The Liturgy of St James: the Trojan Horse of "Liturgical Renewal"

Mystagogy ^ | 10-23-2014 | Fr. Vasilios Spiliopoulos

[NRx]

In recent years, more often and more priests celebrate the so-called Divine Liturgy of St James the Brother of God. The celebration of this liturgy and its sudden appearance in the life of our Church on the one hand shows the secular spirit that pervades many clergy, and on the other hand it serves the plan of the "reformists" of our liturgical life, the self appointed saviors of the Church. The plan is simple: this liturgy has been "baptized" by the reformists as "archaic." However, when it is performed, it is performed in a manner envisioned by the reformists, so that the faithful people are thrilled by the originality and effects, and they conclude, quite wrongly, that this is the archaic and traditional way it supposed to be performed. This leads people to ask their priests to liturgize the same way when they perform the Divine Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil the Great. But is this really so? Can any priest perform any liturgy they want and how they want? Let us analyze this in detail...

[NRx]

This post is likely to be of limited interest to non-Orthodox.

[Kolokotronis]

An interesting, if long, article. I’ve never seen the Liturgy of +James in person. I was under the impression that it is chanted only in Jerusalem and then on a very limited basis (once a year maybe, on the Feast of +James?). What this author seems to be describing is a Vatican 2 Mass, but the Liturgy of +James is about 4 hours long. I’d hardly think The Church is going to be having us attend 4 hour long liturgies but who knows.