ACROD.org has posted three links to the Divine Liturgy celebrated last Sunday, June 10th at SS Cyril and Methodius Church at Camp Nazareth at the annual Family Day. The responses are in English prostopenije and the homily is by Archimandrite Grigorios Tzatsis, the candidate for Bishop to succeed the late Metropolitan Nicholas.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtV9l0AhGTY&feature=g-all-u

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6kx7UKt6RE&feature=relmfu

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-nHRXORGK4&feature=relmfu

Very nice. The dirge-like tempo is not to my taste, but it is indeed traditional.

I agree and my late father was one of the 'speed it up' proponents of prosto singing. Within ACROD, there was a period of great influence by the long time cantor at the Cathedral, who apparently believed that singly slowly was more indicative of being holy - or else his eyesight was poor and it took awhile to move it along......

Back in my unprofessional cantor days I audio recorded part of the Divine Liturgy. I didn't think I sang slowly until I listened to the tape.

Because when you are singing you are praying, I think its safe to say that unless you think you are singing too fast, you are actually singing too slowly....a dirge, as Stuart says. And to a visitor who never heard the DL previously, it's not real attractive, unless you have a professional 4 part choir.

We often talk about all the reasons why our Churches' populations are decreasing; seldom do we cite this very real reason. A dragged out drone won't attract new members.

Reverend Father Deacon Paul,

I agree with your statement - being a cantor at my church has enlightened me as to the laity and their view of the cantors ( sometimes with scathing harsh criticisms)

The cantors tend to
a) want to do solos
b) be important to the liturgy - a desirable trait of the Holy Spirit in my opinion
c) sound good

Our "choir" (I hesitate to call it a choir because our Eparchy wants congregational singing not choirs) almost never practices - I mean a real practice where we work out the details and any harmonies. Basically we just "wing" each liturgy.

We even sort of just tried to "wing" Paschal Matins - and it showed - a signature event that should have been practiced and prepared for - the evangelization of a good sounding "choir"
is invaluable to bring back the once a year people.

When we are dong what I call a heavily slavic tonality - sharps, flats, dischord - I've had some people in the laity come up and tell us we sucked - I tried to explain to them the difficulty of singing in unison (without practice) the very difficult Ruthenian melodies - I had one ex RC say to me she missed the Organ and musical instruments and regular singing of the Latin Guitar type Mssses.

But my original point - listen to the real slavs - they sing slavonic VERY VERY FAST - ALMOST TO THE POINT WHERE EVEN SLAVIC SPEAKING PEOPLE CAN'T SING THAT FAST!

So I am a fan of singing fast.

Especially in HOROS - the antiphonal singing of the psalms should be fast snd as the one side hits the last note the other side should have started singing already ( same with the Lord Have Mercies in the Ektanias )

- my preference and a style that I have observed by listening to the Slavs and the Greeks

Ehem...

Different parishes and different cantors sing at different speeds. When you bring together people from many different parishes who sing the same music in different ways, the job of the cantor becomes incredibly difficult! A cantor can try and set the tempo, but he may not be able to steer the combined vocal strength of the congregation. (Case in point: at moments in the videos from Camp Nazareth, if you listen closely, you can hear some voices lagging behind the rest.)

That being said, the overall pace of that Liturgy was faster than many parishes.

Fr. David
Cantor of 2012 Family Day

Having been there, done that many times, I second Fr. David's observations. Usually at a parish, the singing is more at the same tempo as the congregation is used to a particular pacing from the priest and cantor. When you meld together (and I suspect those of you who are BCC would agree with this) at Diocesan events like at our Camp or your Pilgrimages at Uniontown, you typically get the 'singing contest' voice or voices in the crowd. (Frequently the worst offenders may be a priest or two at the altar who is 'trying to help out.' I don't mean a priest leading the chant like Fr. David did or my dad did, I mean one of the celebrants.)

Besides, I posted the links because I enjoyed the videos and I know that our brothers and sisters in the Old Countries like to know that we are perpetuating our traditions!

Let us who are cantors - always listen more than we project our voices - lead as servants rather than as dominant tyrants of the liturgy - sing to Christ Our Lord - and not for ourselves.

I read a very interesting article the other day about how there have been many many efforts throughout the years (hundreds of years) to reduce the amount of time for the prayers of the Divine Liturgy - so the problem is not modern.

The conflict is in preserving The Divine Liturgy intact without reducing it's teaching and preaching.