ΕΑΝ ΠΡΟΤΙΜΑΤΕ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ ΠΑΤΗΣΤΕ ΤΗ ΣΗΜΑΙΑ ΣΤΟ ΚΑΤΩ ΜΕΡΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΟΘΟΝΗΣ
By Hellenisope’s Editorial Team
Fresh off the press from some very upset parishioners (eye-witnesses) who immediately alerted us and have requested the following incident to be made known:
This Holy Friday morning, at Holy Cross in Laval, QC, during the Royal Hours, and more specifically at the time of the most solemn chanting of “Today is hung upon a wood/tree” (Σημερον κρεμαται επι ξυλου)…a “spiritual genius” of sorts decided it was a good time to “pass the tray”, and disrupt one of the most critical points of the prayerful service….
Now, while that sounds bad enough, what transpired next is the real disappointing story here. People started complaining, and even the chanter reportedly pleaded over the microphone to the individuals handing out the tray to stop the disruption at this most inopportune time during the service.
But THEN, it was reported that the priest yelled back at the chanter something to the amount of “εεεεε, κλεισ’το εσυ και κανε τη δουλεια σου” (hey you…”shut it”, and do your job) with an angry tone in his voice…
The question the parishioners are asking this morning is the following: Weren’t the 30 pieces of silver sufficient, that this parish priest needs more of them on a day like this, AT THE SAME MOMENT that these solemn verses are being chanted?
Yikes!
The “tray” is a coercive practice, and fundamentally relies on the psychological exploitation of worshippers, who in a moment of “FORCED PUBLIC SHAMING AND EMBARRASSMENT”, feel compelled to “go with the flow”, as the “spiritual vultures” that disrupt the service wait intentionally for the hand to move from the pocket to the tray…
For priests to promote and protect such disruption is unacceptable, especially during such solemn moments, and even during Divine Liturgy after the faithful have heard the words “let us now put aside every care of life (earthly care)” {πασαν νυν βιοτικην αποθωμεθα μεριμναν…}…
Many decades ago in school, they would show us National Geographic films on reels…with those old film projectors…every now and then, on the screen we would see a message appear “place commercial here”, which was obviously intended for when those films were shown on television…
I openly ask that priest in Laval, as well as the Archdiocese of Canada, where exactly in the Liturgical texts did the Church Fathers add the phrase “pass the tray now”?
Silence in moments like this is part of the problem. This should never have been allowed.
No one should offer any money when they do this. Problem solved. Then those that come to collect money would just feel stupid with their empty baskets, because they clearly are stupid for doing this.