Hello. My name is Janko P. I am a recovering Christmas pageant victim. This time of year is especially hard for me.
Thanks for sharing that, Janko. I can appreciate your profound message. Last night (Christmas eve), accompanied by my old girlfriend from high school (hereinafter "XGF," for ex-girlfriend), I went to an 11:00 P.M. candlelight service at the Lutheran church (ELCA) in which we were members of the youth choir some 35 years ago. (At the time we sang there because our high school choir teacher, who was a Quaker, had been hired to direct the youth choir. My XGF was Presbyterian, and I was Jewish. Only a Lutheran church could pull that act off at the time.) Last nght, we walked in to find fonts of holy water in the lobby, noted that the bulletin referred to the service as a "Candlelight Celebration of the Eucharist," found that the pastor actually sung part of his role in the service, and noted that they were using common cups (unlike years ago, when they used individual cups). Somehow, over the years, they had developed a heavy sense of liturgy. At least they called the kids who participated acolytes instead of altar boys although, to my chargin, they did a modernistic version of the Lord's Prayer which, I imagine, came from the "Green Book" as opposed to the traditional version. My XGF thought we had walked into a Catholic church by mistake. I was beginning to think they had moved from the ELCA to the LCMS or WELS. But I think I knew it was still ELCA at heart, despite the liturgy - the congregation couldn't sing harmony if they tried. Considering that this was the first time I walked into a church in about ten years (since I last lectured in a church building), I almost came away with an identity crisis . . . (I realize that this post has some esoteric references . . . Lutherans will know what this message means. Those who are not Lutheran should start to listen to old episodes of The Prairie Home Companion.)
A solution? You guys' problem is that you insist on conducting your services in the Vernacular. Now, once a congregation learns (by rote) a particular set of prayers in, say, Hebrew, the most modernist of cantors is slow to change it much, first, because his Hebrew skills aren't up to poetic composition (if he's Israeli, all bets are off) and second, because the congregation will resist mightily! I am hard core classical Reform but Oh! how I love the conservadox service! After all, look at the complete loss of subtlety and grace in the Catholic liturgy after Vatican II. It is a large mistake to think that, just because one can conduct a service, one is capable of COMPOSING a service. This is a mistake that clergy seem most liable to make. I realize you can't realistically require Hebrew, but Latin is not religiously dead, is it?
Re: A solution? What a shame Latin is not so popular as it used to be. It is making somewhat of a comeback in high schools and colleges/universities. Bravo!
