LITURGY

LITURGY. The word “liturgy” in classical Greek means a “common” or “public work.” In contemporary Orthodox use it may signify either the Eucharist (q.v.), i.e., the Divine Liturgy, or the entire complex of public worship. Beginning with the former, the eucharistic liturgy is divided into three parts. During the prothesis (or proskomidia), the rite of preparation, the celebrant prepares the leavened bread and wine for the service. This rite recalls Christ’s birth and death in the cutting out of the portion intended to serve as the host. The Theotokos, the saints (q.v.), and the living and dead of the community-the entire Church everywhere and always-are recalled by the removal of portions from the prosphoras and their placement on the paten (diskos) around the host.

The “liturgy of the catechumens” or synaxis comprises the opening invocation of the Kingdom of God in Trinity (q.v.), the Great Litany (a series of responsorial petitions for the Church and the world), the Antiphons (selections from the Psalms, on great feasts [q.v.] intercalated with hymns particular to the feast, and the Beatitudes), the “Little Entrance” or procession with the Gospel Book, the “Thrice-Holy” or Trisagion hymn, readings from the Epistle and Gospel of the day, the homily, and two closing litanies recalling the specific needs of the community and of the catechumenate (q.v.).

The “liturgy of the faithful” is the Eucharist proper. It includes the prayers preparatory to the offertory, the singing of the cherubic hymn and the “Great Entrance” or solemn transfer of the veiled bread and chalice from the table of preparation to the altar, the litany of supplication, the kiss of peace, the common recital of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (q.v.), the anaphora or prayers of thanksgiving and remembrance of God’s saving acts in Christ (the anamnesis), the epiclesis or invocation of the Holy Spirit (q.v.), which completes the consecration, the commemoration of the living and the dead (the diptychs), a repetition of the litany of supplication, the Lord’s Prayer, the fraction of the consecrated bread and its mingling with the chalice followed by an infusion of boiling water (zeon), the communion of the celebrant(s) and laity, prayers accompanying a litany of thanksgiving, the “prayer behind the ambo” (the ancient dismissal), the present dismissal, and the distribution of antidoron, the bread left over from the prothesis.

While relatively fixed in form, the eucharistic liturgy will differ somewhat according to the liturgical year, chiefly in the hymns sung during the liturgy of the catechumens, and in the liturgy of the faithful depending upon whether Chrysostom’s or Basil’s liturgy is prescribed (see Liturgies). Additional differences may derive from the choice of a system of liturgical colors adopted under the influence of the Latin rite, which is particularly the case in Russia (e.g., purple for Lent, red for the Cross and martyrs, etc.), or the presence or absence of a deacon and/or bishop. In the case of the former’s presence, the priest’s part is limited to the exclamations (ekphonesies) concluding each litany and the prayers of consecration, etc. An episcopal celebrant will considerably modify the form of the service in the direction of greater length and formality. The bishop is, however, always theoretically or symbolically present in that no Eucharist is celebrated without an antimension, the cloth that bears his signature and upon which the bread and wine are placed at the Offertory.

The recent influence of liturgical movements in 19th-c. Russia with Joh n of Kronstadt (q.v.) and in 20th-c. attempts to “rediscover” the character of the sacraments as celebrated in the early Church (begun in Roman Catholic [q.v.] circles), together with the influence of the Kollyvades’ (q.v.) monastic and ascetic renewal, have led several areas of the Orthodox oikoumene (q.v.)-e.g., Russia, Greece, and America-to some further modifications: more frequent communion by the laity, the reading aloud of the “secret prayers” of the anaphora and elsewhere, a reduction of the iconostasis (q.v.), a return to the traditional canon of iconography, etc.

Referring now to the offices, the current liturgical practice of the Orthodox Church seems to have taken its more or less present form by the last two centuries of the Byzantine era (q.v.). While it appears that the morning and evening services of the Church (as well as the Eucharist, or at least the synaxis) drew upon the Temple and synagogue liturgies of the first centuries, the public celebration of these offices and of supplementary daily services such as the Hours (Prime, Terce, etc.) is not clearly attested until the 4th c. By that time, however, and particularly in the Church of Jerusalem (see Cyril of Jerusalem), one finds the daily cycle and much of the paschal cyle well established. Further developments over the next four centuries resulted in the Octoechos (q.v.) and the elaborate commemoration of the saints systematized in the Menaia and Synaxarion.

The impress of the liturgical year upon the offices, especially Vespers and Matins, is today quite profound. Matins is certainly the most variable. It may be combined with Vespers to form an “All Night Vigil” on the eve of great or patronal feasts (q.v.), especially popular in Russian and Athonite use. It may or may not have a polyeleos (lit., “much oil,” referring to the lighting of the church’s lamps and therefore the festal character of the service), a Gospel reading (proper to Great Feasts and to Sundays, the latter featuring a sequence of twelve Resurrection pericopes) or several Gospels (e.g., the Passion Gospel readings of Good Friday morning). Matins may, further, feature one or more Canons (liturgical poems) and the chanting of one or more of the nine scriptural odes (Old and New Testament hymns beginning with Ex 15). It may feature the great (meaning “sung”) or lesser (recited) doxology or hymn of light. It may, finally, be adapted to provide the basis for a number of the services of special needs, e.g., the funeral and memorial services, the prayer services of thanksgiving (Te Deum or Molieben) and intercession.

Vespers, too, varies with the season, or depending on whether it is the daily or resurrection service (i.e., Saturday night preceding the Sunday Eucharist). The hymns following the singing of Ps 140, “Lord, I have cried,” and the aposticha (lit., “later verses,” i.e., toward the end of the service) vary according to the weekly, monthly, and paschal cycles. The central hymn of the service, the phos hilaron (“Joyful Light”), may be accompanied by a solemn procession of clergy carrying incense, or else sung or recited before the closed doors of the iconostasis (q.v.). The other, lesser services of the daily cycle do not vary as much. The Hours feature some additions during Lent (q.v.), e.g., the “Prayer of Ephrem the Syrian” accompanied by prostrations, a reading from the Psalms, and increased repetitions of the Kyrie eleison (q.v.).