"Where Do We Sit?"

Q: I recently attended a wedding at St. Elias. The first thing that I noticed was...there were no pews. Where was I going to sit?  Why is it that St. Elias has no pews?

A:  This is one of the most frequently asked questions on the part of visitors to St. Elias Parish. It seems that most of us have grown so accustomed to fixed seating in the form of benches with backs aligned in rows throughout the nave of the church that we are astounded when we enter a place of worship and find they are not there.

Posture during prayer in the Byzantine tradition:

The most usual posture of the believer is to stand facing the East with arms and hands either by the side of the body, or crossed saltire over the chest. Standing is a posture of respect. It reminds us that each and everyone of us who have been baptized into Christ’s death, have also been baptized into his resurrection. Standing is the posture of the resurrected. There is a general prohibition against kneeling from Pascha to Vespers on Pentecost Sunday, and at that Vespers there is a special service of kneeling. We pray in Christ as His Body with Him as the head of the Body. Christ is raised, and by standing our posture says we are united with Christ in His resurrection. We have been raised with Him, so we stand.

During the weekdays of Great Lent it is the custom to make prostrations and at certain points of the Divine Services to kneel. This posture symbolizes an attitude of penance and repentance. In the Latin rite, as also with some of the Protestants, kneeling can be a sign of adoration. However, adoration in the Byzantine tradition is exemplified by making the sign of the cross and bowing from the waist. When entering the church, we do this thrice; we do this before kissing an icon; we do this when we approach to receive the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion; when we move before the Holy Doors; etc.

Sitting is permitted during readings from the Old Testament, the Epistles, and the Acts of the Apostles. Yet, we stand for the reading of the Gospel. Of course if there is a real need to sit during church services, this is allowed and no one should make a judgment about another’s posture. The benches located about the periphery of the nave and narthex are there for those who have a genuine need to sit. When seated a person should try if possible to keep both feet on the floor and one’s hands on one’s legs just above the knees. Sitting in church is a somewhat formal posture for even while sitting, we should exhibit bodily our respect and reverence.

It should be kept in mind that postures in church involve the whole body of worshipers. Worship in the Body of Christ is not determined by the individual but by the traditional practice of the whole assembly. Look at the priest, look at the deacon and generally speaking take your cue for posture from them.

Why "Sts. Peter & Paul" Together

Question:  I was in church this morning for the Feast of Sts. Peter & Paul.Why do you think that the church chose one day for 2 such prominent apostles? You'd think that they should each have their own day.  Just trying to puzzle out the theological motivations of our early church elders...(pd)

Answer:   pd--The best answer I could find comes from http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/06/29.html--I think it is a good one:

On 29 June we commemorate the martyrdom of both apostles. The date is the anniversary of a day around 258, under the Valerian persecution, when what were believed to be the remains of the two apostles were both moved temporarily to prevent them from falling into the hands of the persecutors.
 

The Scriptures do not record the deaths of Peter or Paul, or indeed any of the Apostles except for James the son of Zebedee (Acts 12:2), but they are clearly anticipated, and from an early date it has been said that they were martyred at Rome at the command of the Emperor Nero, and buried there. As a Roman citizen, Paul would probably have been beheaded with a sword. It is said of Peter that he was crucified head downward. The present Church of St Peter in Rome replaces earlier churches built on the same site going back to the time of the Emperor Constantine, in whose reign a church was built there on what was believed to be the burial site of Peter. Excavations under the church suggest that the belief is older than Constantine.

St. Augustine writes (Sermon 295): Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed. And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles' blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors, their sufferings, their preaching, and their confession of faith.

 QUESTION: St. Elias is an UKRAINIAN Greek-Catholic Church. Please explain why so many of the services are in English?

ANSWER: Serving liturgy in a language that one can understand is a simple principle of common sense.  Common sense also dictates that we take account of where we are in both place and time.  Who would place a roast beef dinner before a 3 month infant and expect them to eat it as if the infant is an adult?  Where is the parish of St. Elias located?  – clearly in Brampton, Ontario where the primary language is English.  To deny this is to have a distorted sense of time and space. 

The liturgy came to be served in Ukrainian precisely for the same reason.  When the brothers Sts. Cyril and Methodius who were Greeks went to preach the gospel among the Moravian Slavs, they did not impose a liturgy in Greek but used a tongue that their hearers could understand.  From these great missionary saints, the Slavic speaking world received an alphabet and a liturgical language, namely Church Slavonic.  This is simply putting into practice in a sensible manner the command of the Lord Jesus to preach the gospel to all nations (Mt 28:19-20).  Let us not forget that the apostles spoke Aramaic as their mother tongue but preached the gospel in Greek so that regardless of language their hearers could hear the good news and be saved.  (Greek in the 1st and 2nd centuries was the common tongue of the peoples living about the Mediterranean Sea.)

The Synod of Ukrainian Catholic Bishops following Vatican II translated the Divine Liturgy from Church Slavonic into Ukrainian in order that those who participate in it could understand it.  They also produced an English language text.  (The current official Ukrainian and English text dates from 1988.) This practice of translation makes liturgical common sense.  They did not prohibit Church Slavonic (the Church Slavonic texts still remain the official texts) but made use of Ukrainian and English not as an ends in themselves but as a means to preaching the gospel and serving the Divine Liturgy.  It is important to recognize that to date all of the texts have not as yet been translated into Ukrainian.  Actually, more of the texts necessary for a full observance of liturgical life exist in English than in Ukrainian.  Yet, the common sense reason that “so much” English is used in the Parish of St. Elias is that English is the language that most of the parishioners function in daily.  This is the language that the children and most of the parishioners are educated in.  Liturgical texts require a rather developed sense of language comprehension.

St. Elias Parish presents a rather harmonious blend of Ukrainian and English.  The Divine Liturgy on Sundays is served one week in Ukrainian and the following in English.  However, Vespers and Matins are served primarily in English with some Ukrainian and Church Slavonic in order to allow these services to be understandable to those who are participating in them.

Finally, we should never, ever lose sight of the command to preach the gospel to all peoples.  Given the time and place, in Ontario the primary language for preaching is English, just as it would be Ukrainian in Ukraine (or German in Germany--see http://sainteliaschurch.blogspot.com/2010/07/greek-catholics-of-germany-conduct.html

QUESTION  "I'm unfamiliar with the veneration of the Gospel by the people at the Lesser Entrance. Is this a local custom or is there a wider tradition of which I'm unaware?" (rm)


ANSWER: While the Liturgikon, only mentions the priest kissing the Gospel Book at the Little Entrance, the custom as practiced at St. Elias derives from popular piety in Western Ukraine.  When it was introduced I do not know.  Fr. Roman has limited this custom to children at the Sunday Divine Liturgy, however, on weekdays it is not uncommon at St. Elias for adults also to join the children.

Another custom that I have noticed is among the Melkite Greek-Catholics when the Gospel is read, people - especially children will stand around the deacon or priest and in some cases hold candles and at the conclusion of the reading kiss the Gospel Book.

I have also noticed that in some Ukrainian Catholic Churches, the Gospel Book is extended to the concelebrating priests and also to the altar servers to kiss.

I was recently at a Greek Orthodox monastery and at the Great Entrance, those closest to the priests [there was no deacon serving] kissed the phelonia of the priests.

1. kissing is a sign of respect and veneration.
2. the rubrics in the liturgical books do not fully account for all of the practices.
3. liturgical movements, especially processions tend to allow for a certain amount of "ad hoc" piety, but when people are put into fixed seating this declines if not stops.

4. notice that this "flexibility" is more prevalent when the clergy come from the bema [sanctuary/altar] into the naos/nave and are in the midst of the assembly.