Unitate și „reformă liturgică” în Biserica Ortodoxă Română

Abstract

The need for a ‘liturgical renewal’ in the Romanian Orthodox Church, although denied at insitutional level, is recognized by an increasing number of theologians and even believers deeply interested and involved in the liturgical life of the Church. The reluctance in adapting to the new realities of life and to the contemporary liturgical research determines a ‘reductionist’ approach and understanding of the Orthodox liturgy and its evolution, thus encouraging a rigid conservatism and the development of some innovations and erroneous liturgical practices, with negative pastoral and spiritual consequences. Waiting for an official position of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church concerning a series of current liturgical issues, the movement for ‘liturgical renewal’ manifests itself in a spontaneous manner on the parish level, by implementing some ‘partial reforms’. Thus, this paper contains a presentation of a few opinions belonging to some Romanian liturgists regarding ‘liturgical renewal’ and a description of some reforms observed in the actual practice of the parishes affected by the principles of the renewal throughout the Romanian Patriarchate. Also, the author offers some examples of pseudo reforms encouraged by certain representatives of the higher clergy, intending to propose, in the same time, solutions to these issues.