Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Scenes from the consecration of the Cathedral of Magadan

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4 comments:

mjl said...

You know, it's too bad Russian hasn't caught up with the West and built Space-Age/Cube cathedrals with guitar masses. I feel sorry for them [/end factitious text :-P]

9/07/2011 10:02 PM
Dale said...

As a non-Russian, I simply do not understand bad opera as worship. I do know that this, my lack of Russianess, may be considered by many readers here as a defect, but thus it is.

Having said the above, at least this is momentarily interesting (I especially like the photos of the local politicians, whose looks go beyond even boredom); And in some ways it is uplifting and when done by real Russians it seems to work within their cultural background, but what I do not understand is why, in the States, a bunch of very hairy ex-Episcopalians would try to mimic, badly, all of this.

9/12/2011 2:34 PM
John (Ad Orientem) said...

Dale,
What ex-Episcopalians are you referring to? I gather you have little use for liturgy. Your comment strikes me something I would expect from an NCR op-ed promoting the superiority of Mass for Guitar and Bongos in D-Minor over Mozart. As for "Russianess," Orthodoxy is not an ethnic club in case you missed the memo (though in fairness I fear some Orthodox also missed the same memo). There are Greeks, Serbs Ukrainians, Arabs, Romanians, Bulgarians, Czechs, Poles, Japanese... and yes, American Orthodox.

Granted, our liturgy has not changed much in 1600 years. But I see that as advantage when considering the liturgical and doctrinal chaos in the Anglican and Roman Communions.

In ICXC
John

9/12/2011 3:18 PM
Dale said...

I sincerly doubt that bad western opera music was all that popular 1600 years ago for liturgical worship. Please let us try to separate fantasy from reality.

As for Byzantine Orthodoxy not being an ethnic club...Good Lord, where have you been hiding all your life? Obviously not in any Greek or Serbian parishes! I well remember in St Simeon's Serbian club in Las Vegas, Nevada, when non-Serbs were told they were not welcome to attend.

Please remember that Orthodoxy considers any tradition that is not Byzantine to be "baggage."

As for hairy ex-Episcopalians, I know several, especially in the more Russian cultural "churches." Their level of self-loathing would be offensive except it is so comical. Fancy dress has always been a specifically British tradition.

9/12/2011 4:43 PM

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