Hi all, the linguist in me wonders if Church Slavonic is still used in Eastern European and Russian Orthodox churches or just the national language? In Greece is everyday Greek employed,or a special liturgical Greek? Thanks for your help.

Church Slavonic is used in the Russian churches (I just visited the lovely ROCOR church in Philly today and they used Slavonic). The only time they would use another language is in a mission context (for example, the use of English in the US). I believe (I could be wrong) that all the Slavic churches use Church Slavonic primarily, though some national churches allow a mix; for example, Serbian churches can have a mix of Slavonic and Serbian. The Church of Romania has used Romanian since the 17th century- before that, they used Slavonic even though they aren't Slavs. The Church of Greece continues to use liturgical Koine Greek; an attempt to introduce modern Greek was defeated recently, I believe.

Hi, Indigo...

No, the Greek used in the Divine Liturgy is not every day Greek, and as the above poster noted correctly, an attempt to introduce modern Greek was indeed made in recent years, and defeated.

Regards,
Alice

Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church uses Ukrainian almost exclusively, at least in Poland and Ukraine.

The UGCC parishes that I have attended here in Buffalo have used the Ukrainian and not Slavonic. I believe that they will sometimes use a mix of vernacular and "church" languages.

Whenever I have read about the Eastern Orthodox churches, there has always been the mention that the EO use the language of the people, and yet it appears that is not always the case.

Are there any Russian Orthodox parishes that use Russian?

Old Church Slavonic used to be the language of the people. Indeed, so was Latin, Gəʿəz, Coptic, Syriac, and Classical Armenian. It's just that languages tend to change quite rapidly, while the Church is inherently traditional (and quite rightly so).

It's a little complicated. Yes, at many times, Orthodox missionaries would try to learn the local language and translate everything into that language. So, for instance, Old Church Slavonic was based on the language spoken by Bulgars whom Sts. Cyril and Methodius had contact. But Slavonic was then introduced as a liturgical language in places where it wasn't spoken natively (e.g., Kievan Rus', Romania, Serbia).

When I was in Romania, I found services were conducted in Slavonic in some churches, and in Romanian in others, and in a mix of both in yet others--all under the omophor of the Romanian Orthodox Patriarch.