Jesse B writes:
FT, I was sick with the flu yesterday and today, so I can’t give a detailed response. Anyway, here’s some bullet points.
- The original quote was a joke with a kernel of truth. It was not a detailed discussion of liturgical history.
- Anyone who says that the Orthodox liturgy never changes at all is misinformed or lying.
- Nonetheless, there are changes and then there are changes. The Orthodox liturgy has never been subject to a revision even as significant as that which the Roman Rite underwent at Trent, to say nothing of the various Protestant liturgies.
- Generally speaking, the Orthodox are more comfortable with gradual evolution and accretion in the liturgy, and less comfortable with deliberate revision. I expect that Lutherans feel the opposite, but we’re not going to solve that problem here.
