ANSWERS TO LITURGICAL QUERIES
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When Priests and Deacons are ordained, they are usually taught how to serve Vespers, Mattins, the Divine Liturgy and the other Sacraments either by older Priests or by attending a Priest's seminary school. Being then assigned to a parish, they come across many unforeseen liturgical and parochial questions. They see that in practice, local traditions and customs play an important part in many services and not everyone performs the services exactly as they were taught. In Greece and Cyprus we see a great diversity in the way the Divine Liturgy is performed as well as the Sacraments of Marriage and Baptism. These differences cannot be found in the liturgical books which only deal with the basic rubrics of the service. The service for Baptism for example is very confusing as the order in modern-day baptisms is not followed according to the service found in the book either for an infant or an adult. Rubrics in Priest's handbooks (Ieratikon) again vary from one publication to another, some giving the common practices used in monasteries whiles others giving the modern practices of parishes in the Country of origin. In villages we see many customs that are not kept in town parishes. Some are superstitious customs, but a great many are pious practices, which although not found in any written form, were Orthodox practices in centuries past and have survived in these small, but pious communities. Of course the Priest should be able to discern which customs are not of Orthodox origin and educate his flock accordingly. All this diversity can be very confusing to many clergy. With the establishment of Orthodox Churches and the ordination of Priests and Deacons in the English speaking west, one cannot expect them to be familiar with the many traditions and customs found in Orthodox countries. If many practices are confusing for clergy in Orthodox countries then how much more are these practices strange and confusing to a British of American born Orthodox Priest? There is a need for uniformity, but at the same time this uniformity should respect the personality of each priest and not turn us into robots where we are programmed to say, move and act in a set manner. The late Blessed Ioannis Fountoulis, a Professor of the Theological faculty at Thessalonica University published 5 books containing 600 questions from priests on liturgical matters. His answers were always very detailed and studied and is considered by many as "The Authority" on liturgical queries. Some of the questions he answered are set below. I have no intention of translating his work or to give a complete copy of his answers. With a few exceptions, most of the answers are based on his answers, but without the studied details and adapted for the English reader. These answers can be a basis for uniformity, but one must always allow for "Economia" when trying to divert from established customs. A newly ordained Priest serving under older Priests should not even try to change things, but just be obedient to the practices he has found in the parish until he himself is established and receives a parish of his own.
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