Untrue. The NO does emphasize the community and the Paschal Banquet teachings, but that doesn't mean that the Sacrificial aspects are removed. Perhaps you should listen to (or read) the NO Missal yourself. The Great Amen continues to be the high point, theologically, of the Mass, as all is offered to the Father in union with Christ and the Spirit.
I live right here in America, about one mile from where I was born. The reason Protestantism has made no inroads into our Orthodox community is that it has absolutely nothing to offer us. Its that simple!
Yes, you live in an Orthodox "ghetto" (there is no negative connotations to that word, I presume you know what I mean by "ghetto", my friend). I would posit that you do not have the experience I have in this regard. If you didn't live where you live now, who knows what "inroads" you would have seen.
If I had remained in my Polish neighborhood of my birth, very strongly Catholic, I am sure I could say the same about Protesant inroads. Mass was said in Polish and this time of the year was especially pronounced with Polish traditions and such. I returned this summer to help bury my Dad, and I didn't see a lot of inroads of Protestantism there. The community is smaller, my former local church has closed and consolidated with another due to financial problems and lack of priests. But Polish hymns are still sung. There still is a Catholic "ghetto", albeit smaller than before.
But in fact it is because of the “rite” in many ways. The “rite” is where we learn The Faith in the way that it has been successfully taught for 1700 years at least.
That is true, I cannot deny that we do learn during the Liturgy, but it is not the only place we learn about God. Retaining the same rites without proper catechesis is a "dead" church, a la US Catholicism, 1960. "Follow the motions and you'll go to heaven". The Latin Mass was not, nor is enough, my friend. With Modernism, the Church needed some fresh air. Now someone needs to close the windows, the bugs are coming in...
Regards
“Yes, you live in an Orthodox “ghetto” (there is no negative connotations to that word, I presume you know what I mean by “ghetto”, my friend). I would posit that you do not have the experience I have in this regard.”
Yeah, what would I know with the paternal half of my family being all Irish Catholics, with three theology professors (two at Fordham, one formerly at the Gregorian Institute and now at BC), one a senior Jesuit as cousins, and me having gone to Catholic school and having been an altar boy at both the Orthodox and Latin churhes prior to Vatican II (it was an ecumenical time around here).
“Retaining the same rites without proper catechesis is a “dead” church, a la US Catholicism, 1960.”
But Orthodoxy is thriving with its 1700 year old liturgy. If you get a chance, ask some convert from Protestantism to Orthodoxy, after he has been Orthodox for about 10 years, where and how he learned Orthodoxy. He’ll tell you in the liturgies and devotions of The Church not from books or Sunday School. One learns (and lives) The Faith by praying it!
So, Kolo is absolutely right that the NO is people-centric. The orientation of the priest, alhtough NO can be done ad orienten, is in almost all instances done in versus populi.
The Latin Mass was not, nor is enough, my friend. With Modernism, the Church needed some fresh air. Now someone needs to close the windows, the bugs are coming in...
Closing the windows will not fix anything. The next pope can just as likely open them again. Who knows! Nothing is certain. But I ca bet the Orthodox will remian just where they have been for the last 1,700 years and more.