Do Eastern Catholics use Church Slavonic?

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Balcerhouse

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I only have one Eastern Catholic church in my area and it’s not actually very near by but I think I’d really like to start learning prayers and maybe even reading the bible in Church Slavonic. Mostly I’d like to out of curiosity because of having a Slavic family background. Anyway, there’s basically nothing out there Eastern Catholic resource wise thought I’d ask.
 
No, Many don’t.

Ukrainian GCC parishes may, but also use Ukrainian and English. Ruthenian parishes can, but few do; as many use Spanish, while most use English. Romanians might; I’m unsure. Russians may, but I don’t know if they do.

Melchites use Arabic and English. They might also use some others, but not church slavonic.

None of the Syriac churches do; They use Aramaic, Arabic, English, and maybe, some Indian languages.

The Copts, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Armenians don’t, either.
 
Balcerhouse said:
I only have one Eastern Catholic church in my area and it’s not actually very near by but I think I’d really like to start learning prayers and maybe even reading the bible in Church Slavonic. Mostly I’d like to out of curiosity because of having a Slavic family background. Anyway, there’s basically nothing out there Eastern Catholic resource wise thought I’d ask.
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Very rarely. We had a Divine Liturgy in Slavonic last October, but it was a special event, and the first time our parish had done so in many years. Occasionally, we’ll have a smattering in Slavonic, but it is insignificant.
 
The Eastern Catholics in my country (Byzantine Church of Croatia) use old Slavonic, but that doesn’t help you, I suppose.
 
Many of the Byzantine Catholics and nearly all of Byzantine Orthodoxes who are Slavs (+ Hungarians and one eparchy in Romania) do along with their vernacular and sometimes even solely, but in their homeland and in the USA quite rarely as effect of loosing (betraying) their (national) identity.
 
If they use, it is nearly solely Church Slavonic. Remember that Church Slavonic has many “redactions” which (slightly) differ in pronunciation and some minor aspects.

There is also Old Slavonic language but this is used nearly by nobody. This is/was “real” language once spoken by people in their everyday life, not semiartificially constructed.
 
I meant Church Slavonic, which originated from Old Slavonic, so did all other Slavic languages, such as my native. Today old Slavonic is only taught in Universities, but I don’t think there are any evryday users.
 
No, now it is an extinct language but in some areas some parishes are able to have also litugy in Old Slavonic. This is really very rare. Language “normally” used in churches is Church Slavonic, quite often combined with vernacular, but in the USA English often dominates.

Does someone know what is the situation for example with Ukrainians in Argentina or Brazil?
 
The Russian Catholic church in NYC uses a smattering of Slavonic here and there.
 
Russian GCC in Australia use roughly half Slavonic, half English.
 
Nestor_kea said:
No, now it is an extinct language but in some areas some parishes are able to have also litugy in Old Slavonic. This is really very rare. Language “normally” used in churches is Church Slavonic, quite often combined with vernacular, but in the USA English often dominates.

Does someone know what is the situation for example with Ukrainians in Argentina or Brazil?
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not dead. It is a synthetic language, and was never truly a living language. Most Slavs can understand it reasonbly well.
 
babochka said:
Very rarely. We had a Divine Liturgy in Slavonic last October, but it was a special event, and the first time our parish had done so in many years. Occasionally, we’ll have a smattering in Slavonic, but it is insignificant.
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I hope that maybe there will be another opportunity for a Slavonic Liturgy up there again. We don’t use any Slavonic within the liturgy at my parish. We do get a smattering of it with para-liturgical hymns.
 
MorEphrem said:
The Russian Catholic church in NYC uses a smattering of Slavonic here and there.
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Ditto for the Russian Catholic Church in SF.
With previous priests there was more. With Fr Eugene we had a considerable amount of Slavonic, plus Arabic. 🙂
 
ivan94 said:
I meant Church Slavonic, which originated from Old Slavonic, so did all other Slavic languages, such as my native. Today old Slavonic is only taught in Universities, but I don’t think there are any evryday users.
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Nije istina, ja kao Grkokatolik Križevačke Eparhije, znam da je većina naših bogoslužja na hrvatskom, ali imamo neke molitve na crkvenoslavenskom npr. kažemo “Gospodi pomiluj!”
 
The one video of a UGCC litugy in Argentina I saw was using Curch Slavonic. Articles mention both Spanish and Church Slavonic. being used in Argentina.

You’ll find that, in areas of majority Spanish Speakers, Spanish becomes dominant, with Slavonic secondary, after a generation or two. In the US, buth the Ruthenian and Ukrainian Tserkovnij have Spanish “on the menu”…

The slavic byzantine policy is to use either church Slavonic, or when just cause exists, an approved vernacular translation. The majority of the attending laity using language X as a first language is generally just cause, so long as X isn’t a slavic language.
 
Balcerhouse said:
I only have one Eastern Catholic church in my area and it’s not actually very near by but I think I’d really like to start learning prayers and maybe even reading the bible in Church Slavonic. Mostly I’d like to out of curiosity because of having a Slavic family background. Anyway, there’s basically nothing out there Eastern Catholic resource wise thought I’d ask.
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Slavonic:
metropolitancantorinstitute.org/ChurchSlavonic.html

Slavonic Recordings:
metropolitancantorinstitute.org/RecordedMusic.html

Divine Liturgy in Slavonic (Text):
metropolitancantorinstitute.org/servicebooks/DivineLiturgySlavonicComplete.pdf

Slavonic Hymns:
metropolitancantorinstitute.org/Publications.html
 
Aramis said:
Most Slavs can understand it reasonbly well.
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This holds for those Slavs who are used to listen to it in churches or have at least cultural connection (or simmilar language). For those not aware it is not so easy. I can speak two Slavic languages on level of mother tongue and understand many of them quite good and I can tell it is not so easy. I you have long enough text then you usually can understand something but word simmilarities can be (very) confusing and grammar from one language is not aplicable into another so if you don’t have kind of some passive knowledge it can happen that you would be able only to “guess” few words but not understand.
 
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