June 1, 2004

Brookline, MA - Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology has announced the launching of a new web faculty project. The web-enabled online multimedia program for learning traditional Byzantine chant includes twenty-one Byzantine hymns representing the major feast days of the Orthodox Church. Visitors can listen and also view the words these hymns, sung in both English and Greek, by either a man or a woman.

The program was developed through a generous Faculty Grant from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Religion, which provides funds for educational projects that study how religious content is taught. His Eminence Metropolitan Methodios of Boston and Presvytera Katerina Makiej perform the actual recordings. Father Nicholas Kastanas and George Stefanidakis did the transcription and addition of western notation and Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos, Assistant professor of Religious Education and Homiletics, is the Project Manager.

The project was created to provide an online resource to bolster the traditional methods of teaching Byzantine chant by placing the materials online in a well-designed format, thus allowing users to access the materials at any time, and in interactive ways never before available.

In addition to the hymns themselves, general information about the feast day, its history, rubrics, scripture, and icon is offered, each on a separate page. This content includes more than 150 separate articles. An image of the feast day's icon is presented; as an educational incentive, a piece of the “puzzle” of the icon is added each time the user accesses another topic for that feast.

The program can be viewed at http://chant.hchc.edu

For more information contact Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos at

(800) 566-1088.