{"id":810,"date":"2013-03-13T10:59:24","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T15:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.helleniclink.org\/?p=810"},"modified":"2013-07-13T11:00:33","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T16:00:33","slug":"bulletin-no-107","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helleniclink.org\/?p=810","title":{"rendered":"Bulletin No. 107"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE HELLENIC LINK, Inc.\"logo\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"EllinikosSyndesmosBlack\" <\/strong><\/p>\n

Member Update- BULLETIN<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Editorial Committee<\/span>: Ahilleas Adamantiades, Alex Economides, Dean C. Lomis, Katherine Efthymiatou-Stabile Contributing Editor<\/span>: \u00a0Evangelos Calamitsis \u00a0Acting Editor:<\/span> Costas Efthymiou<\/p>\n

No. 107, March, 2013 <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In \u00a0Loving Quest for the Rudiments of our Culture <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

\u2018<\/strong> KYRIE ELEISON\u2019<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dean C. Lomis, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three years ago this coming summer, in July 2010, I attended in Williamsport, Pennsylvania the Roman Catholic funeral of a ninety-five year old elderly grandmother. Being Greek Orthodox and not knowing any other than the immediate family, I sat at the last row of the Cathedral\u2019s pews witnessing the solemn ceremony.<\/p>\n

Somewhere in the middle of the service I felt jolted when I heard the priest chant: \u201cKyrie Eleison.\u201d About a quarter of the service later he repeated the chant, as he did near the end also. After the funeral and during the ensuing — \u201cmakaria\u201d-to-us- Greek-Orthodox — meal, I inquired of the Roman Catholic priest regarding the use of the Greek Orthodox \u201cKyrie Eleison\u201d in a Roman Catholic Mass. His explanation was that the \u2018Anglican\u2019 version of the verse does not provide the real meaning of the prayer. He went on to inform me that the Roman Catholic Church was in the process of making revisions to be called \u201cMissal,\u201d a new text to be used during Mass intended to be closer to the Faith using New Words of Worship in the \u201cliturgical Latin\u201d used centuries in the past. As we may now know, of course, the new \u201cMissal\u201d has been put into practice as of a few months ago.<\/p>\n

Shortly after returning home a couple of days later, I looked into our Greek Orthodox Liturgy Book and realized that I went to a Roman Catholic Church to hear the Greek Orthodox version of a prayer which in my Greek Orthodox Church I hear it in the Anglican version, when chanted in English. That is, I noticed that when \u201cKyrie Eleison\u201d is chanted in English it becomes \u201cLord Have Mercy.\u201d Immediately I recognized that we have a serious difference with the Anglican version, for the words \u201cmercy\u201d and \u201celeison\u201d are not compatible, lacking identical meanings. Also, searching deeper into the terminology, it became apparent that the Roman Catholic Greek Orthodox version was correct because it is not possible to translate \u201cKyrie Eleison\u201d correctly.<\/p>\n

Looking up \u201cmercy\u201d we find the meanings of \u2018forgive, don\u2019t punish anymore, have pity,\u2019 etc. However, \u201celeison\u201d goes beyond the punishing and asking-for-forgiveness state; \u201celeison\u201d includes \u2018blessing, grace, assistance, help, guidance,\u2019 which \u201cmercy\u201d does not. Why then should we Greek Orthodox not have our own \u201cMissal\u201d by always using the all-inclusive Greek Orthodox \u201cKyrie Eleison\u201d rather than the restrictive Anglican \u201cLord Have Mercy?\u201d<\/p>\n

Etymology, the science of the origin and development of words, came from the meaning of the term. Later generations like the Anglicans translating the Greek \u201celeison\u201d could not find an all-inclusive equivalent, thus compromising with \u201cmercy,\u201d which truly shortchanges the praying individual who constantly thinks only of sins and seeks only forgiveness, rather than also ask for \u2018blessing and \u2018guidance.\u2019 If we look carefully into the Old Testament, we are constantly reminded of God\u2019s wrath and need for forgiveness only, whereas in the New Testament we notice also blessing and guidance.<\/p>\n

Philologists \u2013 linguistics specialists \u2013 inform us that when we hear a word or a phrase that is not of the ordinary we have the tendency to retain it because its meaning impresses us. Philologists also tell us that the constant use of ordinary terms becomes so routine that we often neglect the meaning, or even fail to comprehend because we merely repeat them automatically without thought, a practice the Greek language calls: papa?a??st??a, or parroting in English, thereby experiencing the proverbial \u201cgoing in one ear and out of the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

An example of this occurred to me a few months back when my eight year old granddaughter \u2013 ten times my \u2018junior\u2019 to my eighty years \u2013 enlightened me by teaching me a lesson, endorsing another proverbial saying: \u201cwe\u2019re never too old to learn.\u201dAngelikoula — as she loves for me to address her and as she prides herself announcing her name to the priest when taking Holy Communion \u2013 asked me to teach her a Greek Orthodox prayer, since she is baptized Greek Orthodox. I proceeded to teach her \u00ab????? ? Te??, ????? ?s?????, ????? ????at??, e???s?? ?\u00b5??. ?\u00b5??!\u00bb which she now recites every night as the beginning of her bedtime prayers. When she asked me to translate in order to gain the meaning, I showed her the translation in our Greek Orthodox Liturgy Book: \u201cHoly God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us. Amen!\u201d Then she asked me to go over the entire prayer, word-for-word, in order to comprehend what she would be saying. So, I said: \u201cHoly the God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, \u2018forgive us and bless\u2019 us. Amen!\u201d defining for her the difference between \u201cmercy\u201d and \u201celeison.\u201d And, that\u2019s when she taught me the lesson. She could not understand as an early third grader why the English version of \u201cHoly God\u2026\u201d contained only two words, whereas the Greek version of \u00ab????? ? Te??…\u00bb contained three. And when I explained that article omicron pertains to the One Omnipotent God, she excitedly responded; \u201cOh, the One God,\u201d for that little omicron provided to her so much meaning. A couple of days later I found out how impressed she was, by having brought the subject to discussion among some of her \u2018private school\u2019 schoolmates, emphasizing the meaning of that little omicron article. It was a blessing of course that the discussion was at her private school, because had it been at a public one she might have been expelled.<\/p>\n

Does all this therefore suggest that we should have our Greek Orthodox Liturgy in the ecclesiastical language that it was written, which perhaps only the educated people of Greece \u2013 secondary school graduates whose high school curriculum includes religion and tertiary education graduates \u2013 understand and therefore comprehend?\u00a0 I, personally at least, think not.<\/p>\n

Does this then mean that we should have more English as many advocate, or maintain the Greek as others desire? Or, as yet some others suggest, we should place some kind of percentages to each. Well, how much: 50% : 50%; 60% : 40%; 70% : 30% — I can go on. And what would this accomplish, for then we shall have portions that may be understood by neither.<\/p>\n

Times have indeed changed. We, the offspring of our immigrant parents \u2013 and a good portion if not most of them with limited education (my own father coming to America in 1899 at the age of fourteen with a third-grade education), were provided with some pretty good and fairly solid foundations in our Greek Orthodox Faith and in the language. But, as the inevitable assimilation and inter-marriages \u2013 along with our own mistakes \u2013 have taken their toll, it is indeed very difficult to maintain intact the language of our Greek Orthodox Liturgy\u2019s Founding Fathers.<\/p>\n

Yes, we do need more English in our Greek Orthodox Liturgy; and, yes, we do need more Greek in our Greek Orthodox Liturgy; but the \u2018percentage\u2019 theory does not hold water. We all know that there are and will continue to be advocates for the complete elimination of the Greek language from our Liturgy. There are also many who advocate the renaming of the \u201cGreek Orthodox Church\u201d to the \u201cOrthodox Church of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

I, for one, cannot adhere to this, for if so, we shall lose our identity. The Greek Orthodox Church is considered the First Christian Church. Yet, the Roman Catholic, or the Anglican, or the Russian or other Slavic \u201corthodox\u201d churches are not contemplating forsaking their identity. Why should we, the First Christian Church!<\/p>\n

Let us for a few moments look into the liturgies of all the \u201cChristian\u201d churches. Since Christianity emerged from the Jewish monotheistic faith, there are Hebrew language elements contained in the original, since appropriate equivalents cannot be found, if at all. Similarly, in our own Greek Orthodox Liturgy, we have those terms which have neither Greek nor English equivalents: Amen (\u201cyes, we all agree that it is right and true\u201d); Cherubim (\u201cguardian angels of Paradise with \u2018flaming swords\u2019\u201d); Hallelujah (\u201cexclamation of joy, praise and gratitude to \u2018Yahweh\u2019); Hosanna (\u201c\u2019please save us now\u2019 in praise and adoration in that \u2018Blessed is He \u2013 the One (? ??a?) \u2013 who comes in the name of the Lord\u2019\u201d); Seraphim (\u201cthe ranking angels standing in the presence of God\u201d); Savaoth (\u201cthe Hosts Lord of Special Armies\u201d \u2013 \u2018very difficult to attempt to translate or even describe\u2019).<\/p>\n

And just for emphasis in comparison, unique and untranslative terms are found in every language, borrowed by others who just cannot coin their own; just a few examples should suffice: eleison, leventis, palikari, philotimo from the Greek; fait accompli from the French; casus belli, ipso facto, ipso jure, from the Latin; macho and machismo from the Spanish; or the recent one, Tsunami, from the Japanese, not to disregard the myriad medical, technical and social terms from the Greek and the legal terms from the Latin.<\/p>\n

What am I advocating, therefore? I am suggesting that all \u2013 and I mean all \u2013 passages of many words and long phrases and paragraphs recited by the priest be spoken only in English in order to be understood, even though they may not be well comprehended unless fully explained in Sunday School, a system today lacking widely. However, the few words and the very short phrases which bear so much deep meaning in the Greek unequalled in English should remain intact and be taught with detail in Sunday School.<\/p>\n

Sunday School can be a yet additional instructive element in the liturgical process. After learning the Greek words and short phrases, and their meanings, Sunday School pupils\u00a0\u00a0 brought to the church for Holy Communion, remain for the duration, taking their designated places by classes, with each grade chanting the short prayers; for example: first grade: ?\u00b5??;second grade: S??, ????e; third grade: ?a??s???, ????e; fourth grade: ????e, e???s??. In such a manner they can become contributors to the liturgical process quite delighted at the ages anxious to participate.<\/p>\n

And in regard to Sunday School teachers, it should be of tremendous advantage if at the biennial clergy-laity conferences Sunday School teacher sessions were held, giving the opportunity for Sunday School teachers to interact and learn from each other and of their methods.<\/p>\n

Although there are many issues requiring and deserving attention and discussion, there is one more which I like to bring to attention: the chanting of the choir.
\n Greek Orthodox liturgical chanting emanates from Byzantine musical sounds. The Greek tongue is a language of vowels and therefore elastic, contrary to the English of Anglo-Saxon and Germanic of consonants structure and therefore \u2018rough\u2019 and \u2018rigid.\u2019\u00a0 Can the roughage and rigidity of the Anglo-Saxon Germanic-influenced music match the heavenly melodious sounds of the Byzantine? I wonder, for I as one have not yet found one, though some are worse than others. Choir chanting of Byzantine echoes are slow and precise, unlike the necessarily-lengthy priestly recitations which are also quite fast and difficult to follow. Chanting choir hymns can be adequately mastered to be followed and to sing, as both the beauty of the melodies and the meaning of the words add to the spiritual experience.<\/p>\n

Yes, adjustments can and should be made so that the upcoming generations may become accustomed with knowledge and desire, unlike many of the \u201cbaby boomers\u201d and especially their offspring of today\u2019s teenagers and young adults who seem to have lost a significant if not a major part. I don\u2019t know if the national rate is as dismal as it seems to be in our rather large community of 750 families \u2013 although I fear that it might be, but we were recently informed that of about 65 inter-marriages in recent years only 4 come to church, and of approximately 67 baptisms of inter-marriage couples only 9 attend Sunday School.<\/p>\n

I understand that recent research reveals that it is mostly the wife and mother who promotes church attendance. Perhaps that is why the Old Testament of the Holy Bible adopted the Greek gender for \u201cwisdom,\u201d the feminine: \u00ab? S?f?a\u00bb as revealed in the Book of Proverbs: chapter 1, verses 20 and 21: \u201cWisdom cries loud in the street; in the market she raises her voice; on top of the wall she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks.\u201dAnd possibly the Greek philosophical thought \u2013 ? e??????? f???s?f??? ???s?? \u2013 was perhaps so clearly and distinctively revealed in the New Testament of the Holy Bible, in John: chapter 12, verses 20 to 23: \u201cNow some Greeks were among those who had gone to worship at the feast. So these approached Philip\u2026and requested, \u2018Sir, we would like to see Jesus.\u2019 Jesus replied, \u2018The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Ladies and Gentlemen: \u201cKyrie Eleison!\u201d<\/p>\n

Glossary of Terms<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

casus belli: <\/strong>an act that provokes injustice leading to justification for war.<\/p>\n

fait accompli: <\/strong>a deed that has been accomplished and<\/strong> decided, and is presumed irreversible.<\/p>\n

ipso facto:<\/strong> the very fact of an act, and the inevitable result and consequences.<\/p>\n

ipso jure: <\/strong>phrase describing the operation of law and<\/em><\/strong> legal consequences.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

philotimo: <\/strong>\u201clove of honor\u201d \u2013 impossible to translate sufficiently as it describes a complex array of virtues. In essence, it is the right and expected way of the Socratic code for \u201cquality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

tsunami: <\/strong>catastrophic ocean waves generated by submarine movements caused by various occurrences such as trembling, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides beneath the ocean, or asteroid strikes. Seismic waves or tidal waves won\u2019t do because \u201cseismic\u201d refers solely to earthquakes, whereas \u201ctidal\u201d provides neither specific nor general references.<\/p>\n

eleison: <\/strong>forgive, don\u2019t hit, have pity, feel sorry, etc. and\/or bless, guide, assist, do not forsake, help, show the way, etc.<\/p>\n

palikari:<\/strong> tough soldier, young fighting lad, best things in a man.<\/p>\n

leventis: <\/strong>positive connotations of fearlessness and gallantry.<\/p>\n

machismo: <\/strong>strong or exaggerated sense of masculinity.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

macho: <\/strong>man of physical courage, virility, aggressiveness, and domination of women. <\/strong><\/p>\n

——————————————————————————————————————<\/p>\n

In the interest of members and readers of the Bulletin <\/em>we relay the following Announcement of the Cyprus-U.S. Chamber of Commerce concerning placement opportunities at a Career Fair:<\/p>\n

Cyprus – U.S. Chamber of Commerce Career Fair<\/span><\/p>\n

\"CareerFair\"<\/p>\n

The Unquenchable Light of 1821 will sparkle again in Fort Lee, NJ this year <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

HL member Alex Floratos, who is chairing the event, informs us that the Hellenic Civic Club of Fort Lee will be celebrating Greek Independence Day on Saturday , March 23 2013 with participation\u00a0 of a good number of officials holding office in this municipality, in addition\u00a0 to a sizable presence of\u00a0 townspeople. Invited dignitaries include the mayor of Fort Lee, the Superintendent of Schools, the Chief of Police along with a detachment of officers including several of Greek descent, and others. The dignitaries are expected to address the participants for the occasion; in addition, scheduled speakers from the local Greek American community will highlight the meaning and value of the War of Independence, for Greece and for Greeks everywhere. Invocation will be offered by the Dean of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Theologian, in Tenafly, NJ.\u00a0 The event will feature a presentation of traditional Greek dances by teams of Junior and Senior GOYA members, and will be concluded with lunch for hundreds sponsored by 2 banks and over 10 Greek eating establishments in the vicinity of the city. The event will take place at the Recreation Center of Fort Lee, Stillwell Avenue, at 2:00 p.m.\u00a0\u00a0 We congratulate Mr. Floratos and his colleagues of the Fort Lee Hellenic Civic Club for the thoughtful and meaningful scope and high quality commemorative celebration they organized for the proclamation of the Revolution of 1821 and for the reclaiming by the Hellenes of their inalienable rights to freedom, thus breaking a centuries long\u00a0 and bitter servitude to Ottoman\u00a0 rule. This event and many more like this taking place throughout the country this month attest to the vitality of the Greek ethnic soul and the continuing attachment of the Greek American community to its heritage of Hellenic ideals, for the good of itself as well as of the entire American society.<\/p>\n

On-Line Course in Modern Greek Offered Free<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

In cooperation with the Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP)\/<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAthena\u201d Research\u00a0 Center, the Hellenic Link, Inc. is offering as a service to the community a series of Greek language lessons on its Web site: <\/em><\/strong>http:\/\/www.helleniclink.org<\/a> <\/em><\/strong>(<\/em><\/strong> on a 24\/7 schedule)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

On the home page of the site, upper left corner, click on <\/em><\/strong>\u201cLearning Greek<\/em><\/strong>,<\/em><\/strong>\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

to be introduced to a series of fifteen lessons of the <\/em><\/strong>filoglossia+ courseware.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Please inform anyone who would be interested in learning Greek of this service.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n


\n THE HELLENIC LINK,\u00a0 Inc.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0
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Website created by Avekta Productions Inc., New York , NY<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

websites@avekta.com<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE HELLENIC LINK, Inc. Member Update- BULLETIN Editorial Committee: Ahilleas Adamantiades, Alex Economides, Dean C. Lomis, Katherine Efthymiatou-Stabile Contributing Editor: \u00a0Evangelos Calamitsis \u00a0Acting Editor: Costas Efthymiou No. 107, March, 2013 In \u00a0Loving Quest for the Rudiments of our Culture \u2018 KYRIE ELEISON\u2019 Dean C. Lomis, Ph.D. Three years ago this coming summer, in July 2010, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-articles"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helleniclink.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helleniclink.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helleniclink.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helleniclink.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helleniclink.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=810"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/helleniclink.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":814,"href":"https:\/\/helleniclink.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions\/814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helleniclink.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helleniclink.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helleniclink.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}