BOSTON UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
Project Thesis
CHANGING PREFERENCES IN DIVINE WORSHIP
OF GREEK IMMIGRANTS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS
by
George I Paulson
M.Div. Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, 1944
M.Ed. Boston University, School of Education, 1977
D.Min. Boston University, School of Theology, 1993
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Ministry
1993
APPROVED
by
Project Director Dr. John W. Ward
Associate Professor of Communication and Preaching
Associate Project Director Dr. Horace Allen
Assistant Professor of Worship
Copyright 1993
by
George
I. Paulson
Acknowledgments
I am indebted first to Dr. John Ward who assured me in the later stage of my life that to reach for a distant star is never out of date. To Dr. Horace Allen I am especially indebted for the priceless resources toward which he directed me in the scholarly works of Alexander Schmemann, John Meyendorff, and George Florovsky. He has helped to broaden my understanding of my own tradition in relation to the Russian Orthodox Church, has strengthened my resolve to lead my people always in meaningful worship, and has enhanced immeasurably this product of my recent effort.
I am especially thankful to Mr. John Callan, Director of Saint Leo College, Military Education Program, Norfolk, Virginia, who gave generously his brotherly love, prayers, genuine friendship, and unceasing encouragement.
I am thankful to my colleagues, Rev. William Bartz, LCDR, CHC, USNR and Rev. Robert Luke Uhl who assisted me in administering the survey. To my beloved Saint Nicholas respondents I am grateful for the substance from which the project evolved.
Words of thanks are wholly inadequate for my son, Louis, who arbitrarily disregarded my resistance to the acquisition of electronic equipment with which to lessen my labors. Without his unsolicited intrusion, this project could not have materialized.
I am deeply indebted to the Reverend Dr. George C. Papademetriou, Director of the Library and Associate Professor of Theology at Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Mass.
I shall never consider myself out of debt to two of my dearest colleagues at Saint Leo College, E.J. Westcott, Ph.D, a disciple of Shakespeare, and Geraldine Brooks Madigan, M.A., a linguistics specialist.
I thank Miss Lisa Schmitt, a member of the law firm Paulson & Associates, for her continuous computer problem-solving instruction and ever-ready cheerful assistance. To Lynn Melton who painstakingly explained computer procedures to which I was oblivious, I am beholden.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
COPYRIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . iii
LIST OF TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
DEDICATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Scope and purpose
Background and procedure
2. IMMIGRANTS, AND DIVINE WORSHIP PREFERENCES OF
IMMIGRANTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3. AMERICAN-BORN FIRST AND SECOND GENERATION
DESCENDANTS OF IMMIGRANTS, AND THEIR
DIVINE WORSHIP PREFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4. AMERICAN-BORN THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION
DESCENDANTS OF IMMIGRANTS, AND THEIR
DIVINE WORSHIP PREFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . 99
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1. Responses by Immigrants . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
2. Responses by First and Second Generations . . . 92
3. Responses by Third and Fourth Generations . . . 120
4. Responses by Grammar School Children . . . . . . 143
5. Responses by High School Children . . . . . . . 164
6. Total Project Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
5. AMERICAN-BORN GRAMMAR SCHOOL CHILDREN,
DESCENDANTS OF IMMIGRANTS, AND THEIR
DIVINE WORSHIP PREFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . 126
6. AMERICAN-BORN HIGH SCHOOL CHILDREN,
DESCENDANTS OF IMMIGRANTS, AND THEIR
DIVINE WORSHIP PREFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . 150
7. COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . 168
APPENDIXES
A. QUESTIONNAIRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
B. RESPONSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
C. PERMISSION LETTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
D. ATHENAGORAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Evangeline
I
thank God for the priceless gift of my beloved Evangeline for almost fifty years
at my side, patient and always kind. Always
reassuring, soothing and calming, she led me through a circumstance in life for
which the energy was more readily and adequately available in years long passed.
Since I would lay down my life for her, as our Lord did for His church,
the labors of these many years fade
quietly into insignificance.