I added some new links to my list...

Among then a funny, yet somehow sad look at what the western Catholic and Protestant churches have experimented with in the way of liturgical vestments. It is not another blog of mine, rather that of someone else who seems to have an eye for finding those garish liturgical vestments. :-)

http://badvestments.blogspot.com/

Our future Metropolitan......

I worry about the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church, more commonly known in the US as the Byzantine Catholic Church, Sui Juris. If the past pattern of selecting and elevating bishops who later become Metropolitans, our next Metropolitan would be Bishop William by virtue of seniority of elevation to the eparchial position.

Sadly, it seems that experience, orthodox views, and the will of the laity are not criteria for selecting the leader of our church. The Synod, consisting of three current bishops and one bishop emeritus, make the critical spiritual decision for all the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholics in the Pittsburgh Metropolia. Kind of a scary thought that these four men have such awesome power and that the choice they make will more likely than not be based upon which religious order (Fransican) the candidate is a member of rather than their positions regarding orthodoxy in Eastern Catholicism.

+Metropolitan Basil M. Schott+

Friday was the funeral for Metropolitan Basil who passed away a week before.
Video is from: www.stnickbyz.com posted on Youtube.
More pictures are available on the St Nicholas Byzantine page on Facebook.

This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it!

Христос Воскресе!
Hristos a înviat!
Cristo ha resucitado!

Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs, He granted life!

Some video of the Romainian Divine Liturgy

In mid December, the first regular Divine Liturgy for the Romaian Greek Catholic mission (Eparchy of Canton, OH) celebrated at the Ruthenian Cathedral of St. Mary (Eparchy of Van Nuys, CA).

Manhattan Delaration Link

St Mary Romanian Catholic mission will be at the Cathedral of St Mary

starting Nov 15, 2009 the Romanian Catholic mission parish of St Mary in los Angeles will be celebrating Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Sherman Oaks, CA at 11:30 A.m.

Regarding the alleged less than 1 hour RDL liturgies

Today, a simple divine liturgy for the leave-taking of the feast of the birth of the Theotokos; Divine liturgy consisted of Fr. and myself as cantor. Liturgy was just under 1 hour due to no homily. I didn't rush anything nor did Fr. That said, how then, can a full congregational DL be under an hour with a homily and communion and announcements before the blessing if it takes an hour to celebrate a DL with exactly two people-a priest and cantor (with no homily, communion for one, and no announcements?

Sigh.........

I get into those depressive funks when I think of what our church used to be.... It seems to me that in this modern era our church, the Byzantine Catholic Church (aka the Metropolia of Pittsburgh), had lost its way regarding its past. In short it has worked hard to lose it's past in favor of a culturally neutral (and recently, gender neutral) future. It is bad enough that the Old Church Slavonic is all but banished from liturgical worship, but we also have to contend with an awful gender neutral translation to do it with!!! The over aim of the liturgical and music commission started out with good intentions then took a wrong turn somewhere and wound up with the translation nightmare we are stuck with for the present time. The "new" (actually hundreds of years old) music settings are a welcome return to our heritage, but the gender neutral language is a painful reminder that our bishops are out of step with the current times in regard to returning to orthodoxy in the Eastern Catholic Churches in general.

Memories of St Nicholas, Perth Amboy

A 1950's (?) era photo of the choir at St Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Church in Perth Amboy, NJ. Front row center are Fr Julius Grigassy and Prof. John Petach (my grandfather).

This appears to be Pascha at St Nicholas. The pictures are dated as April 15th, 1956. The parish is still active, but with a considerably smaller congregation than in the 1950's. More recently in 2009, the altar was restored to the proper square shape and an iconstas has been installed

East meets West pilgrimage at St Andrews Abbey in Valyermo

Friday September 25
5:00 PM, Vespers in the Byzantine Chapel (old youth center chapel) at St. Andrew's Abbey.
6:30 PM, Dinner in main refectory
7:30 PM, Conference talk

Saturday September 26
8:30 AM, Matins, Byzantine Chapel
11:00 AM, procession with icon of the Mother of God from the Byzantine Chapel main Abbey area
11:30 AM, Hierarchical Divine Liturgy
1:30 PM, Time for picnic lunches and fellowship
3:00 PM, Icon tours in Byzantine Chapel, and conference at Abbey Welcome Center
5:00 PM, Great Vespers in the Byzantine Rite
7:30 PM, Latin Rite service of Vigils for Sunday in the Benedictine tradition

Sunday September 27
8:30 AM, Matins, Byzantine Chapel
12:00 PM, Mass in the Latin Rite

Vicnaja Pamjat, Fr Stephen Dutko

Though I never met him, I did meet his son David during my many visits to Pittsburgh.
The many Youtube videos bring a sense of family to this remote (in a Rusyn sense) part of the world.



The Paschal canon sung at the funeral of Fr Stephen. The joy is so radiant!

The church renovation

About 3 years ago our church was renovated.
Here are some of the pictures of what the interior looked like before and after.


Before:

Right side view

Left side view

View from choir

After

View of front after renovation

Right side after renovation

Left side after renovation

The whole theme of the "renovation" seems to herald back to an earlier era of iconclasm, or at least minimalism regarding the usage of iconography. We once had walls vibrant with color and iconography, only to see the icons depicting the life of Mary (of whom our parish is named) that were interspersed between the stained glass icons depictiong the life of Jesus, removed and sold, given away to various parties, or who knows what. Now we have austere plain white walls that have no distracting color or iconography to bring the Divine Liturgy to life.

The gold leaf on the back wall of the sanctuary was painted over with "gold" paint. I don't know if that meant it was "gold" in color or actually had some miniscule amount of gold in the pigment.

Christos Razdajetsja!

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
Now we are in the feast of Christmas, til Jan 1 2009.

Perhaps this next year will be a brighter year for our troubled church. I hope and pray that our bishops will look positively toward the future rather than pessimistically as semi-retired Bishop Andrew has done in the Eparchy of passaic.

It was sad news hearing of the closing of St Nicholas in Edison, NJ. For 11 years the parishioners had enjoyed the fruits of their labors in a newly built church only to have a pessimistic and somewhat spiteful bishop callously sell it out from underneath them to pay for undisclosed 'expenses' of the Eparchy.

Our metropolia is shrinking in numbers largely due to our own lack of evangelisation both within and outside our church. We have failed to educate our youth in what our church means to us and how it relates to the world at large. We have become lazy in our own attendance at major feast days opting for other churches.

Oh another post about the sad state of affairs...

It has been so nice NOT posting or really watching the activity at the dysfunctional Byzcath.org BBS. They are still so narrowly focused on the negatives of the RDL that they will never see any positive in anything coming out of the Byzantine (Rusyn) Church. The administrator is so full of himself that he can not see any good coming from the Metropolia of Pittsburgh (BCC) that he himself profess the BCC as his "former" church. I gather he had not the strength to stick with his church and fight rather than jump ship as indicated here: (emphasis by me)

"I should have noted it further, but even comparing the official Liturgicon with a Pew Book is a bit of comparing apples and pears. [Sorry, oranges are already taken.] I don’t give credit to the RDL for restoring the Third Antiphon and the Beatitudes since in my former parish they were in use for the past 25 years (we simply pasted them in the book). For us and a number of other parishes the RDL shortened them. How could you possibly consider that to be a restoration?"

Many time on that BBS I have seen references to RDL liturgies that are under an hour in length. I find it hard to believe especially in the Pennsylvania region where the singing is considerably slower than out here in the Van Nuys Eparchy that the Divine Liturgy could be celebrated so quickly. Our Sunday Liturgies regularly last 1.5 hours.

Forgiveness

11th Sunday after Pentecost.
Byzcath.org posted on the main page:

Forgiveness Requires Forgiveness – The God of all men releases us from the difficulties of our faults, according to the parable. This is what is signified by the forgiveness of the debt of the ten thousand talents. But this happens only on the condition that we ourselves release our fellow servants from the hundred denarii, that is, from the few minor faults they have committed against us. (St. Cyril of Alexandria)

I don't suppose the administrators or moderators are ready to forgive those they banned and reinstate their posting priveleges? Nah! Taht wouldn't be the proper Christian thing to do now, would it? Gotta show "tough love" to those miscreants who dared to oppose the heirarchy of the BYZCATH.org church.

Ahh the bitter fruits.....

From Byzcath.
I thought it so appropriate given how many they have banned or otherwise turned away at what purports to be a "balanced" bbs welcoming to all who desire to learn about eastern Christianity (even if the byzcath name implies a particular affiliation with the Byzantine Catholic Church-Metropolia of Pittsburgh). The administration there is similar to the chief priests and Pharisees in that they refuse to listen to any opinion regarding the changes in the BCC (particularly in regard to the "RDL" promulgated by the metropolitan and bishops of that church.) The hypocrisy did not go unnoticed.


Tenth Week After Pentecost

July 14-20, 2008

Matthew 21:43-46 – “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. But when they tried to arrest him, they feared the multitudes, because they held him to be a prophet. (RSV - Gospel for Thursday)

Is the fruit you bear sweet or bitter? - Although [the chief priests and the Pharisees] were hard of heart and on account of their unbelief and wickedness blunted in their understanding against the Son of God, nevertheless they were unable to deny Jesus’ straightforward statements and understood that all the judgments of the Lord were directed against themselves. So they determined indeed to kill him but feared “the crowd, for they considered Jesus to be a prophet.” But crowds are easily moved, and do not persist in their resolution. The man they now honor and revere as a prophet they later shout against: “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” (St. Jerome)

A correction to the last posting

Seems ByzKat is still banned from byzcath.org till 2010! The devious ones there have changed the "banned" notice to "member" to deceive newcomers of the shameful way they treat posters with whom they disagree...

Ok, one l a s t post on byzcath.org, really......

Rather than post publicly and be banned like so many others:

Perhaps it is summed up by the very posters;

Originally Posted By: Etnick
I'm sure that many OCA and other Orthodox people are far flung and whatnot, but the point is the services are always held. It's not up for debate. It's the Byzantine tradition. If you choose to call Byzantine Catholics as "Ersatz", maybe they are. Sort of a cafeteria mentality. We'll take this and this, but not this or this.

Rome keeps telling the EC's to be authentic. Why aren't they?


We aren't because you say we aren't? By Etnick's standards we fall short?

I don't choose it, these insults and monikers - I accept that is how those with a view to look down on us - often smugly - will put it. And boy do they.

I am happy for you who are located "Where we say men and mankind" that you have found the true fullness of Byzantine praxis by your standards. I wish you well and hope that you flourish and grow in holiness.

I really just cannot take a lot more of ByzCath during our Great Lent though. Some time off may be needed. I love the BCC and on here the way some are taking every opportunity to insult the Byzantine Catholics is just sad. Though it seems to be well accepted and allowable.

It is constant snyde mark and barb and criticism, one right after another, by folks inside and out... I just don't get what the attraction is to focus this VERY negative attention on our small church is all about.

Or perhaps it is the number of excellent posters such as Byzkat who were banned by an administrator, likely due to compelling posts and replies being hard to refute by Byzcath.org administration unwilling to accept the RDL that our Bishops promulgated.

I stopped posting there and mostly stopped reading that board back in Feb 2008 when Byzkat (Jeff Mierzejewski) was banned. Also after defending several friends who were defamed through libel, by malicious posters who remain active on that board (ungcertez, etnick, among others), I, and they (ByzKat, Fr David Petras, Prof Thompson, among others) left the company of that board (some INvountarily and othersvoluntarily), shaking the dust off our feet so to speak.

A closed thread which underscores the hostility found on Byzcath is here:
www.byzcath.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=279617#Post279524]I guess they are right again...
Interestingly, this was the thread which ByzKat was banned. I notice he appears to be "un"-banned. I would guess he and others won't be coming back soon until there is a true metanoia amongst the administration of this bbs, which I would feel is highly unlikely.

Sincerely,
Steve

My last commentary on Byzcath

For the indefinite time being, I have decided that the forum on Byzcath.org isn't worth posting on anymore since they (the administrators and moderators) have rather successfully banned or overtly discouraged those who disagreed with them from ever coming back. It's too bad since that bbs originally was 'home' to many good people of the Eastern Catholic faith, including myself. With the banishment of fellow member and Metropolitan Cantor Institute student ByzKat, back in February 2008, I have decided not to post there. (Not that anyone at that bbs really cares whether one who primarily lurked though did post often enough would leave). I did notice recently that ByzKat has been "un-banned" possibly in a vain hope to lure those of us disgusted by the one sided nature of that sandbox, particularly in the area of derisiveness toward those who held anything of a positive view toward the "Revised Divine Liturgy" or RDL for short.

In the future I will focus more on my travels again and the more positive aspects of the Byzantine (Ruthenian/Rusyn) Catholic Church. In particular I will add more pictres to the blog.

Till then,