Slavonic to Russian - the French example

 

Another thing which struck me at Sunday's ordination service in Brussels (see my Tuesday’s posting), was the language. The use of modern French came across as absolutely natural.

For those of us battling with getting from Slavonic into Russian (or in the diaspora, into the local language) it is an encouragement. Yes, liturgy can be done decently in modern language, without being irreverent and lowering the tone or losing the mystery.

But there is one side effect which is important, and which will hit hard as an when the Russian Church moves to modern Russian.  Suddenly you are faced with Word, λογος, head-on, full strength. It is no longer a vague, half-understandable noise with a nice mystical effect. Every word hits home.

It might require making the services less wordy and/or spaces of silence in which to digest the volume of ‘hard’ word.