Benedictsgal, I hate to disillusion you, but the Patriarch has nothing to do with English Masses. As far as I know, no Church authority takes any interest in what is done in Masses that are attended primarily by foreigners. Most who attend these Masses are tourists or third country nationals such as diplomats or laborers. Fortunately our Masses are celebrated by good orthodox priests, but they just don’t have any interest in music. My husband is in the foreign service, and we have lived in six different countries. Music at English speaking Masses in every one of the countries (countries which are not English speaking) in which we have lived has come from old Oregon Catholic Press missalettes that someone picked up somewhere. In two of the countries in which we lived, I volunteered to do the music myself, even though I had to play the piano, which I dislike intensely. Here we are lucky to have a British diplomat who is a fine organist, but he does like to go on vacation once in while. On Christmas we will be subjected to the guitar music which is standard at English Masses around here unless we can get seats at one of the small monastaries in the area (where the Mass with be celebrated in French). American diplomats are not allowed to go to Bethlehem. I feel so embarrassed as an American that all of our liturgical bad habits have spread all over the world especially to third world countries. They think that anything from America is just great! Some of members of our community are trying to introduce the St. Michael Hymnal because it has standard hymns that have not been bowdlerized into political correctness, and still has some of the less offensive modern songs for those who want them. There is no budget for this, so we are trying to figure out how to pay for enough books for our little chapel. I can tell you from experience that if we can raise the standard of church music in the United States, it will have an affect all over the world.
