Seems to me you’re trying to push your own American (or Canadian) nationalism into the Divine Liturgy. Personally I wouldn’t go to a Ukraine liturgy (or Greek liturgy) unless it was in Ukraine (or Greek). Experiencing that culture is part of the worship, I would think; why would you want to corrupt an old tradition? Besides, there are already plenty of parishes where you can worship in English, if that is the most important thing to you. How would you feel if you were in Ukraine and the only English liturgy there was being “vernacularized” into Ukraine?
If memory serves me correctly, people started leaving in droves after Vatican II in the 60’s and 70’s as soon as it was announced that the Latin Mass would be vernacularized. Today it seems the English Mass has the lowest attendance rate among many other vernaculars. Just saying.
Your words should be written in gold and placed over the front doors of every EC parish!!
). And when he FINALLY arrived, his mother in law went to confession and then did something quite unbecoming, raising her voice loudly so that all in Church could hear about how bad he was and how the priest should read him the riot act. That was inappropriate, but I wanted to applaud her!People were already leaving in droves before the venacularization of the Roman Mass. It was one of the reasons they vernacularized in the first place.
There is one parish in my area which does not have a full English Liturgy. Although they are supported by a Korean Roman Catholic congregation who rents the parish for a Korean Mass twice a weekend. I heard they’re also struggling with youth attendance but the older generation is the one holding on to the language.
Wouldn’t the calendar also be an obstacle? Most people who grew up here and have friends here would want to celebrate the holidays with their non-Ukrainian friends. So Christmas is December 25, and Good Friday should fall on the day the Government set as a holiday, which is the Good Friday on the Gregorian Calendar.While there are people who are definitely nationalistic, it could just be that they prefer their ethnic language because their EC Church is, as is common in the East, the complete expression of their spiritual/cultural identity. There are those who speak English in all other social contexts, but prefer to have the DL in Ukrainian.
I know many young people in the UGCC who are against English Liturgies and would never attend them. Others are different.
Your point, however, is very well taken. Growing up a cradle UGCC, our Church was always “OURS” that is, “Ukrainian.”
It is, in fact, the Church of Kyiv which has always had more than just Ukrainians/Ruthenians as members. I’m proud that this Church is attracting people from other nationalities. It means that it is fulfilling its Christian mission.
My parish of St Nicholas in Toronto is an all-Ukrainian parish and will be so for the foreseeable future.
And it’s also about the calendar. My friends who go there traditionally use the “I’m busy at work” to attend Church in the years when the date of Easter, for example, is different.
My dear friend, for whose children I am the Godparent, let’s call him “Ian” (because that is his name) simply couldn’t get his sorry cludius maximus out of bed to come to Church for the morning Great Friday services. His mother in law asked me to call him from Church (I went outside with my BB). It was 11:00 am and he still wasn’t ready with the family . . .
And I’ll admit that I lost it and called him a few names. (Is that really sinful, according to Aquinas though?
But Ian, like others, is so used to NOT going to Church using the calendar as an excuse that even when it is a year when the holidays are together, he and his family have trouble.
And that is worrisome to the nth degree!
Alex
I’ve been trying something but nothing I’ve planted on the ground has sprung up, much less bear fruit. I know our parish is trying to position the English Liturgy as the “main” Liturgy, meaning it will be celebrated later in the day rather than earlier. Just because kids love to sleep in on Sundays, its hard to get them to Church at 8:30am. But I’ve gotten used to the schedule, and I like the fact that there’s so much more time in the day afterwards to do something else.
Same old one sided arguments. If it's Spanish or Polish, feel free to be as ethnic as you want, but if it's something like Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak, Slovene,Lithuanian etc then you get accused of trying to create an exclusive ethnic club.