The first volume of the musical edition of Parastasa service book containing the rite of funeral of laymen and children at ordinary and Easter times, accompanied with a CD, was presented at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv on December 9.
Auxiliary Bishop Venedykt (Aleksiichuk) of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) and Exarch of Lutsk Bishop Yosafat (Hovera) stressed the importance of the edition. At the same time, Bishop Venedykt noted the lack of such literature in the UGCC and the need to begin active work in that area.
"We like to use nice phrases that all the theology of the Eastern Church is contained in service texts. But then a question arises: Where is that theology of ours, where are the translated texts? Let this collection, which is very useful for our Church, be an encouragement and reproach for us all, the members of the Church, bishops, priests, faithful that few such texts appear," stressed the bishop.
The editor and initiator of the edition, Fr. Bohdan Pushkar, who is the parish priest of the UGCC community in Bamberg, Germany, pointed to an alarming tendency to reductions, neglect, deletion of Divine Services, "which constitutes a threat that we will once find ourselves in a position where of all the rich service practice, we are left only with the Liturgy shortened by us as well."
The priest called scholars and the church leadership to pay attention to these problems and make the work in this area more active. In addition, according to Fr. Bohdan, "there is a new generation of scholars who are eager to learn the heritage and return it to church life, which needs it so much."
Another important aspect addressed by the priest is that he "would not like to do anything in our liturgical practice which would distance us from our Orthodox brethren even a little bit ... For if we give up the idea of unification, we have no right to call ourselves Christians. Unification is mutual respect and recognition: you are my brother and it hurts that we have no chance to serve at one altar. Therefore, one should not create anything new," stressed Fr. Bohdan.