Appalachian Orthodoxy

Hey brothers and sisters.

I've recently become enamoured by Orthodoxy in Appalachia. Their way of singing really is astounding, I love the style they use, many people mention the 'blue-grass' genre and it being blended with Orthodox chant. Does anyone here have any recordings of such singing? If you do, could you please post them in this thraed?

Thank you, and God bless you all.
Appalachian mountains are in USA, is this in USA? Doesnt look like it?
 
Appalachian mountains are in USA, is this in USA? Doesnt look like it?
I agree, I think they are Russians singing in English. Their physionomy, dress, background and the "Christ is Risen" ("Hristos Voskrese") in Russian at the end give it away, although their English is difficult to fault.

Here are a couple of videos from American parishes:



 
Anyone here actually been to Holy Cross Monastery? I wanted to go during lent ‘23 but they seem consistently booked.

Yes. It's a nice place that I plan on visiting again sometime (and the drive through the mountains was also quite enjoyable). Although it is busy as you mention, I had to plan months in advance to stay, and I didn't specify a specific date to visit, I let them tell me.
 
I agree, I think they are Russians singing in English. Their physionomy, dress, background and the "Christ is Risen" ("Hristos Voskrese") in Russian at the end give it away, although their English is difficult to fault.
Holy Cross Monastery is part of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR).

Anyone here actually been to Holy Cross Monastery? I wanted to go during lent ‘23 but they seem consistently booked.
Back in 2021, there was an ice storm where several trees fell onto buildings, church, car, etc. I remember they asked for help and donations. A new church construction is being built so it is still an ongoing project.
 
I'm familiar with the monastery although I haven't been there. They are the largest ROCOR monastery that uses English to my knowledge but I didn't see anything from that video that linked it specifically to that monastery. I might be missing something obvious.
For many years, my church used to have two Sunday services in different languages in the morning: one in Old Slavonic/Russian (i.e., 8 a.m.) and one in English afterwards (i.e., 9:30 a.m). According to my elderly mother, when the current priest replaced the old priest in the late 1990's, he dropped the Old Slavonic/Russian language because he did not know the language with the exception of basic phrases such as
"Christos Voskrese!" and "Voistinu Voskrese!" on Orthodox Easter, which we still say to this day.

As for Holy Cross Monastery, it is an English-speaking monastery so I would not be surprised to see some basic Old Slavonic/Russian phrases being used here and there such as "Christos Voskrese!".
 
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