PHEME

PHEME. A term of Byzantine imperial origin, the pheme was the title, or “job description,” of officials of the Empire, ceremoniously proclaimed on high occasions. In the Orthodox Church today, particularly in churches using the typicon of Constantinople (q.v.), it is the solemn title of the bishop proclaimed by the deacon and repeated by the choir during the polychronion, the point in the Divine Liturgy just after the entrance of the clergy into the sanctuary. In Byzantium (q.v.) and tsarist Russia, this was the point when the reigning emperor’s title was announced and accompanied by the singing of “many years.”