Yesterday, the first Advent Sunday, the test stage for a new breviary started. For now, it has been made known just as experiment, but it is going to replace to old one, introduced thirty years ago. Of the 37 dioceses in Germany, Austria and Southern Tyrol, 188 parishes are taking part in the initiative. "The life conditions of the people and the pastoral structures have changed. New chants, prayers and liturgical forms were born", it is written in the introduction to the new breviary. In 2001, the German Bishops’ Conference ordered the review of the text. The current "experimental" breviary is made up of 400 pages and it is not the ultimate version, yet; it includes new chants as well as old hymns. In several parishes, numerous groups are already testing the new breviary. Communities and choirs are becoming familiar with the new prayers and the new chants. A few families recite the prayers included in the document at home. Moreover, within the 2008 Pentecost, the layout and the index are going to be checked, to make sure they are practical enough. The results of those tests will be included in a database through the Internet. Finally, they will be estimated on a central level. But before the new breviary is officially published, a few more years will have to elapse: the ultimate text will not be available until 2011.
