Women Reading the Epistle

[Jonathan]

My priest (Coptic Orthodox, he's done a lot of research) says that probably the silent prayers were added to keep the priest's mind focused while the congregation or choir were chanting something so he would have something to pray before moving on to the next part outloud.  In the Byzantine tradition the choirs became more elaborate than they did in our tradition, and so the silent prayers are more prominent there than in ours.  In the West, the choirs became so dominent that priest's role became almost disconnected and the Catholic practice of silent Masses emerged.  In our tradition we don't have any choral stuff or anything that only the choir and not the congregation could do (well, there's hard stuff, especially during Pascal week, but mostly), and the silent prayers are pretty limited.

[Νεκτάριος]

1)  On whose authority our these priests choosing to read the silent prayers aloud and not close the royal doors after the Great Entrance?  IF a synod of bishops decided to make that the current usage that would be one thing.  But I gather that this has really become an issue of liturgically and priestly anarchy - which is not good at all.  

2) IME many of the people who are big on the lay participation bandwagon (i.e never close the doors, people replacing the deacon's amen, silent prayers read aloud) are also people that NEVER attend vespers, orthros or the hours.  All of these services are mostly non-priestly and dominated by lay chanters.  If the intend of reading the silent prayers aloud is education, IMO (alas not very humble!) a priest would be better served by encouraging people to attend Vespers and Orthros and listen to beautiful hymnology that is loaded with Orthodox theology.

3)  There are several other options to education besides reading the silent prayers aloud.  Spend ten minutes each Sunday talking or reading from a book while people are eating / drinking coffee after church, classes, book readingd/discussion groups etc. etc.  Also how does the people saying the deacon's part help education?  If the Deacon audibly says it, I would possibly believe the intent of doing the anaphora aloud was education but by having the people say shows that education isn't the full story.

4)  Is this practice the result of an Orthodox mindset?  Or have protestant (or neo-RCC which is very protestant minded anyway) influences and rationalistic ideals driven this?

5)  What was wrong with the traditional practice to begin with?

[Hypo-Ortho]

Nektarios<<What was wrong with the traditional practice to begin with?>>

They weren't Polish enough?  

Hypo-Ortho
(Half-Polish, 1/4 Czech, 1/4 Ukie)

[Νεκτάριος]

hahaha Hypo....that reminds me though of a question I've had but keep forgetting to ask.  What is the liturgical language of the Church of Poland?

[Hypo-Ortho]

hahaha Hypo....that reminds me though of a question I've had but keep forgetting to ask.  What is the liturgical language of the Church of Poland?

Church Slavonic, Nektarios.   But the official website of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church is all in Polish--an English translation option is not even available.

At sermon/homily time in most Polish Orthodox churches, AFAIK, however, either Polish or, in some cases, Ukrainian, is used (depending on the congregation and locality).  Most Belorussians also speak/understand Polish, so along the border there, Polish is the usual language for everyday communications, with Belorussian a close second.

Hypo (who thinks all real Poles should be Orthodox)

[Νεκτάριος]

Thanks Hypo, it's intersting information.  When Metro. Herman was in Poland a little while back I noticed the Icons that they pictured from Poland on the OCA's webpage had Russian (gasp!) writting on them NOT Polish...so it made me wonder just how Polish is the Polish Orthodox Church.  Is there actually a large number of ethnic Poles that are Orthodox?

Nektarios - the Hellenized Slav

[The young fogey]

When Metro. Herman was in Poland a little while back I noticed the Icons that they pictured from Poland on the OCA's webpage had Russian (gasp!) writting on them NOT Polish...so it made me wonder just how Polish is the Polish Orthodox Church.

 

Of course the writing is in Russian/Slavonic, because most members of the Orthodox Church of Poland are in fact ethnic Byelorussians and Ukrainians who are in what is now Poland thanks to changing national borders.

Is there actually a large number of ethnic Poles that are Orthodox?

My guess is probably not. Just like historically Russianness was bound up with Eastern Orthodoxy, so Polishness is tied to Western Catholicism.

[Tags:]

OrthodoxChristianity.net > Moderated Forums > Liturgy (Moderator: arimethea) > Topic: Women Reading the Epistle