I am happy to say that someone from the Western Rite Vicariate of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese made a comment on the part 01 post on instruments in worship. This is a very important post because it mentions that the Western Rite Vicariate is allowed to use the organ as part of their worship service. And, it helps me to state a principle of the Church Catholic. If it was acceptable to the Fathers of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church (before the Great Schism), then it is acceptable to the whole Church. Having said that, I must comment that acceptable simply means that it is acceptable to use it in the same context as the usage before the Great Schism. So, the West had a very limited use of instruments (very very very limited) before the Great Schism, and that same limited use is still with us today.
So, because the organ was acceptable “Catholic” usage, it is acceptable Church usage. But, wait, were not the Early Church Fathers uniformly against the use of instruments in Church worship? Well, not only them, but also the Pharisees in their synagogue worship and their descendants. The following long quote comes from another blog:
In the years following the creation of the Kabbalat Shabbat service by Rav Moshe Cordovero of Tzfat and his brother-in-law Rav Shlomo Alkabetz (author of our L’Cho Dodi text in 1529), the new introduction to Shabbat quickly spread from Israel to Europe. There, communities debated how (or if) they would incorporate this new innovation.
Some, in Germany for instance, insisted that it be visibly seen as “outside the tefilla”, and therefore to this day in some German communities, the Chazzan does not wear a talis for Kabbalat Shabbat. The general custom has also evolved to conduct it from the Torah reader’s table in shuls where the service is normally read in the front of the shul.
Some communities invited their congregants to come earlier to the shul, where instruments were played during the singing of the service! In fact, an organ was installed in Prague’s famed Altneu Shul just for this purpose, where between 1594 and 1716, Kabbalat Shabbat was a festive musicale. The musicians had to stop their playing before sunset, and in some communities, it was done early enough so that the congregants had time to go home, dress for Shabbat, and return for the recitation of the “real” Kabbalat Shabbat hymn, Psalm 92, Mizmor Shir L’Yom HaShabbat.
Today, all of the Jewish world has accepted Kabbalat Shabbat as an integral part of the Siddur and our Tefilla. The musical instruments, at least for us in the Orthodox world, have alas, been abandoned for fear of losing track of the time and thereby desecrating the Shabbat. It is up to all of us to make up for their loss by singing even stronger when the Chazzan reaches L’Cha Dodi. “Uri, Uri, Shir Daberi” – “Awake, Awake, Utter A Song…!”
Synagogue worship was non-instrumental. And, up until the middle 1800’s synagogue worship remained non-instrumental. There are now synagogues where instruments are used, though, as you can see from the reading above many remain non-instrumental. This is why our Orthodox worship is generally non-instrumental. It is non-instrumental because the synagogue worship was non-instrumental. And, as many of you know, we got our worship pattern from the synagogue. But, wait, what about Psalm 150?
Is there any scripture that references that it is a sin for one to use a instrument of music to sing in worship? And if not is it not used because of the silence of the scriptures and the example of the Jewish Faith? And if one is deaf, and sign, is their singing acceptable? In the church of Christ, they use Eph. 5:19, stating that that is referring to the Worship Service. But when I read that scripture in context I see it referring to everyday living and how we should conduct ourselves outside the assembly. I have not found any scripture to support the idea of not to use or to use instruments. I try to stick to taking the scriptures in context and accept the FACT that the early church just didn’t use any instruments of any kind. What are your thoughts?
The use of instruments is not forbidden in Scripture any more than marrying more than one wife is forbidden. But, just as all Christians argue that Jesus’ pronouncements on marriage really mean that it was a pair only, not a polygamy, so one could argue that the fact that both the Early Church and the Jews did not use instruments means that there was a change that happened. Nowhere is it clearly said that polygamy is forbidden, yet there is little doubt that it is. Nowhere are instruments forbidden, but …
Having said that, I also mentioned that the West did not go quite the same way as the East, and eventually allowed instruments in. So, there is some room for discussion here.
P.S. note that various of the early Calvinists and the early Puritans did not use instruments either.
We are Baptist and we too sing without instruments. This is (as stated above) the Calvinist and Puritans did not use them. The reason is because we follow the Biblical practice that what is not *commanded* is forbidden.