Liturgical Books

JOHN A. MCGUCKIN

The priest and cantor need a veritable library of books in order to complete all the cere­monies, prayer services, rituals, and blessings of the Orthodox Church, so rich is its litur­gical tradition, and so varied the range of ceremonies it has established and adapted over the ages of its existence.

There are several small but significant variations of style and form among the dif­ferent language families of Orthodoxy, especially in relation to liturgical customs prevalent among the Greeks and the Slavs, which grew up in the course of the last millennium. English-language translations of Orthodox liturgical texts tend to fall between the three ritual forms most common today in the United States of America: that of the Antiochene patriarch­ate; the ritual of the Russian Church as adapted for use by the Orthodox Church in America (OCA); and the English lan­guage publications of the Greek Orthodox archdiocese, which are generally straight­forward translations of the ceremonies of the Great Church of Constantinople. Many of the most important liturgical books have separate entries in this encyclopedia. Chief among them are the Euchologion (altar book for the liturgy and sacraments); the Hieratikon (priest’s parts for the services); and the Horologion (book of texts and rubrics for the celebration of the services of the Hours). Among the Russians the collection of special services and blessings that might be celebrated outside of the church is known as the Trebnik (Book of Needs) and there are English versions of it in one volume or several volumes (cover­ing a greater array of services). The Antio­chene patriarchate has issued a Liturgikon in English that covers aspects of the Euchologion and the Trebnik. The special texts and prayers for the liturgical services are also to be found in the literature that follows the monthly calendar of saints, and takes its name from this as the (twelve- volume) Menaion. The book known as the Triodion contains the liturgical texts proper to Lent, and the Pentekostarion has those proper to the Paschal season up to Pente­cost. The third book in this series, containing the normal range of texts for Sundays of the year, takes its name from the eight “Tones” that are used to attribute proper texts to various parts of the weekly services, namely the Oktoechos.

SEE ALSO: Blessing Rituals; Canon (Liturgi­cal); Euchologion; Hieratikon; Horologion; Menaion; Music (Sacred); Psaltes (Cantor); Triodion

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

McGuckin, J. A. (2008) The Orthodox Church:

An Introduction to Its History, Theology and

Spiritual Culture. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.