Elder Nazarius service: Vespers and Matins
In love for Blessed Nazarius, Abbot of Valaam Monastery, I wanted to try to include some small reference to him in our Sunday services this past Sunday, since it was his day, February 23rd. However, because this was one of the Sundays of the Triodion, the Sunday of Last Judgment, as we near Great Lent, […]
St. John Kochurov service: Vespers, Vigil, Matins, Liturgy
St. John Kochurov was a priest who service in the missionary diocese of America under St. Tikhon in the early 20th century. He was mainly in Chicago, and besides being responsible for the building of the Holy Trinity Cathedral there, he also was influential in helping start up several parishes in Illinois, including in Streator, […]
Updating Hymnography for the American Saints
We prepare to celebrate All Saints of North America this Sunday. The hymnography is mostly fine, but needs two major updates. One, relatively easy to fix: it is quite limited in the names it mentions, probably a product of when the service was written. That is fairly easy to fix, and not necessitating a mention […]
Service for St. Tikhon of Moscow
We celebrate the glorification of our beloved father Tikhon tomorrow, who did much to establish and organize the Church in America, but also guided the Russian Church through some of the most tumultuous times in its history, the Russian Revolution. It is likely too late for this to be of help to anybody for this […]
Women in Orthodox Hymnography
Without a doubt, the spirit and tone of some of our hymnography comes across wrong to today’s hearer, especially when it comes to women. I do not condone the rewriting of hymns to just to pacify modern sensitivities, but rewording (and even just re-punctuating) can often bring out the original, beautiful intent of the text. […]