alek0

Calendar issue is quite amusing. Ever wondered why October revolution was actually in November?

I admit that as a kid I loved the difference - with catholic father and eastern orthodox motehr, we celebrated everything twice, and celebrating holidays didn't actually involve any religious rituals, just lots of good food (yum!). My Mom is a great cook and makes fantastic cakes. Almost makes one able to tolerate Mythmas...

Ernest Sparks

WMC,

I'm with you, though I would extend the delight to Greek and other eastern traditions. I am wondering what the "ravishing" music is you refer to: old znamenny chant, 15th-17th century polyphony, 18th century Russo-Italian baroque style, 19th century
St. Petersburg style, or maybe 20th century John Tavener, etc.

Eastern Orthodoxy can't be separated from its concepts, which includes its theology, ecclesiology, soteriology, mysteriology and asceticism. Otherwise, it is simply meaningless. What a "good" religion does is transport you away from an earthly mind and propel you into a totally different reality. Ask an Orthodox christian about "repentance" sometime (yes!). By the way, this answers the question about that old calendar, the one that has operated with 36,525 days in each century (instead of the proper 36,524.25 days) for so long. The reason is that astronomy and the commercial world is irrelevant. A church synod decided the rule back around the 4th-5th centuries, and it was inspired by "God's will". No such body determined later to do otherwise, just some Roman pope, and he carries no weight with them.

Ernie

Waning Moon Conrad

I agree. The point I'm making is that if you're going to have gibberish, at least let it be magnificent sounding.

Personally, I don't think it's gibberish, on the other hand, as I've said, I don't believe in it either.

Waning Moon Conrad

I wouldn't have a clue - unfortunately! I saw a doco and loved the music and I thought the iconography in their churches is absolutely stunning.

I agree but what I'm looking at is the ritual as such, the music and the aesthetics. It's possible to be attracted to that without actually believing or to choose a denomination based on the emotional appeal to one's sense of aesthetics.

This sort of thing, for me, has a sense of the sacred where pop music or gospel rock - where one "get's into the lord" with a grin on your face and your hips twiddling - does not.

Ernest Sparks

Pop whoop-de-doo in church is more understandable from a protestant christian perspective: nothing stands between the individual and God, so any means of expression is as valid as any other. It is odd that the catholic church has relinquished its historic cultural role for the sake of pulling the youngins back through attempted seduction. But it is an old story. A guy named Thomas Day tells some of the historical reasons in a book entitled "Why Catholics Can't Sing: The Culture of Catholicism and the Triumph of Bad Taste", at least as far as catholics in the U.S.A. are concerned.

Both catholic and orthodox ought to aim at a different perspective: the church as the purveyor of divine grace through its mysteries, which include the sacraments and use of icons and other sanctified objects. Personal piety is silent. Instead ROs stand for two hours on Sunday for God's liturgy- no benches!

ManM

You know, it's not always gibberish. While in college, I had the honor of singing in the choir of St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Church in Atlanta. The majority of the music was translated into English. And I can tell you, the Anaphora by Arkhangelsky always gave me goose bumps.

Ernest Sparks

Aleksandr Arkhangelsky (1846-1924) was an important Russian choral composer during the Romantic period.
a RealPlayer bit by him