In its theological richness, spiritual significance, and variety, the worship of the Orthodox Church represents one of the most significant factors in its continuity and identity. It helps to account for the survival of Christianity during the many centuries of Muslim rule in the Middle East and the Balkans when the liturgy was the only source of religious knowledge or experience. Since liturgical practice was practically the only religious expression legally permitted under Soviet Communism, the continuous existence of Orthodox communities in the region was also centered almost exclusively around the liturgy.

The Church is most authentically itself when the congregation of the faithful is gathered together in worship is a basic expression of Orthodox experience. Without that understanding it is impossible to realize the fundamentals of Church structure in Orthodoxy, with the bishop functioning in his essential roles of archpastor and priest in the liturgy. Likewise the personal experience of man’s participation in divine life is understood in the framework of the continuous liturgical action of the community.

According to many authorities, one of the reasons why liturgy has had a stronger impact on the Eastern Orthodox Church than has its western counterpart is that it has always been viewed as a total experience, appealing simultaneously to the emotional, intellectual, and aesthetic faculties of man. The liturgy includes a variety of symbols and ways of communicating, using formal theological statements as well as bodily perceptions and movements, including music, incense, bowing, and iconography. All are meant to convey the content of the Christian faith to the educated and the noneducated alike.

The Orthodox Church has always been conservative in liturgical matters. This conservatism is due, in particular, to the absence of a central authority that could enforce reforms, and to the firm conviction of the Church membership as a whole that the liturgy is the main vehicle and experience of true Christian beliefs. As a result, change in the liturgy is often considered as equivalent to a change in the faith itself. However inconvenient this conservatism may be, the Orthodox liturgy has preserved many essential Christian values transmitted directly from the experience of the early Church.

Throughout the centuries, the Orthodox liturgy has been richly embellished with cycles of hymns from a wide variety of sources. While keeping many biblical and early Christian elements, Orthodox liturgy put to use the lavish resources of patristic theology and early Christian poetry, as well as some gestures of imperial court ceremonial, in order to convey the realities of God’s kingdom.

Normally the content of the liturgy is directly accessible to the faithful, because the Liturgy is expected to be served in the language of the people. Translation of the Scriptures and liturgy into various languages was undertaken by the medieval Byzantines, as well as by modern Orthodox missionaries. Saints Cyril and Methodius are celebrated for translating the Scriptures and services into the language of the Slavs in the tenth century, while Saints Innocent of Alaska and Nikolai of Japan are remembered for their missionary success and their labor translation for the Japanese, Aleut, and Tlingit peoples in recent centuries. Missionaries today continue this work in Uganda, India, Haiti, Indonesia, and elsewhere.

The Eucharistic Liturgies

Two eucharistic liturgies are generally used in Orthodox worship: the Liturgies of Saint John Chrysostom and of Saint Basil the Great. Both were standardizations of the Liturgy during the Church’s fourth century. During the fasting period of Lent, a service of Communion is celebrated in the evening with elements reserved from those consecrated on the previous Sunday. This “Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts ” was written by St. Gregory the Great in the sixth century.

The Liturgies of Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Basil each begin with a processional entrance into the sanctuary with the Gospel and the “liturgy of the word”, consisting of readings from the New Testament Epistles and the Gospels, and usually a sermon. Anciently, this part of the liturgy ended with the dismissal of the catechumens – inquirers who, until they were baptized, were not admitted to the sacramental part of the service. The second half of the service, the “liturgy of the faithful”, includes another ceremonial procession into the sanctuary. In this “Great Entrance”, the priest carries bread and wine from the place of preparation up to the altar. The Creed, the eucharistic canon, the Lord’s Prayer, and Communion follow. The bread used for the Eucharist is leavened, and the faithful receive both bread and wine, the Body and Blood of Christ.

Liturgical Time

One of the characteristic marks of the Orthodox liturgical tradition is the wealth and variety of hymnody marking the cycles of day, season, and year in worship. As the first Christians did in their Jewish tradition of feasts, fasts, and daily liturgical worship, Orthodox Christianity sanctifies time so that it becomes grace-bearing.

The Church has inherited from Judaism the custom of reckoning the day from one sunset to the next. Accordingly, the evening marks the beginning of each day. Thus, the liturgical daily cycle begins with the service of Vespers (evening prayer), Compline (prayers before sleep), the Midnight Office, Matins (morning prayer), and the short services which are prayed during the day at the First, Third, Sixth, and Ninth Hours (familiar from the New Testament as approximately 6:00am, 9:00am, noon, and 3:00pm.). These services are served in full in monasteries, while liturgical life in parishes is kept as fully as life in the world permits.

The Paschal cycle dominates all offices of the entire year and illustrates the absolute centrality of the Resurrection in the Orthodox faith. The date of Pascha, set at the Council of Nicaea in 325AD, is the Sunday following the full moon after the spring equinox. Differences between the East and West in computing the date exist because the Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar for establishing the date of the equinox (hence a delay of 13 days) and also because of the tradition that Pascha must necessarily follow the Jewish Passover, never preceding or coinciding with it.

A weekly cycle begins each year at Pascha (Easter) and continues the commemoration of the Resurrection all year long: Each week following the Pascha has its own musical tone, a family of melodies to with which all the hymns of the week are sung. Because Pascha occurs on a different date every year, the “movable feasts” related to it (such as Ascension and Pentecost) and the weekly cycle are different every year.

And, finally, each day of the year commemorates particular saints, feasts, or fasts. This annual cycle, along with the Paschal cycle of movable feasts, the weekly cycle of eight tones and the daily commemoration of saints and feasts all interact so that Orthodox services are never precisely identical.