as a convert, I don't really think we should be opposed to certain ethnic aspects. But every Orthodox Church needs to be involved in evangelism, outreach, missions etc... I also believe that every Orthodox Church in the United States should have English as it's Liturgical Language. As time goes on, and as the generations go on, and even as we see today, the younger generations don't speak their ancestor's native languages.
Eh, I disagree somewhat. I think every Orthodox Church in the U.S. should have as its liturgical language whichever language its parishioners actually speak. The reason Archbishop Dmitri translated a number of liturgical texts into Spanish was because we have communities that speak mostly Spanish; insisting on English-only because we're in the U.S. doesn't help those communities. Similarly, while a number of "ethnic" parishes may have services in a language their third- and fourth-generation Americans don't understand, a number of others have the same services in the native tongue of recent immigrants.
I'm sorry if I wasn't very clear in my post. If the majority of parishioners speak another language, then it's ok to have it in another language. But I would argue if you have a parish where 50% speak English and 50% speak another language, then it ought to be in English. (as it's likely the other 50% also speak English)
There are parts of the United States in the far Southwest where most people will be speaking Spanish regularly (moreso than English), in those areas, Spanish ought to be used.
But the problem with the Greek liturgy is that it is in Koine, which is really hard for most Greeks today to understand. My Greek language teacher here in Greece knows many languages, and tried to study liturgical (or rather, Biblical) Koine Greek, and she couldn't believe how hard it is and she still can't understand most of whats going on in the Liturgy. Now, the situation here in Greece is for the Greeks to sort out, I won't act as a judge on their situation.
However in the United States, even the parishes that speak Greek that have their liturgy in Greek (or rather, Koine Greek) is a little inconsistent, because they don't even understand the version of Greek the service is actually in. That is why I'm more in favor of simply going to English. (unless the Church blesses a Modern Greek version of the Liturgy)
As for other languages like Russian, etc... Again, it depends on the parish, but if it's a case where 99% speak English, but 40-50% speak another language as their mother tongue, English ought to be used.
It's certainly a complex issue, and probably ought to be case-by-case. But I think we need to absolutely avoid the thought of "Liturgical Languages" in the sense of how the Roman Catholics view(ed) Latin and their Mass. Koine Greek (and Old Church Slavonic for that matter) is no more "holy" than any other Liturgical Language.
But that is getting pretty off topic, so I'll let this be the last time I speak about this issue in this specific thread.
