Reply To: Week 2 Discussion Topic: Do You Think We Need a New Typikon?

What a thoughtfully reasoned response. Thank you for that. My own initial thought was much simpler, but I will post it anyway.

While the typikon has changed historically, I wince at the idea of change now. The changes that we learned about in the lesson were at least in some part made in order to reach for a deeper level of worship (the love of hesychasm stood out for me), but my instinct is that change now would be to accommodate the modern lifestyle, making things easier and more “accessible”. Parishes already make certain modifications as needed (e.g., shortening the length of a service), but if an easier version becomes codified, then that’s the new baseline, which will then be seen as too hard and needing modification. If the speed limit is 60 but everyone goes 70, raising the speed limit to 70 just means that everyone will go 80. We can’t change doctrine without an Ecumenical Council, so let’s hold the line on the Typikon 🙂

Again, this is all based on my preconceived notion that the reason for changing the Typikon would be to make things easier for our modern life. I am now going to think about the other possible reasons that Zornitsa brought up, which are intriguing and many-faceted.