The Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom (Romanian/English): A Parallel Text for Worship

The Liturgy that bears the name of St John Chrysostom has proclaimed the elements of Christian faith and worship for at least sixteen hundred years, and it remains, with the Liturgy of St Basil the Great, among the world's finest expressions of Christian belief, translated into every language wherever Orthodox Christians meet. Originally written in ancient Greek, it has for many years been available in Romanian for worship in Romania, and it is here reproduced in a recent edition and paralleled by a modern English version that renders the Greek of the original in as accurate and beautiful a modern English as could be devised. To offer a parallel text meets a difficulty that is increasingly apparent as communities spread from their country of origin and take up residence elsewhere. The language in which one first speaks to God is part of one's being and cannot and should not be thoughtlessly changed. Nevertheless, those who were once strangers begin to understand the language in which local Christians worship, whilst the children and grandchildren of migrants start to feel more at home in the language of the country their parents or grandparents adopted. This bi-lingual text brings together the Christian community in worship, whether the service is in Romanian or in English, and it also helps those who are increasingly coming to the Orthodox Church as the original 'one, catholic and apostolic Church', whose language of worship may not be familiar but whose crucial meaning is now available in the language of the country where they dwell. This parallel text of the Divine Liturgy as it is used in the Romanian Orthodox Church was first prepared for the Romanian congregation of St John the Evangelist, meeting in St Giles Church, Cambridge, as a gift from the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge, to welcome another Orthodox Church into the family of Orthodox Churches in Cambridge. It is intended to be the first in a series of parallel versions for the various Orthodox Churches that will be offered by the Institute as a service to the whole Church.