Slithering on the Slavonic

We celebrated liturgy at the Cathedral in French today. In general we are strictly Slavonic. But in the middle of the holiday period, there was no Slavonic-speaking priest available. Many Orthodox churches here shut during summer. But we are the MP default church in Brussels, the one pious tourists find in the Orthodox Calendar, so we have to keep open.

Fr A. served. A little man of about 60, he is the last survivor of the 'Basil boys', a group of local Belgian men ordained by the late Archbishop Basil Krivocheine before leaving Belgium in the mid-1980s.

There were then hopes of mass conversions to Orthodoxy. These did not occur, and once Russian-speakers started to arrive in droves in the late 1980s, the Basil boys were sidelined. They soldiered on bravely. With no Russian, they could speak with the new bishop only through an interpreter. Of their three tiny churches one has since closed, one has gone Slavonic, and Fr A. is left with an average congregation of around 10 (and a priest’s salary paid by the Belgian state – but that’s another story).

 Fr. A celebrated decently enough. He slithered a bit on the Slavonic (tebe slavu vossylaem went badly wrong) and wisely said the words of consecration in French. But then, providing your deacon, your choir and your altar boys know their job – and we are a well-practised team – a priest can, I guess, celebrate in just about any language under the sun.