Melkite Greek Catholic Church

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Letter on the Liturgy
Of His Beatitude, Patriarch Gregorios III,
Of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem
For the Melkite Greek Catholic Church

 

To all of you, dear brothers and sisters,
Your Graces the bishops,
Superiors General, Mothers General,
priests, deacons, monks, nuns
and all the sons and daughters
of our Melkite Greek Catholic parishes
in Arab countries, countries of emigration
and throughout the world.

 

Chapter 4
Patriarchal Decree

 

 We Gregorios III, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem, by our patriarchal authority, based on the holy canons, decree as follows:

  1. We repeat the patriarchal decree made by our predecessor of happy memory, Patriarch Maximos V in 1996: “We, being desirous of preserving ecclesiastical order and unity, decree by our patriarchal authority that the books of liturgical prayers in four volumes be used to the exclusion of all other service-books in public services, whether celebrated in eparchial churches, monasteries or chapels, beginning from the Sunday of Pascha of the year 1997.”

  2. The books of the Divine Liturgy were published according to the recommendation of the Holy Synod. There were proposed to the Fathers of the Holy Synod prolonged, considered studies during 1987-1988 and then in 1992 there was an experimental text and at last the Holy Synod gave its agreement to that text, definitively and officially in 2001 and it appeared in 2006.

  3. There was another patriarchal decree in 1991 about the use of this experimental book. Here is what it says, “We order our brother bishops, our sons, the priests, monks, nuns and all the faithful, readers, singers and choirs, to use this new book, and we would like this book to be really useful to deepen our most noble liturgy and heritage, and for it to be a means of ongoing ecclesiastical, theological and spiritual animation for our Church.” (Decree of Patriarch Maximos V, 1991) Hence we require all our priests and bishops, deacons, monks and nuns and lay-people to uphold this decree conscientiously and precisely. And we order all Liturgy books different from these to be withdrawn from circulation and forbid them to be used in our parish churches and monasteries. And we absolutely prohibit their use by bishops, priests and deacons, singers and choirs, readers and people.

  4. We order them to adhere to the confirmed text in the singing and we exhort them most fervently to use the chants, hymns and melodies placed at the end of each liturgical book and we encourage them to have recourse to and use the unified form in all our churches, although there must be diversification in the use and employment of the different tones.

  5. As far as the laity is concerned, the Patriarchal Liturgical Commission had printed in 2005 a special little booklet, in which there is the guidance from the big book, with the title “Divine Liturgy with the service of Vespers in Appendix.” We order everyone to remove the other little booklets of the Divine Liturgy of whatever kind or date or edition and to limit themselves to this latest booklet, without any other. And we ask that the other booklets be destroyed, whilst retaining a single copy in the parish library.

  6. These orders are very important for preserving ecclesial order and unity in our parishes and among our faithful in the same church and eparchy and for really launching the process of liturgical renewal and liturgical animation and spiritual renewal in our Church.

We thank everyone in advance for really working in response to our clear orders that admit of no other explanation and we do not allow any exemptions of whatever nature. We shall observe by suitable means the extent of application of our orders issued in this decree.

  1. We entrust our eparchial brother bishops and the superiors general and mothers general with putting these orders into practice in their monasteries and various centres. And let our liturgical motto be for all, “One single Melkite Greek Catholic Church, unique liturgical texts, unique liturgical books and unique common hymns.”

 

Gregorios III Patriarch, March 7, 2011