It appears that some of the translations are borderline heresy. Rome said not to remove the word "man" from the Creed in "who for us men and our salvation". So what do the bishops do? They remove the word "man" from the Creed. Why? I asked Bishop Skurla. He didn't seem to know. He pretty much admitted that even the bishops don't like the new music but since its promulgated we are stuck with it. I say if it does not work they should unpromulgate it and let us go back to music that we could sing.

The parishes in New Jersey do not sing the new music. The whole thing is a scandal. They hired a man to write it who was kicked out of the priesthood. He didn't even have much experience at being a cantor! The music is awful. One would think that English was not his native language. And I hear the new Presanctified music is even worse.

And the people out West do not sing it very well. But I don't think there was even one parish ever in the west that did the whole liturgy the way its supposed to be done. They invent services, like taking half of vespers or half of matins and then have the second half of the Divine Liturgy. I was in San Diego last fall and the people mumbled. When I asked about how the RDL was there the one lady just rolled her eyes and didn't want to talk about it. Here in New Jersey even over at St. Thomas in Rahway they have lost lots of people. Since Fr. Mondick and started making changes to the liturgy half the people have left. And look at Phoenix or Albuquerque. Those cities have had their populations increase by 400% in the last 10 years. And the Byzantine parishes have barely stayed the same. Thank you RDL! Thank you bishops for killing the church!

I pray that the bishops do what is right. That they rescind the RDL and put back the old liturgy. And then they should fire all the members of the Committee to Revise the Liturgy and the Committee to Revise the Music. It seems they don't know anything about Byzantine liturgy.

In truth, the old pew books could have been updated very easily--with a pencil, if necessary--and directives could have been issued to restore certain practices (e.g., singing of the third antiphon) that had fallen into abeyance. There was nothing wrong with the old music, except that people tended not to use all of it (i.e., always singing the same Only Begotten Son, the same Our Father, the same It Is Truly Proper, etc.), and with a little prompting all of the variations could have been introduced a little bit at a time. The restoration of Teplota would have required nothing more than a directive telling the priests to go buy a teapot. Changes the rubrics would have affected only the priests and deacons. The basic worship of the people would not have been subjected to a radical and disruptive change, but then, a whole lot of people on the Commission would have had to find productive work.

Last year, when the seminarians from Uzhorod/Mukachevo were visiting, one of the seminarians pushed on me to buy a CD of their rendition of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (in Church Slavonic).I was a little tight on cash, but went ahead and bought it. Glad I did. The CD is exquisite! A mixture of prostipinije and "high church" Russian choir music. The Liturgy, as taken on the CD, is unabbreviated, with all of the proper ektenias, etc., and in complete accord with the Ruthenian Rescension. What a delight to listen to! I need not say anything else!

Dn. Robert

Deacon Robert:

Christ is Born!! Chrsit is in our midst!!

Is it possible to obtain a copy in the States? On another note, is there a complete rendition of the DL in the same chant from the Carpatho-Russian diocese?

BOB

Jack Figel sells all the Seminary Choir recordings. Ask him.

Also had the pleasure of hearing them sing the responses to the Divine Liturgy and Vespers (separate services, not combined), in Slavonic. Pleased to note that their Prostopinje is much closer to what we used to sing than the modified Boskaj of the RDL. It was so similar, in fact, that the people were able to sing along--in Slavonic!--without much difficulty.

http://www.seminaryconcerttour.com/

Here is a link to a site which Jack Figel set up to promote the tour. If you can't find mention of the DVD (the cover of the copy I have is done completely in Ukrainian), try reaching him via the "Contact Us" tab.

Dn. Robert

I think this page is what you are looking for.


https://ssl.webvalence.com/ecommerce/kio...ss=concert-tour

Exactly. I purchased the CD on the bottom of the page-the Slavonic Divine Liturgy. Great quality recording. Very clear. Great voices. Highly recommended.

Dn. Robert