main : catechism - services and sacraments

Like most of the Orthodox world, we celebrate the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom each week (except for those times of year when we, with most of the Orthodox world, use the slightly-different Divine Liturgy of St Basil the Great or the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts). This is largely the same the world over, but sadly, due to an disunified approach to translations, there is no one uniform translation into English. St Barnabas uses the translation provided by the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia and New Zealand, blessed by our Metropolitan Archbishop Paul, and employs congregational singing.

If this Divine Liturgy is unfamiliar to you and you wish to read it, a translation is provided by The Orthodox Page, a long-standing page about Orthodoxy on the internet. Although it may seem that it is the same service each week and, as such, may get boring, this is not the case: the Divine Liturgy is there to help us experience the unchanging God. A visitor often feels overwhelmed at first, but like a rollercoaster, one develops a way to make the Liturgy a means to God, through prayer and through Communion. One does not tire of the Liturgy; rather, one goes deeper and deeper. The more one lives in Christ, the more one realises the depth and challenge that God presents us.

The Divine Liturgy is often used as a re-presentation of Christ's life on earth. The litanies, with the psalms, are used to symbolise the prefiguration and prophecies of Christ; the Small Entrance represents the beginning of Christ's ministry, and the readings for His teachings; the Cherubic Hymn and the Great Entrance is used to symbolise the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem (on Palm Sunday), with the consecration representing the Last Supper, the administering of Communion for the Resurrection, and the return of the Body and Blood to the preparation table for the Ascension.

Before the Liturgy begins, the bread and wine are prepared by the priest in a service called the Proskomedia (preparation). The Divine Liturgy begins with the blessing and three litanies of prayers; but originally, the Liturgy began after what we today call the Small Entrance.

The practise of Hagia Sophia was to start prayers in the Church of Holy Wisdom (i.e. Hagia Sophia), and then to process to whichever church was dedicated to the feast of the day, with the antiphons used as processional hymns. Today's prayers of entrance were done at the entrance into the church.

The Small Entrance began as the entrance of the clergy into the ekklesia (the gathering of people). It then was the entrance of everyone into the dedicated church, having processed there from Hagia Sophia, Constantinople; and after that, it was used as the entrance of the Gospels, comcluded with the entrance hymn.

The Divine Liturgy appears to be the same service each week - and to a large extent, it is. Immediately after the Small Entrance, however, there are a number of items that vary, depending on what day and what date the Liturgy is celebrated:

Troparions: These are short hymns (approx. 30 seconds) that celebrate the saints or major events commemorated that day; and, on Sunday, there will be a troparion of the Resurrection (in a cycle of eight).

Kontakion: This hymn (also approx. 30 seconds) is based on the saint of the day or, more commonly, on a nearby feast occuring. It bears many similarities to a collect in Western Christian practise.

After this is the Thrice-Holy Hymn (Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us), which on certain days (particularly ones that baptisms were frequently done on) can change to a baptismal hymn from the Epistles of St Paul or a hymn regarding the Veneration of the Holy Cross.

Epistle and Gospel Readings: These change on a daily basis, and is usually based on what day of the week after Pentecost the Divine Liturgy is celebrated. Major events will have their own readings, and major saints will sometimes have their own readings. The epistle is read by a layperson, and the gospel is read by the deacon (or in his absence, the priest).

Sermon: After the Gospel reading, the priest or a person he designates will preach a sermon, often explaining the Gospel and Epistle readings to the congregation.

During some times of the year, particularly the Resurrection season (from the day of Resurrection itself until the day before the Ascension), many parts of the Divine Liturgy can change to highlight the significance of that feast; these variations are linked to throughout this text, and it must be noted that they are not the norm.

After the Sermon is the Cherubic Hymn and the Great Entrance. The origins of this were the entrance of the offering (i.e. bread, wine and water) into the altar, done with little pomp; nowadays, the Great Entrance is a procession from the prothesis (preparation) table, through the church and back to the altar, done with all solemnity. Nowadays, it is used to explain the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem.

After the Great Entrance, there are some litanies of prayers, during which is the recitation of the Nicene Creed. This is immediately preceded by the lines "Let us love one another, that with one mind we may confess / Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity one in essence and undivided", demonstrating the Orthodox understanding of love and unity of faith being essentially intertwined.

The unity of faith now confessed, the Liturgy turns to the consecration of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. In the Orthodox understanding of Communion, the bread and wine are infused with the Holy Spirit and additionally become, miraculously and mystically, the Body and Blood of Christ, as well as being bread and wine. After this momentous occasion, there is a hymn to the Mother of God preceding many other prayers, then the Lord's prayer is recited, and the partaking of Communion begins with the clergy, followed by Orthodox laity who have properly prepared to partake of the Body and Blood of Christ.

After this, there are some hymns, a number of litanies of thanksgiving prayers, and the service is concluded. In some churches, the sermon is done at the end of the Liturgy, rather than after the readings. After the conclusion of the service, some blessed bread (called 'antidoron') is distributed to the congregation, of which all are welcome to partake. After this, the remainder of Communion is consumed by clergy.

The Divine Liturgy is not the only service of the Orthodox Church; rather, the Church has given many services as a way of sanctifying the entire day. We have attempted to give an explanation of some of these services and their components on another page. The variations that can occur in the Divine Liturgy are listed in the Services section.

We must restate that knowing the texts is a different thing from praying these texts in community, as they were designed to be used. We invite you to visit us.

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Contact the Parish
P.O. Box 448
Southport   4215
Ph: (07) 5573 7977
E-mail: Fr Raymond
E-mail: Webmaster

Regular Services
Divine Liturgy
Sunday 8am
The Chapel,
18 Tonga Pl, Parkwood

The Parish of Saint Barnabas the Apostle, 2007-2008, is in the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia and New Zealand.
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