Posts
April 15, 2010
Ansamed
Athens, Greece
The Greek Orthodox Holy Synod has condemned the Liturgy in the modern language which is officiated in the diocese of Nicopolis, claiming that it puts "the Church's unity" at risk.
Bishop Meletio of Nicopolis, in the northern region of Epirus, a long time ago authorized the translation of the Liturgy from liturgical Greek (close to the ancient Greek language and once spoken by the upper classes) into modern or "popular" Greek. Because, as he justified his decision, "otherwise the faithful don't understand the Divine Liturgy".
But the Synod has ruled that translating the holy texts is forbidden; it is only allowed "as an exception and after the authorization" of the Church. In the absence of a joint version, according to the Orthodox leaders, a spontaneous and casual translation of the liturgy "could jeopardize the Church's unity".
The Synod has taken its decision despite the fact that Meletio seems to enjoy the support of his faithful and has obtained the official support of other bishops.
I think this is a remarkably necessary message and development. Please track this for us, John. I have taken it with my own comments as the first message of the day on Irenikon the Skete. Thank you so much for the very good work you do here.
ReplyDeleteMary
For a long time, I have thought that the Divine Liturgy and all other church services in Greece and Cyprus ought to be changed from Ancient to Modern Greek. Every year during the Great Canon of St. Andreas of Crete, a friend (who knows that I read the English translation BEFORE I attend the service) asks me what it was about each night. I was born and raised in the US; my friend was born in and has lived all her life in Cyprus - and both of us attend most of the church services throughtout the year. People my age(50), do NOT know ancient Greek - and the youth here today...barely attend any church services - so what will they understand from a language they do not hear or speak but merely pass as an obligatory course at school? I can never forget the first time I read and REALLY understood the Holy Week services in English...talk about epiphany! I think the Church in Greece and Cyprus ought to take a page from the life of St. John Maximovitch and translate services into the language of the people. How then, could they not respond with their hearts? Church services are church services in any language - provided they are correctly translated by reliable(Synod)sources.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous
I will definately post more on this issue soon, as much has been written in Greek that I will try and translate.
ReplyDeleteWhen you look at the great Orthodox Missionary Saints, one of the most important things they did was to translate the Liturgy and Scriptures into local languages--this also a major issue in the split between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox. There is NOTHING more Orthodox than having people worship in their NATIVE tongue!
ReplyDeletePerhaps you are right, but having a linguistic connection with the great writers and saints of the past is a great thing, too. Latin, Coptic, Syriac, (for the Orthodox) have all been lost in liturgical practice.
ReplyDeleteGreek is a special language among all these being the language of the Bible itself and the language that contains the greatest corpus of Christian writings.
I would hope the older forms of Greek would not be put into disuse.
While I'm against abolishing the Old Greek texts, I think it would be (catechetically) wise to introduce Modern Greek. BTW: this is not a new discussion, Queen Olga already became entangled in it (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_Constantinovna_of_Russia#.22Evangelika.22_controversy ).
ReplyDeleteBertinos.
Translating the text for non-Greek speaking peoples makes sense and is necessary but it should not be done in Greece. Instead they should teach ancient Greek in schools.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Greece (left at age 12) and after having 7 years of schooling there I can still make sense of large parts of the original text, parts of the ancient language are still in use today. So imagine how much more the people in Greece are able to understand who live there their whole lives.
Another thing. When I was there we had religious classes. I do not remember them teaching us about the liturgy. Perhaps that is exactly what they should be doing.
I'm glad there are different perspectives on this issue and I will be translating statements of different perspectives soon.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, I should say that my opinion is that the issue in Greece is more complicated than anywhere else in the world, since the issue is not about using the Greek language versus another native language, but of using an older form of the language in which original texts were written versus a new form which is more modern. For English speakers, the issue is sort of like using a King James Bible versus a New King James Bible.
Having been born and raised in America myself and wih Greek as a second language, by following the Liturgy and with no medieval Greek in my background, and with my parish that I grew up in using 90% Greek, I was able by the time I was 16 or 17 to understand pretty much every Greek word in the Divine Liturgy without use of a book just by paying attention and reading the service book with a translation. And believe me, I'm no prodigy when it comes to learning languages.
My point is that Greek students are not taught about their ancient heritage in schools linguistically as they should be, though they all seem to know at least 3 or 4 other languages like English, Spanish, French and German. Perhaps a bit of education is needed, and not even much since the Liturgical language really is not that far off from Modern Greek, instead of an entire alteration. Furthermore, they don't even need to learn to speak it or write it, but only understand it.