Metropolitan Hilarion Holds Press Conference on Proposed Slavonic Reform

Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk has given a press conference on the subject of the impending updating of Slavonic, the primary liturgical language of the Russian Orthodox Church, at the request of Russian journalists.

During the press conference Metropolitan Hilarion noted the efforts of the Church prior to the Bolshevik Revolution to begin a revision of the Slavonic used in the service books to make it more comprehensible and the need for this to be undertaken today. He also, however, denied that a need existed for the services to be translated into modern Russian, saying both that they would still be difficult to understand at points and that such a translation could cause a schism like that of the Old Believers in the 17th century.

More on the press conference and Metropolitan Hilarion's statements can be found here.

Russian Orthodox Church Considers Election of Future Patriarchs, Comprehensibility of Slavonic

In a press conference on the recent meetings of the committees of the 'Inter-Council Presence' of the Russian Orthodox Church representatives of the Church have spoken on the work of the committees in seeking to establish the guidelines for the election of future patriarchs of Moscow and take decisions on principles to guide the updating of the Slavonic-language service books of the Russian Orthodox Church to make the liturgical language more comprehensible for speakers of modern Russian. More (in Russian) here.

First Slavonic Divine Liturgy in Rome Commemorated 1,000+ Years Later

On the feast of Sts. Cyril and Methodius the Orthodox Church in Rome commemorated the Equals-to-the-Apostles by celebrating a Slavonic-language Divine Liturgy in the Roman Catholic Basilica of St. Maria Maggiore, the place of the first Slavonic-language Divine Liturgy served with the blessing of Pope Adrian II of Rome over a thousand years ago.

Archbishop Mark (Golovkov) of Yegorevsk, auxiliary of the Moscow Patriarchate, led the festal services, which were concelebrated by Archbishop Alexander (Drabynko) of Pereyaslav-Khmel'nyts'kyi, auxiliary of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's Kiev Metropolitanate, and Bishop Nestor (Sirotenko) of Korsun, ruling bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church in southwestern Europe. More (in Russian) here.