Linguistic policies of Orthodox Churches amuse me. This is the same Church which sent Sts. Cyril and Methodius to evangelise to the Slavs in their own language, but it cannot even serve its own Greek community in its own tongue.

Then there's the fact that, while they stick with Koine Greek, they apply a nearly entirely modern pronunciation to it, resulting in a liturgical language that was never actually spoken. Similarly, the Russian Orthodox Church's pronunciation of Church Slavonic neglects many of the actual characteristics of the original.

But though I complain, if I were Orthodox and my parish starting using the vernacular entirely, I'd probably find an ancient-language parish just out of philological interest.

Are you reading my mind? I could have written that entire comment! The Cyril-and-Methodius thing has always flummoxed me.

We can't pronounce Latin properly either, can we? OCS is still accessible to the average Russian if supplied with proper comments. Very, very few Russians have a problem with the esthetical/literary quality of the Russian Orthodox liturgy, while were it translated into Russian... let's not even think of it. Hence, liturgy should be in OCS, sermons in Russian.

The Greek Orthodox Church only performs the Bible's liturgy in Koine, sermons are in Demotic Greek. The liturgy is just a ritual that is sung, even in the United States there is opposition from the faithful in performing the liturgy in English or Demotic Greek.

There is a problem with relying on news articles for all of your sources, instead of experience.

There have been several recensions of Church Slavonic throughout history. The Old Church Slavonic created by St Cyril in the 9th century differs rather dramatically from the Church Slavonic of contemporary Russian Orthodox services, although the latter is much more archaic than modern Russian.

I love OCS and modern Church Slavonic, but I also understand the problems such liturgical languages create. You can't please everyone. I prefer a Church Slavonic service. My neighbor may prefer one in English/

Stojgniev