MB said:LOL! Can you imagine if a liturgical censor were assigned to each
service? Actually, in some Slavic churches, that's the role of the
grandmothers or babushki, who will whack you with a walking stick if
you're doing something "wrong." And priests are not excluded. A well-
respected archimandrite friend of mine was disallowed by a babushka
to venerate an icon in a Russian church (i.e. in Russia), because she
wasn't convinced he was Orthodox (in spite of his beard, cassock,
etc.) -- she put her cane between him and the icon.
Maybe that's really why they started building choir lofts only a
couple centuries ago and then, in some urban churches, only hiring
professional singers for the services, to distance themselves from
the angry cane thrashings taking place down below
MB
Professor Mark is a great guy! It must be wonderful to be in his classes at St. Vlads.
This is taken from Orthodox Psalm - a Yahoo group for Orthodox Musicians
