| Accept The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy The Primates of the Russian and Serbian Orthodox Churches head the Divine Liturgy and take the funeral for the bishop of Moravica Anthony at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow DECR Communication service, 16.03.2024. On 16th March 2024 on the day of all the venerable fathers who have shone forth, a moveable feast celebrated on the Saturday of Cheese-Fare Week, at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia and His Holiness the Patriarch of Serbia Profirije headed the Divine Liturgy and tool the funeral service for the newly-departed bishop of Moravica Anthony, the auxiliary of the Patriarch of Serbia, representative of the Patriarch of Serbia to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, and dean of the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul at the Yauza Gates in Moscow, which also serves as the representation church (metochion) of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Moscow. The bishop of Moravica Anthony reposed in the Lord on 11th March 2024 after and long and grave illness. Up until 15th March the body of the newly-reposed bishop lay in its coffin at the Serbian metochion in Moscow at the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul by the Yauza Gates. In the morning of 16th March the coffin with the body of the newly-departed bishop was transported to the Christ the Saviour Cathedral and placed in the centre of the church. Wreaths were placed of the steps of the solea fr om the Patriarch of Moscow and the Patriarch of Serbia. Concelebrating with the primates of the Russian and Serbian Orthodox Churches were: the chancellor the Moscow Patriarchy and first auxiliary bishop of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia for the city of Moscow the metropolitan of Voskresensk Gregory; the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations the metropolitan of Volokolamsk Anthony; the metropolitan of Kazan and Tatarstan Kirill; the director of the administrative secretariat of the Moscow Patriarchy the archbishop of Odintsovo Thomas; the archbishop of Yegorievsk Matthew; the bishop of Zheleznogorsk and Lgov Paisius; the bishops of the delegation of the Serbian Orthodox Church - the bishop of Baka Irinej; the bishop of Upper Karlovac Gerasim; the bishop of Valjevo Isihije; the bishop of Remesiana Stefan; the bishop of Jegra Nektarije and the bishop of Toplica Petr. |
| John Anthony McGuckin Divine Liturgy, Orthodox JOHN A. MCGUCKIN The divine liturgy of the Orthodox Church is its spiritual heart and soul. A closer and more revealing knowledge can be had of Orthodoxy by an observer from the study of the rituals and prayers than of any other external thing related to the church. The word “liturgy” (leitourgia) derives from the ancient Greek (pre-Christian) term for “public works” and grew in significance to mean a work conducted for the benefit of the state or community by a benefactor. It was with some of these residual associations that the term was then taken over by the writers of the Greek Septuagint Bible, and used by them to signify the Temple rituals of ancient Israel. It thus became, for the early Christians, the chief word to signify the divine “worship and sacrifice” of the church, a term which would distinguish it from the pagan sacrificial cults around them. The divine liturgy predominantly means the Eucharistic service of the Orthodox Church (often simply referred to as “the liturgy”) and the other mysteries (what the western churches generally call the “sacramental” services). Orthodoxy’s preferred term is mysterion. The latter word means “thing to be silent about” and was used by the apostles and fathers with deliberate analogous reference to the pre-Christian mysteries, or mystery religions, where the element of the arcana (refusing to divulge the contents of the initiation) became a very important identifying mark of the adherent. The mysteries are experiences of Christian initiation that are not easily explicable, and each one of them is deeply resonant with the grace of the Lord who has empowered them by his Holy Spirit, so as to use them as primary ways of manifesting his life-giving presence and energy within the earthly church until the Eschaton. As Sergei Bulgakov once described it, the mysteries are the continuing signs that Pentecost is still occurring within the heart of Christ’s church, and their youthful, unfailing freshness is a sure sign of the authenticity and truth of the church (Bulgakov 1988: 110–11). All the Christian mysteries are eschatological in essence. They stand, as does the earthly church itself, poised between the two ages: this age of conflicted loyalty to God, the expectation of the kingdom, and the next Aeon where the Kingdom of God will be revealed as all in all. (Each of the greater mysteries – baptism, chrismation, Eucharist, confession [metanoia or exomologesis], ordination, marriage, and anointing of the sick – has a separate entry in this encyclopedia and can be further studied there.) |
| Photo: http://basilica.ro/ The Orthodox world is buzzing with the recent news repor t on the ordination of deaconesses in the Patriarchate of Alexandria. To the best of our knowledge, the ordination occurred after the Divine Liturgy in the nave of the temple, and appears to resemble the rite used to ordain subdeacons. This rite includes the presentation of the orarion, handlaying, a prayer, and the washing of the bishop’s hands. The reports do not offer details on the prayer said by the Patriarch. It seems that the Patriarch did not use the Byzantine Rite for the ordination of a deaconess, which takes place at the end of the anaphora (before the deacon intones the litany before the Lord’s Prayer, “Having remembered all the saints”), in the altar, and includes the deaconesses receiving Communion with the other clergy in the altar, according to order. While Patriarch Theodoros II appeared to use the rite for the ordination of subdeacons, the Patriarchate of Alexandria is referring to these newly-ordained women as deaconesses, and has appointed them to perform crucial sacramental and catechetical ministries as part of the Patriarchate’s missionary work. The ordination of these five deaconesses in Alexandria marks a turning point in the discussion about the order of deaconess within the Orthodox Church. To date, the restoration of the female diaconate has been limited to discussion, deliberation, and study – not to mention heated debate. With this ordination, we now have a historical episode of ordination and appointment to ministry, a pattern for what the female diaconate could become. Will the Alexandrian ordination become the new rite for the order of deaconess, or will the Church dust off the Byzantine rite of the ordination of a deaconess? What other ministries might the deaconesses execute? We do not know the answers to these questions. We do know that the debate on the female diaconate is going to intensify. As part of an ongoing research project, I’ve been asking Orthodox lay women and men for their opinions about the restoration of the order of deaconess. The responses seem to fit the positions presented by ideologues in the debate. Some people argue that restoring the order of deaconess is a legitimate application of ressourcement , of drawing upon our liturgical and ecclesiological history to appoint ministers who contribute to the building up of the body of Christ through particular gifts. Others depict the attempt to restore the deaconess as a trojan horse strategy to inject secular egalitarian values into the Church’s political theology. Others are unsure: one lay woman remarked that Orthodoxy “has the Panagia, and the Greek Orthodox Church has the Philoptochos Society – women essentially run the Church – why do we need a female diaconate?” |
| A Call for Liturgical Renewal The Liturgical Effectiveness of Pews Liturgical Life Last Updated: Feb 8th, 2011 - 05:50:02 A Call for Liturgical Renewal The Liturgical Effectiveness of Pews Mar 26, 2009, 10:00 Discuss this article Printer friendly page Source: The Internet Edition of St. Luke " s Mission Periodical Implied in the Orthodox liturgical tradition, and axiomatic as well in the modern Liturgical Movement, is the basic principle that what we do and what we say in corporate worship directly influences our beliefs, our attitudes and our daily behavior. That influence is indeed one of liturgical worship " s intended effects. Liturgy teaches. Liturgy is designed to affect life. Bad liturgy therefore has bad effects. Heretical worship sows the seeds of error. Boring services of worship bore. But the Divine Liturgy served in the beauty of holiness manifests the light of truth and inspires holy living. Few Orthodox believers in North America today would deny the validity of the above fundamental principle, especially when it comes to using, the language of the people in our services of worship. For how can the Word take full effect, if that sacred Word is spoken exclusively in a foreign tongue? We are quite conscious as well that the quality of the preaching, the excellence of the teaching, the beauty of the iconography, the loveliness of the singing, and everything else that contributes to the liturgical celebration, also directly influence the thinking and the living of those who participate in that Liturgy. But have we thought about the direct effects of having pews (or rows of chairs) installed in our churches for use during the Divine Liturgy and the other rites of the Church? Are pews, which we borrowed not so very long ago from the Protestants and the Roman Catholics (who borrowed them from the Protestants) a liturgical accretion without consequences? Or, do pews (and pew-like rows of chairs) make a significant difference in the life of the Church? Or is the idea they do make a difference perhaps only the bothersome complaint of reactionaries who want to obstruct the progress of Orthodoxy in the name of a false traditionalism? Asking ourselves these questions, we came up with the following painful observations. They lead us to the inescapable conclusion that pews and rows of chairs make a significant difference, a big difference, in our Orthodox Christian lives. That has absolutely nothing to do with jurisdictional differences or with shades of opinion in the Church, or with labels like " traditionalist " and " modernist. " It has everything to do with the Orthodox understanding of the Body of Christ, and the nature of liturgical worship. |
| Photo: eadiocese.org Over the course of nine days – November 21-30 – the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God, one of the most ancient holy icons of the Russian Orthodox Church (1295 A.D.) visited St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Washington, DC. Parishioners diligently prepared for the arrival of the wonderworking image. News of the icon’s impending arrival quickly spread, in order to alert as many of the faithful as possible of their opportunity to pray before this sacred 13th century icon. Several years ago, the Primate of the Russian Church Abroad, His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion, appointed the holiday of Thanksgiving and the week following to be the period in which the Kursk Root Icon would pay its annual visit to Washington. His Grace Nicholas, Bishop of Manhattan, since 2010 the guardian of the wonderworking icon, arrived on Wednesday evening, November 21, on the feast of the Holy Archangel Michael and the other Bodiless Powers of Heaven. The moment of the icon’s arrival coincided with the conclusion of the baptism of the infant Michael, who was blessed with the icon, much to his parents’ untold joy. The following day, on the American civil holiday of Thanksgiving, the people of God began to gather at 11 o’clock for the triumphal greeting and first moleben and akathist before the Kursk Root Icon. After the service, worshippers gathered in the parish hall for the traditional festal luncheon. Friday, November 23, was dedicated to visitation by the Kursk Root Icon of sick and elderly parishioners who were not able to personally attend the church services and venerate the holy image. That same evening, Bishop Nicholas took the Kursk Icon to the parish of the Holy Apostles in Beltsville, MD, where a moleben and akathist were served to the Most Holy Theotokos. The following day, November 24, the feast of the myrrh-streaming Montreal-Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, the Kursk Icon was brought to St. John the Baptist Cathedral for Divine Liturgy, and placed in the center of the church, next to an exact copy of the Montreal Icon, which had been painted on Mount Athos to mark the first anniversary of the murder of its faithful guardian, Jose Muñoz-Cortes. It was endearing to see both images placed together, these primary holy of the icons of the Russian Church Abroad. That same day, cathedral rector Archpriest Victor Potapov was celebrating his namesday (Holy Martyr Victor of Damascus). Praying at Liturgy were His Eminence, Metropolitan Jonah former primate of the Orthodox Church in America; retired) and His Grace Nicholas, Bishop of Manhattan. Upon conclusion of Liturgy, Fr. Victor delivered a sermon dedicated to the significant of these two highly venerated icons for Russia and the Russian Diaspora. |
| Preliminary Remarks In this article I shall present the main results of my research of the prayers and other euchological elements peculiar to the oldest extant Russian Leitourgika (Sluzhebniki) manuscripts of the 13 th –14 th centuries. These antedate the Russian liturgical reform of the turn of the 14–15 th centuries, when new translations of liturgical texts, including the Diataxis of Philotheos Kokkinos and corresponding new redactions of the eucharistic formularies, were introduced into Russian worship. One can find the details of this research in a series of my Russian articles: «The Rite of the Divine Liturgy in the Oldest (11 th –14 th -centuries) Slavonic Euchologia» 1 (in this article one can also find a full bibliography on the topic), «The Prayers During Clergy Communion in the Old-Russian Leitourgika» 2 , «The Priestly Prayers before the Beginning of the Divine Liturgy in the Old-Russian Leitourgika» 3 , and «Additional Prayers at the End of the Divine Liturgy According to the Slavonic Leitourgika of the 11–14 th centuries " 4 . What follows is but a brief resume of the results I reached in those studies. There are thirty-two manuscripts of the oldest – I will call them pre- Philothean – Russian redactions of the eucharistic formularies of St. Basil (BAS) and St. John Chrysostom (CHR) 5 . These exclude four late-14 th -century witnesses which already contain the Diataxis of Philotheos and any later manuscripts (though many of these could still preserve this or that element of the pre-Philothean practice). What one finds in these sources is by no means a pure Constantinopolitan redaction of the liturgies of CHR, BAS and the Presanctified liturgy (PRES). Of course, this classical set of the three liturgies still consists here of the same prayers as everywhere – i. e., the Prothesis prayer, the prayer of the first antiphon, etc. But the oldest Russian Leitourgika also contain many other prayers, which are not to be found in the famous Constantinopolitan Euchologia. One could compare this phenomenon with other «peripheral» redactions of CHR, such as the South Italian ones studied by Andre Jacob, and, more recently, by Stefano Parenti 6 . Indeed, there are some points of similarity between the South Italian sources and the pre-Philothean Russian Leitourgika, but there are also many differences. Alternative Prayers of South Italian CHR in the Old-Russian BAS |
| A Call for Liturgical RenewalThe Liturgical Effectiveness of Pews Are pews, which we borrowed not so very long ago from the Protestants and the Roman Catholics (who borrowed them from the Protestants) a liturgical accretion without consequences? Or, do pews (and pew-like rows of chairs) make a significant difference in the life of the Church? Or is the idea they do make a difference perhaps only the bothersome complaint of reactionaries who want to obstruct the progress of Orthodoxy in the name of a false traditionalism? Asking ourselves these questions, we came up with the following painful observations. Source: The Internet Edition of St. Luke’s Mission Periodical Implied in the Orthodox liturgical tradition, and axiomatic as well in the modern Liturgical Movement, is the basic principle that what we do and what we say in corporate worship directly influences our beliefs, our attitudes and our daily behavior. That influence is indeed one of liturgical worship’s intended effects. Liturgy teaches. Liturgy is designed to affect life. Bad liturgy therefore has bad effects. Heretical worship sows the seeds of error. Boring services of worship bore. But the Divine Liturgy served in the beauty of holiness manifests the light of truth and inspires holy living. Few Orthodox believers in North America today would deny the validity of the above fundamental principle, especially when it comes to using, the language of the people in our services of worship. For how can the Word take full effect, if that sacred Word is spoken exclusively in a foreign tongue? We are quite conscious as well that the quality of the preaching, the excellence of the teaching, the beauty of the iconography, the loveliness of the singing, and everything else that contributes to the liturgical celebration, also directly influence the thinking and the living of those who participate in that Liturgy. But have we thought about the direct effects of having pews (or rows of chairs) installed in our churches for use during the Divine Liturgy and the other rites of the Church? |
| Church Reading: A Vital Ministry Sometimes people say, " I am just a reader, " as though this were a petty or insignificant ministry. However, when the reader (whether tonsured or not) begins chanting the selection from the Acts or the Epistles, he or she is performing an evangelical ministry that is absolutely essential to the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, and as such it demands the same care and preparation as any other liturgical ministry. Orthodox Christian liturgy is an encounter with the incarnate Word of God, made possible through intelligible worship that touches us through every human sense: sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste. Yet, when we consider all the elements that comprise Orthodox liturgy—including processions, icons, incensations, making the sign of the cross, prostrations—the balance of worship is conducted through language. It is through the God-given gift of human language that we hear the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ; that we sing the liturgical texts, the psalms, the troparia, and the Creed; and that we pray and encounter Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God. At the epiclesis (the calling down of the Holy Spirit upon God’s people and the gifts of bread and wine) in the anaphora of the Divine Liturgy, we pray along with the priest, “Again we offer unto Thee this reasonable and bloodless worship.” The Greek word here translated as “reasonable” or “rational” is logikein, which comes from the root logos, the same word used by the evangelist in referring to Jesus Christ as the Word of God (John 1:10). Logikein refers to the human ability to think, know, and understand—the rational ability that sets human beings, made in God’s image and likeness, apart from irrational creatures. In short, one of the most characteristic facets of humanity is our ability to think, understand, and communicate through language. Thus, the Liturgy is not magic; when we gather for worship, we are not casting a spell. Rather we offer our thanksgiving, our eucharistia, to God through intelligible words. The primary task of the church reader is to proclaim the Word of God, and thus help facilitate the celebration of the Good News of Jesus Christ. |
| Accept The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy Metropolitan Hilarion: Holiness is a constant striving to imitate the Lord Jesus Christ On June 27th, the 1 st week after Pentecost, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for external church relations (DECR) and rector of the Ss Cyril and Methodius Institute of Post-Graduate Studies (CMI), celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist in-the-Woods. The church is a part of the Patriarchal Chernigov Metochion, which houses the CMI. Among the archpastor’s concelebrants were the head of the doctoral department of the CMI, Archpriest Alexy Marchenko, the vice-rector for educational work of the CMI, Hieromonk Pavel (Cherkasov), clergymen of the Metochion. During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, petitions were offered up for deliverance of the coronavirus infection. After the Litany, Metropolitan Hilarion lifted up a prayer recited at the time of the spread of baneful pestilence. In his sermon at the end of the divine service, Metropolitan Hilarion said the following: “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! On the first Sunday after the Pentecost, the Church commemorates all the saints. On the feast of the Pentecost, we remembered how the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles, and they spoke in tongues, and everyone from different nations began to recognize their dialect; how the illiterate Galilean fishermen became bold preachers of the Resurrection of Christ. And today, on the 1st Week after Pentecost, we remember how the Holy Spirit continued to work in the Church throughout the two thousand year period of its history. The Holy Spirit descended on the disciples of the Savior and inspired them to preach Crucified and Risen Christ. During the following centuries, up to the present time, the Holy Spirit has been acting and will continue to act in the Church. Thanks to His action and the assistance of people, the Church has never become impoverished and will not become impoverished in saints. |
| Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk heads liturgy at Moscow representation of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch Source: DECR Photo: mospat.ru On 26 th July 2022, on the feast of the Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel, celebrations took place at the metochion of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch to mark the patronal feast day. The Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Archangel Gabriel was celebrated by the Chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk and the representative of the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia and dean of the metochion, Metropolitan Niphon of Philippopolis. Photo: mospat.ru Serving with the bishops were the representative of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia to the Patriarch of Great Antioch and All the East archimandrite Philipp (Vasiltsev) and the clergy of the metochion. Protodeacon Vladimir Nazarkin headed the diaconal part of the service. At the conclusion of the Liturgy a prayer service was offered to the archangel Gabriel in the open air in the courtyard of the church. The prayer service was attended by representatives of the diplomatic missions of Mexico, Belgium, USA, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Montenegro, Argentina, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Romania, Luxemburg, Poland, Portugal, Brazil, Tunisia, Columbia, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Iraq, Albania, Palestine, France, Greece and Denmark. Among those present was also the president of the International Foundation for the Spiritual Unity of Nations V.A. Alexeyev. Photo: mospat.ru At the conclusion of the prayer service, Metropolitan Niphon of Philippopolis greeted the chairman of the DECR and said: “It is a great joy for me today, Vladyka, to convey to all those present at this celebration the love, blessing, prayers and greetings of our Patriarch, the Most Blessed John, Patriarch of Great Antioch and All the East. |
|
|
