www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Vespers, Matins & the Divine Liturgy The Revised Divine Liturgy Could someone please explain?

John,

Or an equally appropriate rewording could be:

For those in the (military) service of our country, the agents of our security and freedom, that they may serve our country with honor, and that they may make a genuine contribution to the establishment of peace, let us pray to the Lord.

Since those are the actual word used by the document. Again I say I don't think any American who hears "in the service of our country" thinks of anything but those in the military services. Had the petition read civil servants I could see the confusion.

Fr. Deacon Lance

Dear Father Deacon Lance,

Yes, one can say �military� instead of �armed forces�. My intention was to start with the wording of the 1965 Liturgicon and demonstrate that it was a legitimate petition. For some reason PrJ seems to have a un-o/Orthodox distaste for praying for our nation and our armed forces, something which is quite legitimate and necessary (provided there is no excessive nationalism).

The problem with placing �military� in parenthesis (in your example) and thus omitting it is that it �dumbs down� the petition by taking what is specific and making it less specific (although the context of the full reference we both offered makes clear that it is the military we are praying for whereas the revised petition does not). I can�t find his post right now, but I believe Father David said the change was specifically to add other groups who serve the country (firemen, policemen, etc.) to the petition to make it more �inclusive�. While it is certainly appropriate to pray for these other groups, the effect of moving from a specific intention (where the �armed forces� are prayed for by name) to a more generic petition (where �all those in the service of our country� are prayed for) is that the armed forces can be forgotten. In your part of the country people might think only of those in military service. But here in the nation�s capital where it is very common for government employees to speak that they have �30 years of service to our country� the petition could potentially exclude the military altogether. That is why one needs to be specific.

John

Perhaps then we should say what we think and what is understood since that is also the more literal.


Perhaps then we should just say what we think since that is also the more literal.

As elsewhere:


Perhaps then we should simply say what is in fact understood since that is also the more literal.


Dn. Anthony

In my OCA parish, we pray "for the President of our country, for all civil authorities, and for the armed forces." Isn't that sufficient ?

-- John

From our 1988 UGCC Synodal English text:

Deacon: For our nation under God, for our government, and for all the military, let us pray to the Lord.
Choir: Lord, have mercy.

Good to go.