Conference in Pittsburgh on Eastern and Western Liturgies, May 21-23

Ss Cyril and Methodius Byzantine Catholic Seminary has announced the list of the keynote and plenary speakers at the conference which it will host from May 21-23, entitled “East, West, and Beyond: Enriching One Another’s Liturgical Traditions”, to examine liturgical synthesis in Eastern liturgical theology and practice with other Eastern and Western theological and liturgical traditions, and showcase general cross pollination between Eastern and Western liturgy. See the symposium website for details and registration information: https://www.bcs.edu/east-west-symposium/ The liturgical program includes the celebration of Vespers in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (on May 21st at 5pm), led by priests of the Institute of Christ the King.

Call for Papers for Conference on Eastern and Western Liturgies

Ss Cyril and Methodius Byzantine Catholic Seminary will hold a conference next May 21-23, entitled “East, West, and Beyond: Enriching One Another’s Liturgical Traditions”, to examine liturgical synthesis in Eastern liturgical theology and practice with other Eastern and Western theological and liturgical traditions, and showcase general cross pollination between Eastern and Western liturgy. The keynote speaker, Dr John Demetracopoulos, is the leading expert on the influence of Latin Scholastic texts on Greek Orthodox writers, including their liturgical commentaries.

The organizers of the conference are currently inviting proposals for papers; scholars are welcome to explore or analyze (though are not limited to) the following suggested areas of research:

• Latin or Western influences on Byzantine liturgical rites and praxis
• Eastern influences on Latin or Western liturgical rites and praxis
• East-West mutual influences on sacramental theology
• Byzantine and Oriental interaction and mutual influence (ancient/modern)
• The use of Latin, Byzantine, Armenian, and Syriac texts outside of their original liturgical family 
• Methodologies and principles for evaluating adoption of e limine sources from other liturgies 
• Comparative study of Eucharistic Prayers from East and West
• Eastern and Western spirituality within the liturgical context
• Ecology, environment, and cosmos in Eastern and Western liturgy

For more detailed information, see the website, https://www.bcs.edu/east-west-symposium/.
Proposals can be sent to the following email address: eastwest2019@bcs.edu

First Ever Greek-Catholic Liturgy in Bangkok, Thailand

We received the following report from Mr Ryan Kullavanijaya, a Romanian Greek-Catholic born and raised in the U.S., but currently living in his paternal homeland of Thailand, concerning the recent celebration of the first ever Greek-Catholic Divine Liturgy in that country. Photos below courtesy of the Greek-Catholic Society of Thailand, reproduced with permission from their Facebook page. We congratulate them on their efforts to spread the Gospel though the beauty of the Byzantine liturgical tradition, and pray for their continued success.

Through the prayers of the faithful in Thailand and of many supporters abroad, I worked with several others to launch the Greek Catholic Society of Thailand here in Bangkok in 2014. Slowly but surely, we have been able to reach out to many Thais and foreigners alike here, teaching them about our Catholic Faith and inviting them to pray with us. Nevertheless, this was purely a lay apostolate with little oversight or support by the clergy.

Yet, in a miraculous turn of events, we were informed (via an Indonesian friend in Australia) that at least four Greek Catholic priests of the Redemptorist Order were attending international meetings this year in Pattaya, Thailand. After playing phone tag with the priests to learn their liturgy schedule, a small contingent of our Society made the journey to Pattaya to meet these priests and to attend their liturgies.

Preparation Rite for the Liturgy in Bangkok

While in Pattaya, we invited the priests to Bangkok to celebrate the Divine Liturgy and to meet our small but growing community. After making some changes to their schedule and securing the permission of their superiors, three of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Redemptorists agreed to come and scheduled their liturgy for November 20th.

Our Society launched a large media campaign via Facebook, our blog, and word-of-mouth. In less than a week, hundreds of people around the world had heard about our upcoming liturgy and passed the word on to others as well. Even so, only about 10-15 individuals confirmed their attendance directly to us or via the official Facebook event.

We baked prosphora, translated the liturgy propers, printed bulletins, and made other preparations for about 50 attendees, just in case the number more than doubled. When November 20th came, we were shocked to discover that roughly 70 souls turned up to attend the liturgy and to worship the Trinity with us. Ukrainians, Americans, Filipinos, Pakistanis, Thais, and others attended the liturgy and were overjoyed to have the opportunity to participate in a Byzantine Rite service. As this was the first known Greek Catholic liturgy in Bangkok (and the first ever public Divine Liturgy anywhere in Thailand), it was new and mysterious to many, but everyone took to it quite well!

To add success to success, we also had several Orthodox Christians visit the liturgy. One has been undergoing catechesis with us for almost one year now, and he was formally received into the Catholic Church during the liturgy through sacramental confession and profession of Faith (public recitation of the Nicene Creed). Glory to God for all things!

A new set of Eucharistic vessels bought for the occasion.

The Little Entrance

The Epistle read in Thai

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A New Greek-Catholic Cathedral in Romania

Just over a year ago, we reported on the beatification of Vladimir Ghika, a Romanian Greek-Catholic priest martyred in 1954. A church in which Mons. Ghika served in Bucharest has been elevated to the status of cathedral for the newly created Eparchy of St Basil the Great; we are grateful to reader Viviana Dimcev for her report on this event, and to her husband Alexis for the accompanying pictures.

Bishop Mihai Frățilă

August 30, 2014 was a great feast for Greek Catholics in Romania. In Bucharest, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, assisted at the enthronement of the first Greek Catholic Bishop of Bucharest, His Holiness Mihai Frățilă, who received the symbols of his office from the hand of Cardinal Lucian Mureșan, Major Archbishop of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church.

The newly created Greek Catholic Eparchy of Saint Basil the Great of Bucharest was approved by the Holy Father Pope Francis in May 2014. The Romanian Greek Catholic Church, with the Metropolitan See in Blaj, a small town in the Romanian province of Transylvania, has felt for some time the need for a new Eparchy with its See in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. The Greek Catholic church of Saint Basil the Great in Bucharest was thus elevated to the rank of Cathedral church. Its impressive history is intertwined with the history of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church.

The small church in red brick (with the dimensions of 16 meters length and 7 meters width) was built in 1909 under the supervision of Roman Catholic Bishop of Bucharest Raymund Netzhammer, who wanted to offer the Greek Catholic faithful in Bucharest a church of their own rite. Those faithful were mostly of Transylvanian origin, Romanian speakers who emigrated to Bucharest in search of a better living, and wished to maintain the use of the Byzantine rite liturgy in Romanian. At that point, Transylvania was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; it would become part of Romania 8 years later, in 1918.

Bishop Netzhammer, a Benedictine, thought it appropriate to consecrate the small church to Saint Basil the Great, one of the Greek fathers whose liturgy is celebrated in the Byzantine rite. He chose a well-known Romanian architect who used elements of Romanian, Byzantine and Gothic architecture in imitation of various older Romanian churches. For the painting of the church, he invited the monks of St Martin Abbey in Beuron; Father Andreas Goser created the sketches, which were painted by Gottfried Schiller and Julius Ostermaier from Ravensburg, using the mineral colours technique of A.W. Keim. The two artists also designed the liturgical objects of the church.

The church quickly became the center of the Greek Catholic community in Bucharest. Bishop Netzhammer assisted very often at the services, and Blessed Vladimir Ghika was the spiritual director of the Greek Catholic students who came there to attend the Divine Liturgy.

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