Ancient Faith Radio has been on the air for about two years now. I wonder why they don't just support that?

You hit the nail dead on, Fr. P. Maybe no one wanted to cross fade Eikona, Apostolos Hill and "contemporary" artists? Yo no ce.

While I know I find most "contemporary" Christian music insipid (and i'm sure many who read your blog, huw, would agree with me), there are those that enjoy it (who they are I don't know, but they wouldn't play it if people didn't listen). And there's definitely room on "teh Intarweb" for both stations.

Actually, I've never heard "contemporary" Orthodox music. Praise and worship music is usually Protestant although there is some that is RC. Personally I rather like the far less soporific Alternative Rock of Third Day which is developing a slightly sacramental side, recently. But I can't imagine many songs would fit the phrase "Orthodox Christian contemporary music".

Fr Peter John Gilquist and Mister Mister (singing "Kyrie Eleison" from 1985) are the only two I know of.

"Contemporary" Orthodox music -- Jesus is my boyfriend and Mary is my girlfriend?

So... like... at the same time? That's a leeeetle tooooo contemporary I think.

Being charitable, let us presume that in saying Orthodox Christian contemporary music by Orthodox artists..., the word contemporary is used in its literal meaning; that is, referring to persons either still alive or having reposed during our lifetime. Contemporary does not have to refer to a genre of music.

By that definition, Tavener and Part would qualify. That would not be so bad.

Matter of Taste, Chris: Tavener would be horrid. Part would require a few cocktails, but would be doable.

Mark Shuttleworth, an Orthodox layman who wrote a nice little book on Theosis (Conciliar Press), has recorded some excellent contemporary music. Some of it is just modified versions of traditional liturgical settings, but much of it is original. His CD travels with me wherever I go. You can buy the disk directly from Mark. Just send a check for $15 ($12 for the CD; $3 for shipping and handling) to Mark Shuttleworth, 2962 Voelkel Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15216.

Huw, I thought I was the only one who thought Tavener was awful; I'm thankful you're there. There's just too many one liners to throw out about music. Some (all?) Russian stuff of last century should put anyone on guard. Modern folks are likely to do even worse. I would enjoy hearing some fella with a guitar trying to do Holy Transfiguration English....

Is Yanni Orthodox?

Ding!

Ding!Ding!Ding!Ding!Ding!

We have a winner.

I'm crying, I'm laughing so hard.

Oh, oh. I am sssoooo in trouble. I actually like and listen to contemporary Christian and Ancient Faith Radio. I take turns, sometimes www.godlistens.com and sometimes www.ancientfaithradio.com I even like a lot of the music in the St Andrew's Western Rite Hymnal, and I can positively drool over some of Taize. In fact I like lots of genres of Christian music. That does not mean that I think it is all suitable for worship, but . . . .

Deacon - that's SOOOO not in trouble at all.

I like the western (ancient and modern) material on Choral Treasures. The distinctly western forms of polyphony - Vivaldi, etc - as well as the devotional meditation they inspire are one thing I miss in Eastern worship.

Music aside, I don't like AFR for the preaching: I listen to radio for music, not talk. Talk requires I listen... which is ok for the news, etc... but not ok for the interruptions that AFR has programmed in to its random playlist (which sometimes repeats the same random files far too frequently).

I just found out that Mark Shuttleworth's CD is available online at http://www.saintromanosrecords.com/product_info.php?products_id=239&osCsid=9fc8a7866e7fa35e8680a580e06aa783

Thanks, Mike!

For a sort of "orthodox coffee house" experience (which I happen to rather like)

http://www.myspace.com/stmatthew

Thanks, Huw. I happen to rather like it, too.

I'm with Huw. I laughed so hard at Matt's comment that my daughter started crying.

Hi Huw,
I just couldn't NOT comment finally...after all these years. OCN, AFR, CRTL, OLiC, IBN... we all have different visions for media ministry and we have our targeted audiences and ideas about what people want and how to package it and present it to them. Not everyone is on the same page. Some of us have been able to collaborate because of a common vision (AFR and OLiC, f'rinstance), some of us have offered to collaborate with other media outlets and hit brick walls. The fact of the matter is we have two things at work in Orthodox media, whatever it is, radio, books, blogs, etc.: viral marketing and organized/ad agency marketing marketing. In the end what will survive is that which people support. Glory to God if ALL of them survive and reach SOMEONE.

Hi S-P, thanks for stopping by!

"reach SOMEONE."
Amen!

Let's say I'm of little faith that the market can sustain 'em all. I think we need something like EWTN - one huge Orthodox network, holding up OLiC, CRTL, Contemporary music, Preaching and teaching, talk shows, maybe even a commentary/vidblog hosted by tmatt or some other 'real' media person!... and it would be cool to sell that to XMRadio as well.

Our differing visions, our scatter shot... it's *kind* of a media parallel to the jurisdictional divisions.

Hi Huw,
I agree with you. That is what OCN hopes to be is the Orthodox EWTN (God willing they will be), and you are correct that the media scatter shot mirrors our jurisdictional divisions. Unfortunately IMHO the same factors that prevent unification of the Church will prevent the unification of media ministries and we will have small "mom and pop" operations doing a good job with their small piece of the pie but ultimately no functioning overarching outlet that embraces all the various visions and concepts and approaches. But, when I listen to different protestant radio stations, they each have an "ethos" here in Phoenix, one caters to the charismatic fringe, one to the contemporary music crowd, one to the "intellectual mainstream". I've been doing the radio show now for almost 9 years and been on the internet for over 2 now, we generate over 30,000 downloads of our program a month and growing, we're linked to blogs, parish websites and just passed on by listeners, we just sent 87 "free Orthodox study Bibles to non-Orthodox" to 14 foreign countries last month....but we've never been approached, recognized or asked to be linked, promoted or streamed from any archdiocesan level ministry... John at AFR is our only "Orthodox media outlet" and he is an independent too. I don't say that with ANY animosity or bitterness (in fact my Bishop says avoid it.... :).... but I just think it shows where the Church and its leadership is in terms of media and awareness. Like I said, thank God people are doing SOMETHING to reach SOMEONE, even if it is only a blog. They all scatter the seed, and even if we only have one seed we need to plant it somewhere. You can probably tell this is a passion for me, sometimes in the positive sense sometimes in the negative... :)
(Nice blog by the way....sorry I've never mentioned that before.)

It is not Catholic jurisdictional unity that creates an environment in which an EWTN can exist, but rather Catholic money. Orthodox simply do not have anything like the financial resources which conservative Catholics in this country have. We have no Tom Monaghan-like billionares who want to promote Orthodoxy at the popular level, and we do not have a plethora of millionares, as do the conservative Catholics, to support EWTN scale ministries.

Orthodudes:

The greatest thing about EWTN is the nun who looks like my own dear departed "Nana". I stop by just to see what she's up to now and then. I loved her "Call in a pledge, get a kneeler" bit.

On the other hand, the future of this and any Church lies in "yeuts" and lots of 'em. Maybe what we really need is programming for the new I-phones. Our local televangelist is famous for his: "Just a message, not a sermon" soundbite format. Doesn't do much for me...but he runs the biggest show in town.

Although Tavener can be awful, he isn't all the time. There are some marvellous bits of gold there that one occasionally finds among the dross: The Lamb, Funeral Ikos, and The Protecting Veil come to mind. And the third movement of Ikon of Eros is very good, barring the Mickey Hart drum circle thang that happens at the end.

Hi Rob, the only Tavener I've heard in toto was Protecting Veil. I formed my opinion there, but I have not yet heard anything else that made me change it.

James: that's Mother Angelica, I think. I like it when she leads the Rosary.

Owen: we have lots of wealthy Orthodox - or at least several. They are "ethnic" types tho: their Orthodoxy doesn't get hung on fasting rules and like that. They - like many in the "old countries" have a different read on Orthodox (t)raditions than many Americans do, and Orthodox exclusionism. This usually prevents us from talking to each other.

Recently somebody gave me a professionally produced album from Mother Katherine (Weston), an Orthodox nun who used to sing at coffeehouses in Indianapolis.

It's pretty good. Not 'CCM - ugh!'

Obviously not for church but she doesn't claim it is.

Hmmm. That sounds cool. Is it Chant? Or personal compositions?

Personal compositions.

Huw -- if you didn't like The Protecting Veil you might want to check out some of his choral stuff. There's a very good low-priced collection on the Naxos label that features many of the better short choral pieces. The disc is called "Song For Athene."