Lift up your hearts! Rejoice and be glad! I am given to understand that Father Archimandrite Robert Taft's next volume in his monumental History of the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom will be off the press before Xmas! Will everyone please start praying that nothing delays the book any further, and that Almighty God will grant Father Archimandrite Robert the time, energy, and impetus to complete the entire study before he heads off to the eternal Liturgy of the Kingdom.

Fr. Serge

I wonder if this book release will have an effect on the Sui Juris Metropolitan Byzantine Church of America's current Revised Divine Liturgy??

Ung

I'm not exactly holding my breath on that question. But the book itself is of much greater importance than the Pittsburgh RDL. I'd be willing to make a large wager that the book will still be of critical importance when the RDL is long forgotten.

Fr. Serge

In the last "Le Lien", the journal of the Melkite Patriarchate, H.B. Gregorios III, although showing too much respect for Arch. Taft, critizes in a study one of his thesis: that our Church had an antiochen rite which was replaced by the byzantine one. Our Patriarch defends that our rite is antiochen, and others too (maronite and syriac), but has some little modifications in relation to them and then the appropriate name for it would be "greek rite".

It's a very interesting study that opens new dimension in the ecumenical and inter-eclesial relationship.

Anyway, trusting particularly in Arch. Serge's big admiration for that work of Arch. Taft, I wish it will be well succeed and I pray for this.

In what way does His Holiness show "too much respect" for Father Archimandrite Robert?

The Byzantine liturgical tradition is certainly Antiochian, with lots of elements from Jerusalem as well. One of the most important factors of the Byzantine synthesis is the habit of Constantinople of absorbing and integrating elements from quite a variety of sources.

Fr. Serge

Gotta go with Fr. Serge on this one. The "texts" of the "Byzantine Rite": the Menaion, the various Divine Liturgies, the Horlogion, the Typikon and the like are a mixture of elements from Holy Fathers of all kinds of places. It's wrong to call them "Greek" just because the language is Greek. Significant parts (maybe even the majority?) of them come from various people who lived in Anatolia, Syria, and the Holy Land (to include of course the Deir Mar Savvas).

Fr. Serge, sorry, but maybe the "too" I used means "in excess", I don't know. Is that the problem?

Markos, precisely from what you said, is much less just to call our rite "byzantine"! Calling it "greek" means that it is antiochen and uses the greek language. You have to read the article of our Patriarch. Do you read French? I could send you it.

Dear Philippe,

Yes, the "too" in that context does mean "in excess", which is what had me puzzled.

with every blessing,

Fr. Serge

Dear Fr Serge et al,

Having been a priest in the Antiochian Patriarchate for twelve years, I can testify that very often Arabs, when speaking in English, use the words "too much" idiomatically for "very great" or "the greatest." I assume that it comes from a literal translation of Arabic words into English. They do not realise that it always carries a negative connotation in English.

Fr David Straut

Dear Father David,

You may well be right - I've run into the same phenomenon among native speakers of Arabic trying to cope with English.

Fr. Serge

Fr David, you're right! In Arabic there is no easy way to express "too much"; you just have to say "strong"/"strongly" or "great"/"greatly" and imply that the size or quantity is more than expected or desired.
The Arabs you've met have probably learnt the most common translation into English and are applying it in all situations where the original Arabic phrase is used.

Hasn't Fr. Taft left the Catholic Church?

Well, I don't know if it's seems that, but it wasn't the Patriarch who wrote "too much", but myself.

Why no. I was privileged to see and talk with Fr Taft this past summer when he spoke at a Conference in New York that my daughter had organised. He was still Catholic then and I haven't read any headlinres since that he had left the Catholic Church. What made you think that?

Fr David Straut

Father Archimandrite has certainly not left the Catholic Church.

Fr. Serge

The Archimandrite (with 2 crosses) was very much in communion with Rome when he was at the OL conference in San Diego.

Just received Father Archimandrite Robert's Christmas letter - he makes no allusion to leaving the Catholic Church (rather the contrary, in fact), indicates that the book should be off the press in the next few days, and tells us that this is the largest book he has ever written, which should make for quite a read. So I suggest that we all rush to order copies, and redouble our prayers that Father Archimandrite may receive the time, the energy, and the impetus to complete the entire work with the volume on the Anaphora (I don't want much, do I?). My guess was accurate; the forthcoming volume is on the Communion rites through the Dismissal and conclusion of the Divine Liturgy.

Fr. Serge

I know Fr. George Maloney of blessed memory had returned to the Orthodox Church but not Fr. Taft to my knowledge.

Job

Fr Serge

Glory be to Jesus Christ!

It is great news to hear that another volume of Taft on the DL of St John Chrysostom will be available so soon now.
I assumethat it will be published as were the 3 previous volumes in the Orientalia Christiana Analecta series. These are very hard to track down here in Australia. Do you know who will carry stock or is it available directly from the Oriental Institute?

Thank you Fr Serge for this very useful information.

Regards


Fr Brian

I don't know, but I'm inclined to think that the best way to obtain the book is to order it directly from the Pontifical Oriental Institute - or perhaps one of the Catholic bookshops near the Vatican (Leoniana comes to mind).

Fr. Serge

Yes, of all the notable Eastern Catholic priests, I can only remember of Fr. George Maloney SJ and Fr. David Kirk (both of blessed memory) dying as Orthodox priests.

Had Fr George left the Orthodox Church at one time? You say that he "returned" to the Orthodox Church.

Fr David Straut

Fr. Bless!

To me, any Eastern Catholic who "transfers" to the Orthodox Church, has done nothing more than return home.

Fastest way to get the book at once is to order it from:

edizioni@pio.urbe.it
The book is Robert Taft's latest = OCA 281.

Fr. Serge (information from Father Archimandrite Robert)

Shlomo Philippe,

I agree with your Patriarch that the Melkite Holy Liturgy as well as all Christian Holy Liturgies have Antiochene roots.

One way to look at it is that the Melkite Holy Liturgy is now nearly purely Greek with little Semitic influence; whereas the Maronite Holy Liturgy has Greek influences with a solid Semitic (Edessa) base, and the Syriac Holy Liturgy is now nearly purely Semitic.

I would say that the issue is not that your Holy Liturgy is not Antiochene, but that they let the Byzantine authories wipe out its Semitic roots in order to remain in good standing with the the Imperial Court and Church.

Until recently, there was much bad blood between Byzantine and Antiochene-Edessan Christians of the Middle East, just as there was between the Byzantine and Alexandrian Christians.

Fush BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

It's not hard to do with all the various Roman Patriarchs living in the same city.

And for all you Facebook people, there is a "Fr. Archimandrite Robert F Taft, S.J." fan club. 114 members.

Now the publishers are telling me that it will be nine days or so before the book is available.

Fr. Serge

Fr. Brian, some of the past Analecta volumes can be obtained on occasion through Amazon as well.

Leap up, ye waters of the Tiber! Be jubilant, ye Greek-Catholics of Ireland! Sing, ye anglophones throughout the universe! Father Archimandrite Robert Taft's new book is at last off the press and available for purchase - a copy is winging its way towards me at this very moment, for the low, low, price of 58 euros plus shipping charges.

When the copy arrives, I shall devour it, intellectually speaking.

Fr. Serge

Fr., Bless !

Thank you for posting this. After reading this thread, I will have to investigate Fr. Taft's book.

Today is Father Archimandrite Robert's 77th birthday; he is this week staying at Saint Josaphat's Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Seminary, doing something at the Catholic University of America.

I had an e-mail from him this afternoon, and it gave me no reason at all to think that he has left the Catholic Church or is even considering such a step.

Fr. Serge

What is the title of the new book, and whom has published it?

Robert Taft: A History of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Volume VI: The Communion, Thanksgiving, and Concluding Rites, Orientale Christiana Analecta, Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome.

Fr. Serge

Rejoice with me! Father Taft's new volume has finally arrived in Dublin! Judging by the postal indications, it had quite a roundabout trip, with lengthy pauses for R & R along the way.

But then, when Bishop (now Metropolitan) Kallistos and Mother Mary's Lenten Triodion was published by Faber, there was a strike on which prevented shipments of the book by boat - and Lent was fast approaching. So I telephoned the bookshop at Westminster Cathedral, had them send me a dozen copies by air, pro-rated the cost of air shipment among the books, and my friends were queuing up to buy them. Nobody else had them in North America that Lent.

Fr. Serge