QUESTION:

Recently I read and article by Archbishop Paul of Finland in which he said that the ancient way for the priest to serve the Divine Liturgy was with him facing the people. He says that later we have the priests facing away from the people, and I understand that he wants us to return to that older practice. I have never heard this before. Is it correct?

ANSWER:

I would like to know what authorities Bishop Paul cites for such a conclusion, and to what extent he thinks such a practice to have been. In any case, the matter has been resolved by great saints and fathers of the Church. One might think that St John Chrysostom is a greater authority than Bishop Paul of Finland.

In the first place, when the priest serves facing the people, he is actually serving "down" to the people, no longer standing in the front row, as it were, leading them in divine worship. Perhaps more important, the priest and the congregation should be concelebrating the Divine Liturgy, all facing toward God, not toward each other. The altar of the church faces East, not toward Jerusalem, but toward Paradise which, according to Scripture, is "in the East," and toward the future appearance of Christ, which will "flash forth from the East." The whole theology and symbolic revelations of the Liturgy are centred on such realities and one wonders what, if any, actual revelatory and theological meaning liturgical revisionists do place on the Divine Liturgy. Perhaps they see it only as an elaborate ceremony surrounding the Eucharist and do not realize that it is especially designed, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to bring us into the mystery of the Kingdom, lead us in a meaningful preparation to participate in the Eucharist and make us participants in the mysteries of the Book of Revelation. Bringing the people into a fuller participation in the Liturgy will not be served by the priest facing the people. What is far more important is to restore the people's participation in the Liturgy by a return to congregational singing, where the "royal priesthood" actually say the "amens." It is also, in my view, important for the Epiklesis to be said aloud and the people to respond with the "amens" during the actual consecration of the Holy Gifts. This is the practice in my Archdiocese. It may disturb ultra conservatives, but so much has been done to exclude the people of God from actual participation in the Liturgy that we have crossed the border into hyper-clericalism and turned the "royal priesthood" into a collection of spectators. Turning the priest around or abolishing the iconostas is not going to solve anything. The justifications that liturgical revisionists offer for their plans and ideas are always emotional or sensual and never have any theological considerations or explanations. The Divine Liturgy is an experience of the Kingdom, and a revelation, filled with authentic theological content and deep insight into the human consciousness. Most of the attempts to tamper with its structure and revise it are technocratic and shallow in concept and intent. Bringing the people back into the Divine Liturgy as full active participants does not require any alteration of the Liturgy or the organization of the church structure, and this is the real issue.

+Archbishop Lazar