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Important issues Δελτία Τύπου Language in Worship - Press release after the event
Important issues Δελτία Τύπου Language in Worship - Press release after the event | Language in Worship - Press release after the event |
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.jpg "to_zitima_tis_glossas_afisa(1).jpg") On Saturday, January 21, the Volos Academy for Theological Studies of the Holy Metropolis of Demetrias and the Metropolis’ Youth Association jointly organized a one-day conference on:
“The Issue of Language in Worship.”
Metropolitan Ignatius of Demetrias opened the conference by describing the contours of the debate on this issue (all sides share a common Orthodox faith and love for its worship; it is an intra-Orthodox issue, etc.),
while the president of the Youth Association, Maria Athanasiadou, followed by highlighting the eucharistic dimension of the Church’s worship and language.
 In the first session of
the conference—which was moderated by the director of the Volos Academy,
Dr. P. Kalaïtzidis—, Constantine Holevas, a political scientist, began
with a paper entitled “What We Need is Catechism, Not Translation.”
Speaking from a linguistic perspective, he outlined the problems
inherent in translating the liturgical language (problematic rendering
of some of the terms and phrases of the services, etc.).  He emphasized
that a change of this sort would threaten the unity of the flock, and
argued that what the Church really needed to do was offer catechism
about what was happening during worship. In this vein, he also mentioned
the problems in the education that is offered in public schools, which
leads to ignorance of the rich Greek language.
Metropolitan Paul of Sisanion and Siatista spoke next on "The Issue of Language in Worship and Its Pastoral Dimension."
 The Metropolitan covered several aspects of the issue through personal reminiscences and references to the contributions made to liturgical issues by the late Metropolitan of Kozani, Dionysius (Psarianos). He began by outlining several troubling aspects of the ecclesiastical life of the people of God—the lack of catechism, the problematic criteria for the reading and study of the Fathers and liturgical texts, the poor comprehension of the liturgical language, etc. He then related some of the attempts he has made in his Metropolis, purely out of pastoral concern, to render the gospel and liturgical services understandable to contemporary man, utilizing translations and simplified forms of the language in order to offer answers to believers’ questions and needs.
In the second session of the conference—moderated by Metropolitan Ignatius—Stavros Zouboulakis began by addressing the question "Is it Necessary to Understand the Language of Worship?" Beginning with the fact that people today now find it difficult to understand the liturgical language, the presenter offered historical examples from the three monotheistic religions pertaining to the need to understand the language of worship (e.g., the developments in the Roman Catholic Church that led to a more open and inclusive decision on the language of worship, beyond Latin, at the Second Vatican Council; the difficulty within Greek-speaking Christendom, beginning as early as the 8th century, in understanding the liturgical language) in order to highlight the timelessness of the problem. Critiquing the idea of a language’s “holiness,” the presenter spoke about a kind of mystification of worship, which resulted in an incomprehensible language and inaudible prayers. At the inter-Christian level today, there is great difficulty understanding why the liturgical language remains inaccessible to man, a problem which is due to the modern condition of the emergence of the subject. 
In the last paper of the conference, Dr Fotis Schoinas, spoke on “Liturgical Language: Its Value and Tradition.” Discussing the anthropological presuppositions of the subject in patristic theology (supremacy of mind, nous over reason dianoia), the presenter offered a philosophical approach to the issue, speaking about the non-transmittable personal experience in relation to the supremacy of experience, as well as the limitations of liturgical language vis-à-vis its comprehension. At the end of each session, sufficient time was allotted for the exchange of views and questions from the audience.
The conference ended with concluding remarks by Metropolitan Ignatius on the importance and value of dialogue on the issue of the liturgical language.
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