For the online June meeting 'Liturgy in the Life of Middle Eastern Christians'.
The Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch is one of the oldest Churches in the world and is still very active in the Middle East, especially in Lebanon and Syria, where live million of its members. It has also big community abroad, especially both American continents, where consists of both Arab Christian diaspora and new converts into Orthodox Church of various ethnical background. Its liturgical rite in the Middle East is Byzantine one and uses almost exclusevily Arabic. Despite being one of the oldest Christian communities, the Antiochian Orthodox Church composes new liturgical services, based on older ones and put in the frames of its local liturgical tradition. The services are written in Arabic and music is composed in the Byzantine tones of chanting. The paper aims to present two services based on the Lamentations of Matins of the Great Saturday: Lamentations of st. Jacob of Hamatoura and of the Holy Cross. Both services are contemporary and creat for special ocassions: the first one for the day of st. Jacob i. e. 13th Octobeer and the second one for the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, i. e. 14th September. The presentation would talk about liturgical and linguistical aspects of the services, as also about their practice. Such activies show the vitality of Arab Christianity despite difficult circumstances.
The Antiochian Orthodox Church of Eastern Orthodox family, despite being one of the oldest Christian communities, composes new liturgical services, based on older ones and put in the frames of its local liturgical tradition. The services are written in Arabic and music is composed in the Byzantine tones of chanting. The paper aims to present two services based on the Lamentations of Matins of the Great Saturday: Lamentations of st. Jacob of Hamatoura and of the Holy Cross. Both services are contemporary and creat for special ocassions: the first one for the day of st. Jacob i. e. 13th Octobeer and the second one for the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, i. e. 14th September. The presentation would talk about liturgical and linguistical aspects of the services, as also about their practice.