OCTOECHOS

OCTOECHOS. Meaning The Book of the Eight Tones, it is one of the liturgical books (q.v.) of the Orthodox Church. The Octoechos (or Paraklitiki) covers each of the eight tones, or melodic patterns, together with its accompanying hymns, sung throughout all the services for the seven days of the week, beginning on Saturday evenings. The cycle is completed on conclusion of the eighth week and then begins anew. Yearly, the cycle of the Octoechos begins on the Sunday following Pentecost. Its origins are ascribed to the work of Joh n of Damascus (q.v.), and the formalization of the eight tones marks a watershed in Christian music (q.v.), East and West.

OIKOUMENE. Oikoumene comes from the Greek verb, oikeo (to inhabit), and the term means, broadly, the inhabited or civilized world-historically, the Roman Empire (q.v.). As the Empire after Constantine (qq.v.) became more or less synonymous with the Christian Church, the term eventually came to mean the universal sphere of Christians. In recent times Orthodox writers have taken to speaking of the “Ecumenical Church,” meaning the entire Orthodox communion.