A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY
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| Volume 6 Number 37 - Tuesday, September 14th, 2004 |
A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY |
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The Orthodox Christian News Service |
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Orthodox Church to introduce modern Greek to services By Patrick Quinn ATHENS, Greece, Sep. 9 (Associated Press)- Greece's conservative Orthodox Christian Church will introduce modern Greek services for the first time in an effort to attract younger worshippers, a spokesman said Thursday. Church leader Archbishop Christodoulos took the decision because he is worried that churchgoers cannot understand New Testament readings during the liturgy. "The archbishop has noticed over the years that there was a problem," Rev. Epifanios Ikonomou told The Associated Press. "It is being done to deal with an existing need among the flock." Ikonomou, a spokesman for Christodoulos, said a pilot program to replace antiquated Greek language will begin in Athens starting on Sept. 19. If it was successful, he said the Holy Synod - an assembly of bishops that governs the church of Greece - will consider expanding it. "There was a desire from young people for this," Ikonomou said. During liturgies, the New Testament is read in a form of ancient Greek known as "koine" - the common tongue spoken by Greeks when the Gospels were set down in that language in the first few centuries following the establishment of Christianity. "It was written so that everyone at that time could understand what was said," Ikonomou said. "We are doing the same now." Under the program, the New Testament reading will first be in antiquated Greek and then in modern Greek. Greek Orthodox Churches around the world regularly read the New Testament in the language of the country, including English in the United States. "It is a step that helps communication with the faithful," the Athens daily Ta Nea wrote in its main editorial. "It is without doubt a positive step toward modernizing the church and having it adapt to present day reality." More than 90 percent of Greece's 11 million people are baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church. Reading the New Testament in modern Greek is the latest attempt by Christodoulos in recent years to boost attendance in churches, especially among younger adults and teenagers.
Other innovations
have included telling young men it was acceptable
for them to wear earrings in church, and holding a
weekly service in English at a church in central
Athens for foreign residents. |
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