The Diocese of the West (OCA) has an article on Bell Ringing in Scripture and Liturgy.
Complete article here.Dear Brothers and Sisters:
Church bell ringing is an intrinsic and permanent part of the Orthodox liturgical and musical tradition. It is deeply rooted in Scripture and thoroughly presumed in the Typikon. It’s not just “decorative”, a “nice” thing to have with our liturgy. “Church bell ringing is an integral part of Orthodoxy’s divine services, and its absence can be justified only by lack of the necessary instruments.” Accordingly, the teaching of our bell-ringing tradition is an important part of liturgical music education, and so it’s good to examine the Church’s tradition in some detail.
Bells, as such, are mentioned in the Bible in one context only: small bells are to be attached to Aaron’s vestments, which “shall be heard when he goes into the Holy Place before the LORD, and when he comes out, so that he does not die” (Exodus 28:33-35). This suggests that the sound of bells is protective, presumably because they give a kind of warning. Today we attach bells to the vestments of hierarchs, in conscious reference to Aaron’s bells, but we don’t usually thing of a protective function for them; yet on a different level, numerous miracles of divine protection have taken place in connection with Church-bell ringing in Orthodox communities...
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Wow. One rarely finds such a boldly erroneous identification of local custom as universal Holy Tradition.
ReplyDeleteI notice this sort of thing a lot, though, especially in "northerly" Orthodoxy—that local custom is identified as The Orthodox Way™. And of course, as so often happens in America, when one encounters some other way done by Orthodox people, it must be a betrayal of the very essence of Orthodoxy.
Nice article, though it could use a healthy dose of phrases like "in the Russian tradition." Having read even a little liturgical history, how bell-ringing could be "intrinsic" and "permanent" in our liturgical tradition is really quite beyond me.
I have seen this proclivity for turning regional customs into something more in many forms (food, vestments, tetrapod vs. lecterns, etc.). Rarely is it intentional and, as a person who is very fond of those local customs, I am happy to see the customs continue.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on all this. I love the diversity of our Church!
ReplyDelete