О ДИСКУССИИ ПО БОГОСЛУЖЕБНОМУ ЯЗЫКУ В РУССКОЙ ПРАВОСЛАВНОЙ ЦЕРКВИ СЕГОДНЯ : ВОЗМОЖНОСТИ МНОГООБРАЗИЯ

This paper will focus on a religious-cultural aspect of the controversy regarding whether to continue the traditional "sacred" Church- Slavonic(CS) or to pursue the "modern" Russification in the Russian Orthodox Church. When difficulty in understanding CS has become a focal point of the argument for the Russification of the liturgical language inside/outside the Church since the 19th century, a priest in Moscow and his allies have started working toward the Russification since 1990s. Though the debate is still beyond solution, the appearance of some other translations on the Internet shifted it the wider argument. Considering the history and insistences in the controversy, we can characterize the arguments as follows: the side in favor of Russification of the liturgy aims to associate .the worship not only to the figure of the ancient Church, but also to people, where Russification is supposed to be just one of the steps toward the church life. On the other hand, the side of protecting CS tradition has much tendency toward traditionalism, sometimes carrying even nationalistic mood, where CS plays a symbolic role as a religious-adoring subject. It's quite paradoxical that the both sides contain fundamentalistic features, the first under the flag of reformation, the latter as the conservative, and the both sides are the characteristics that coexist inside the Church. We regard also on the translating practice of worship in their national language in Belarus. Adoption of (a) liturgical language(s) is an issue that various traditional denominations face today. The selected language(s) may provide a yardstick for judging diversity of a denomination and the society. This ongoing controversy also prepares a way for considering the relation among the Church, the government, and the multi-confessional society in post-Soviet Russia.