Re: CHAT: Prayer Versions

At 3:04 AM -0500 11/16/99, Irina Rempt-Drijfhout wrote:
>On Mon, 15 Nov 1999, Steg Belsky wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 13 Nov 1999 23:08:59 -0000 alypius <krazyal@...> writes:
>
>> > Greek.  Many American churches have also adopted pews and organs,
>> > which often scandalizes visitors from the Old World. Of course,
>
>> What's wrong with pews?  Unless i'm misunderstanding some
>> connotation of the word, isn't a pew just a bench style of seats,
>> as opposed to individual chairs?
>
>That's what it *means*, yes. But note the word "Greek" that just
>didn't get snipped, making it clear that this is about the *Orthodox*
>church, and Orthodox churchgoers don't sit (it's passive, and we're
>participants, not consumers) unless they absolutely can't stand. Pews
>are even worse than chairs because they don't only expect you to sit,
>they force you to sit.
Everywhere I've been in Greece (including at some rather conservative
village churches and convents), they have benches, and most people sit
although there are parts where you must stand. The standing only approach
sounds like a local variation.

>What an Orthodox church would use an organ for I don't want to
>imagine <shudder> ...
They use it to play the music for the choir. But the existence of a choir
in addition to the cantors is not the worst thing, because the organ can't
properly play the notes of the Byzantine scale, so the music comes out all
sickly soundingm.

I appreciate the service purely esthetically, but there's no question that
proper Greek and proper singing are key to the whole thing.

English services are generally grisly.

  -- David
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