Orthodoxy beyond the ghetto
Aug. 14th, 2010 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Standing in the very naked St Klara Kirche in Nürnberg (Germany) last Monday, I was asking myself as an Orthodox: if I were a priest (out of the question as I am a divorcee) and was asked to celebrate the eucharist in a form of my choosing (again very hypothetical), in this building and for a majority native population (i.e. not the largely refugee populations of most Orthodox parishes in the west), what would it look like? Answer:
- a traditional western rite (possibly reworded to de-emphasize the sacrificial aspect), or St John Chrysostom with some judicious cutting between the Gospel and the 'Lift up your hearts'
- all prayers, other than the priest’s prayer of confession, said out aloud
- communion of the faithful immediately after the priest
- priest’s position: west facing
- vestments: simple, of modern western cut, in good material
- utensils: plain but of good quality
- music: Gregorian or derivative, eventually znamini (if it works with the language)
- language: as much Latin (the traditional Church language of this part of the world) as I can get away with. But every word said, in Latin or the vernacular, to be understood and believed by the speaker, and intended to be understood by the congregation
- sermon: prepared beforehand, maximum 7 minutes
- other decoration: four or five large, good icons, eventually with an early western medieval feel to them
- movements: well defined and controlled (in particular any processions). Rehearsed where necessary