacon Lance

1. Not in my book.

2. The Archbishop is the one who promulgated the RDL. He could have refused to promulgate it. He could have demanded it be done right. The RDL is his RDL and he bears total responsibility.

The analogy here would be the President of the United States having the power to veto a bill presented to him. He has two choices, he either agrees with the bill whole heartedly and does not veto that particular bill, or he doesn't agree with the bill and exercises his right to use the Presidential "Veto".

The buck stops at the top.

Ung

Ung,

Congress can overide the veto. The Metropolitan is not a Mini-Pope who can impose his will on the other hierarchs. Perhaps he could have declined to promulgate, but if the other three were for it they could probably have gotten around that. Patriarchs have been forced to resign by their Synods.

Fr. Deacon Lance

Wow! Somebody's arms are getting really long here!

Then your book does not agree with the teaching of Christ or his Church. Christ cautioned that even the hypocritical priests, scribes and pharisees were to be given respect. Many a saint has disagreed with a hierarch but did so without being disrespectful.

Again you are wrong. The Council/Synod of Hierarchs ultimately decides these things. The Chief Hierarch is the spokesman for this body. This is the Eastern way. What you propose evidences a very Latinized hierarchal view.

Fr. Deacon Lance

Fact: If Archbishop Basil refused to promulgate the RDL it would not have been promulgated. He could have sent it back to committee to fix the problems. He didn't. It is his. He owns it. He holds full responsibility for it.

Fact: If this were an Orthodox jurisdiction the people would have seen that the bishops were removed from office for what they have done. The liturgy does not belong only to the bishops. It belongs to everyone.

I thought a ground-up approach was more the Eastern way, while a top dominated centralized hierarchy was the preferred Roman Catholic pattern.

After all, it is the entire Orthodox Church with the laity and the clergy who determine if an Ecumenical Council is truly Holy and Ecumenical. Both clergy and laity together define what is infallible in the Orthodox Church, is not that true?

Fr. Dn.,

Can we assume the vote for the promulgation would have been unanimous?
If we were truly self-governing (parish councils and semi-annual Sobors), the RDL would have never reached committee.

Ung

1. The title of the book in question is:

[ Studies on the Byzantine Liturgy 1]
The Draft Translation: A Response to the Proposed Recasting of the Byzantine-Ruthenian Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

2. Yes, Congress can over-ride a veto. No, over-riding a veto does not compel the President to sign anything. Not that many years ago, the King of Belgium abdicated for 24 hours rather than sign a certain law.

3. Whether Metropolitan Judson of blessed memory had anything to do with the recasting is a matter which (so far) cannot be proved. It is quite easy to demonstrate that Metropolitan Basil promulgated the recasting; the praise or blame therefore accrue to Kyr Basil.

Fr. Serge