Categories: orthodox-life, hymns, parish-life
Date: 14 August 2007 13:49:11
ee asked an interesting question in the comments of the post below:
Do you do congregational hymn singing in Orthodox churches, or is it just the choir that sings? I'm interested!Any Orthodox readers out there? Chime in with your experiences in the comments please.
From my small travels, it does vary. The few Slavic parishes I have visited [which have been non-English liturgies and generally attended by older folk: not sure if it is different in other parishes] have generally left it to the choir: they are often even quiet during the prayers and responses ["Lord, have mercy"; "And to your spirit";...], only chanting the Lord's Prayer and the Creed. Most of my experiences have been in Arabic parishes, where, while the choir takes a lead role, the entire congregation joins in with the hymns and various responses.
The services in Eastern Orthodox Churches are also rather different to what may be experienced in Western churches: it was a big shift for me, and still is at times. Looking at the hymns alone differences can be noted as although they have fixed places in the Liturgy, there are fixed hymns for certain days, and certain weeks, and there are several fixed hymns that work on an eight or eleven week cycle. As an example, this page shows the Psalms used on most Sundays and then Feast Days for the first variable section of hymography [while we are an Antiochian parish, we follow the Slavic usage here for some reason!], and this page shows the hymns for the third variable section [again, we follow the Slavic usage: I do love singing the Beatitudes each Sunday]. There are a lot of books to consult!
Another large difference is that the entire service, or at least most of it, is chanted, and there is constant "dialogue" [for want of a better word] between clergy and people. In other parts of the service, the clergy have their prayers and the congregation have their own, for instance, in Matins [Morning Prayer] there is a large intercessory prayer prayed by the clergy: in our parish, while this is happening, "Lord, have mercy" [in English and Greek (Kyrie Eleison)] is chanted continually by the parish over and over again. You can see the level of involvement of the congregation from this page which contains the text of the Divine Liturgy [the Eucharist/Holy Communion Service].
Hope that is of some help, and answers your question: any more, feel free to ask.