[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Excellent point. In my Orthodox parish, the chanter had been using an English translation that rendered “Theotokos” as “Mother of God.” I had usually heard it translated “birthgiver of God.” When our bishop visited, he corrected the chanter during the service. Since then, he has chanted “Theotokos.”

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“Excellent point. In my Orthodox parish, the chanter had been using an English translation that rendered “Theotokos” as “Mother of God.” I had usually heard it translated “birthgiver of God.” When our bishop visited, he corrected the chanter during the service. Since then, he has chanted “Theotokos.””

Go Bishop!

[ebb tide]

You both claim to be Orthodox, but you two seem to disagree on Mary being the Mother of God.

What’s up with that?

[Kolokotronis]

"Excellent point. In my Orthodox parish, the chanter had been using an English translation that rendered “Theotokos” as “Mother of God.” I had usually heard it translated “birthgiver of God.” When our bishop visited, he corrected the chanter during the service. Since then, he has chanted “Theotokos.” Θεοτοκος is of course the proper term. English is lousy for discussing or accurately expressing the theology of the early Church. But the truth of the matter is that "Mother of God", in English, is a translation of Θεοτοκος. So is "Birth-giver of God". The canons provide that we should pray in the language of the Laos tou Theou, which in many parishes here in America, is English (I wish it were 100% Greek, but that's just me). Your bishop probably did the right thing, but expecting English speaking Americans to appreciate the subtleties of Byzantine Greek might be a bit much. Unless your chanter was calling Panagia the "God Bearer" (θεοφορος) or the "Christ Bearer" (Χριστοτοκος), I suspect you weren't being subjected to heresy.