ambience: hymn, Greek Orthodox service
Tonight, Greeks around the world will be attending church services as part of the celebration of Holy Week. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. We’re listening to the sounds of a Friday evening service at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in New Orleans, the first Greek Orthodox Church in the Americas. Father Anthony Stratos.
“Well the service starts out with some introductory prayers and then it goes into what’s called the Canon. The Canon is a series of hymns that are very, very well known by most of the congregation. And as we get to the latter part of that Canon, that’s when we spread the candlelight throughout the church and the people hold the candles and they do that in commemoration of the fact that we’re going to be going in procession in a little while. And then during the course of the next segment of the ceremony, we lament the death of Christ — and in that respect, it’s very much similar to the, the funeral services we do for parishioners. The hymns on one hand represent the sorrow of losing a beloved one, but also are very remindful of the fact that Christ conquered death through death. So, with the Friday night service we see a funeral service actually taking place. We commemorate His death, not because it’s the end, but because it’s the forerunner to a new beginning.”
Please visit our website at pulseplanet.com. .Pulse of the Planet is presented with support provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. I’m Jim Metzner.
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