The post on balancing East and West in our Christian devotion was received with much enthusiasm. Here is a beautiful example of chanting by nuns in a Monastery of northern Greek Mainland (Hsuxastirio Timiou Prodromou Akritoxoriou Sidirokastrou Serron). The Hymn is an extract from a book called “Theotokario” and it is dedicated to the Theotokos, Mary. It is usually chanted in Greek monasteries during the afternoon (after Vespers). The pictures of the video come from a different monastery of Northern Greece (Giannitsa/Pella, Iera Moni Agiou Georgiou Anudrou).
Tag Archive for 'chant'
Images of the grave in darkness are contrasted with the eternal light of Christ and underscored with the ancient Kiev chant, the Kontakion of the Departed, and the chimes and chant of the Orthodox monks in Ukraine.
Give rest, O Christ, to thy servant with thy saints:
where sorrow and pain are no more;
neither sighing but life everlasting.
Thou only art immortal, the creator and maker of man:
and we are mortal formed from the dust of the earth,
and unto earth shall we return:
for so thou didst ordain,
when thou created me saying:
“Dust thou art und unto dust shalt thou return.”
All we go down to the dust;
and weeping o’er the grave we make our song:
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
On Saturday the Christchurch diocesan synod passed the following motion:
That the Common Life Liturgical Commission be asked to provide the text of the verses in the Psalter which have been omitted from the Psalms for Worship in A New Zealand Prayer Book/ He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa, and restore “Israel” and “Zion” where they have been altered, as nearly as possible in the same style.
The word “Israel” occurs about 60 times and the word “Zion” occurs about 40 times in the original Psalter. An example of the NZ version: “O that deliverance for God’s people (original “Israel”) would come forth from Jerusalem (”Zion”)” (Psalm 14:8).
Explanation for the way the psalter is found in the prayer book is given on page 195 of the prayer book: “Some omissions have been made on the grounds that we are not making a new translation of the Book of Psalms, but providing psalms suitable for Christian worship.” When this version was produced in the 1980s there was some concern that references to “Israel” and “Zion” would be interpreted in a particular political way into the contemporary situation in the Middle East. No consistent position was formulated however (”Israel” is removed from the Benedictus p.39 etc. and included in the Nunc Dimittis p.47 etc.). There was outrage and hurt in the Jewish community, both in New Zealand and internationally, at the reworking of the psalter in this manner. The Auckland Diocese requested a text with “Israel” and “Zion” restored. I would be happy to host a digital version of that on this site. Now the Christchurch Diocese has added its voice to that. And also to making the imprecatory material available.
The New Zealand version was one of the first to take care that language be inclusive both for God and for humans. It uses the masculine “Lord,” however, for the Hebrew יהוה (YHWH – Yahweh) and does not distinguish this from אֲדֹנָי (Adonai). I would hope that in any future versions we can have a deep discussion which respects the inherited taonga (treasure) fully, is as inclusive as possible both in relation to humans and to God, and works harder at translating יהוה, all the while retaining the ability to continue our great chanting tradition.
Yesterday the founder of Facebook’s Praying People Page posted Rev. Mark Brown indicated that he was interested that 71% of the over 5,500 members are female. This is made even more interesting because this almost 3 to 1 imbalance is not the case on my Facebook Liturgy Page where the ratio is 54% male, 46% female. I have asked Mark for the further breakdown of his statistics and await his reply. In the Liturgy Page the genders are essentially evenly balanced except in the 35 to 44 year age-band where 13% are males in this age-band and 7% are female.
I also await Mark’s reflection on what he finds interesting and what he draws from this interest. I was fascinated by the analysis in the over fifty comments on Mark’s page. It is typified by the comment “Guys just hide their emotions, and most think it’s a sign of weakness to pray.” Not only was there an identification of emotions with females (this was questioned), but there appears an identification of praying with emotions (which was not questioned!)
What the comments highlight for me is that there are Christian communities whose worship identifies prayer and emotions and that this is more attractive to women – tending to a 3:1 ratio. And that Facebook’s Praying People Page mirrors such an approach.
Liturgy, on the other hand, good liturgy, should not encourage such dichotomies. Good liturgy is not about either-or, it is always both-and. Everyone should be able to find their place in good liturgy which should seamlessly bring together rational and emotional, fixed and spontaneous, young and old, male and female. There should be space in the liturgy for those who arrive rejoicing as well as those who arrive distressed. Both-and. I am encouraged that the statistics for the Facebook Liturgy Page supports this positive vision.
My reflections are reinforced by discussion following my post on tweeting prayers to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. There, again, I notice some comments from people holding a dichotomy in their understanding between saying prayers written by others (including Psalms and the Lord’s Prayer) and praying prayers spontaneously from where a person is at that moment. The liturgical tradition does not divide it into this either-or, but supports both-and. Matthew 6:9 presents the Lord’s Prayer as a model for prayer, while Luke 11:2 enjoins us to pray the Lord’s Prayer as given. Both are valid. Both are important. Praying the prayer as Jesus gives it to us and using it as a model for personal and community prayer.
I suspect that even those in the either-or camp happily sing songs that others have written – probably even including pieces of psalms and other biblical material (and occasionally some material that I might find personally questionable and would much rather be singing something from scripture). A lot will sing anything projected up on the screen. What the either-or camp may not be aware of (and others also) is that until relatively recently we did not sing at the liturgy – the liturgy was sung. Speaking rather than singing/chanting words at the liturgy would have surprised Christians most of our history. So those who are happy to sing anything placed before them, but balk at the idea of praying any fixed prayers from the liturgical tradition would have happily participated in a service where most was sung 
Does my vision for inclusive worship – in which young and old, men and women, happy and sad, all participate equally, nourishing mind and heart – does this resonate with your own hopes? Does anything from what I have written above echo in your own experience?
The CD Chant: Music For The Soul by the Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz (Holy Cross Abbey) is a surprising hit. It made the top of the charts in Europe. In Austria it reached double platinum, and in Germany gold. It appeared amongst the Top 10 hits from the USA to New Zealand.
The primary motivation of the 80 monks living in this monastery has been for “God’s words to reach the ears of ordinary people.” The abbey, founded in 1133 by St. Leopold III Margrave of Austria, is located about 15km from Vienna. The story of their entering a CD competition began with someone spotting one of the monk’s youtube video on their chanting and emailing the monastery about the competition. They entered the competition on the last day possible.
Experts in Gregorian chant may compare the style here with Solemes or even dislike Teutonic pronunciation of Latin. I have a reasonable collection of CDs with Gregorian chant – I found this particular CD a mellow, gentle introduction to this tradition. If you are looking for an introduction to this meditative musical prayer tradition I would look no further than this CD.
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