Reply To: Week 2 Discussion Topic: Do You Think We Need a New Typikon?
I would have a very hard time ever saying, “Yes, we need a new typicon” without knowing what that new typikon would look like. I would have a hard time picturing a contemporary typikon-changing committee coming up with something that I would consider an improvement. If the new typikon moved the orthros gospel to its normal place, and left everything else the same, I would be in favor of that, but otherwise I would say the typikon doesn’t need to change.
One argument that I can see for it would be saying that a typikon describes what it currently happening, and since we obviously aren’t exactly following Violakis, maybe in that sense we do need a new typikon. But I guess at what point does that end? What’s to stop anyone from doing whatever they want, and then after a few years saying we need a new typikon to reflect their changes. If a typikon is just a reflection of what currently happens, then if someone decided to create a new one(s), you’d quickly have typika saying when the organ is supposed to play, etc.
The other main argument I would expect to hear is that we need a new typikon to cut down on the length of the services. I would say that we in America are generally richer and have more leisure time than most people in the history of the world. And yet, we still “have less time” for church than the people in times past who struggled long and hard for basic survival and still did whatever they could to come to church as often as possible. I think it’s clear that something is wrong with us, not with the services of the Church if we think we need shorter services! Already the people who don’t feel that they have much time for church have the option to come to liturgy only, and those who wish to, can come for all or part of orthros, vespers, and any other services. And if we don’t have time to “watch and pray for one hour” (in a week!), then maybe we need to trim things out of our own schedule elsewhere rather than pushing for a new typikon. We obviously already have no problem with cutting parts out of services for the sake of time (even when the typikon prescribes otherwise), but I would never want to rubber-stamp that (and push our cuts on everyone else) with an official new typikon.