OCA

[Hoonbaba]

Quick question:

Do all OCA parishes have liturgy in English?

-Jason

 

[The Prokeimenon!]

To the best of my knowlege, yes. I'm sure there are a few exceptions, but every OCA Church I've been to has been completely in English.

Moses

 

[Reader Nilus]

No, there are some that are still Slavonic.
Jeff the Finn

 

[Michael G]

There are some OCA parishes which do use Slavonic, and there are some Romanian OCA parishes which use Romanian, and there are some Bulgarian OCA parishes which use Bulgarian. However, the majority of OCA parishes do use english.

 

[ufonium2]

My parish does the whole service in English, but also repeats certain "high points" in Slavonic. We are mostly converts or middle-aged Russians with great English, but we have a few older Russians and recent immigrants who speak no English at all. Doing this makes the service maybe ten minutes longer, but it's the least we can do for folks who stand there for over an hour not understanding a word of what's going on.

 

[Oblio]

We are OCA.

If we have someone attending who understands it, we will have a Litany or two in Slavonic and we will sing the refrains: Gospodi pomilui (Lord have Mercy) or ti Mi Gospodi (to Thee O' Lord). Sometimes Fr. will intone Wisdom, let us attend and Peace be unto all in Slavonic, but that is the extent of our bi-lingual Liturgy.

 

[Michael G]

My parish, St. Innocent Apostle to the Americas, is OCA and we use about as much slavonic as Oblio's does, or less. I have no problem with singing Gospodi Pomuli or a little a bit of other things in Slavonic. I do like to see most of the liturgy, however, prayed in the vernacular language, which in this country is English. Orthodoxy has always taught that the liturgy should be prayed in the vernacular and not in a language which is foreign to the people.

 

[Orthosdoxa]

I know of a Romanian church under the auspices of the OCA that does the Liturgy in Romanian. However, as everyone has said, most OCA churches use English.

 

[Eusebios]

Even our local Romanian parish (under OCA) uses english, as does the Antiochian parish and our small OCA parish (which is mostly convert with a few Russians) uses primarily english, though we will use multi-lingual refrains to some litanies. At PAscha, we will once again break out the foreign tongues doing "Christ is risen, Indeed he is risen" in as many languages as possible.
As Iconographer has aptly pointed out however, it has long been the tradition of the Orthodox Church to bring the divine services to the people in their native tongue.
His unworthy servant,
Eusebios.