Types of services without priests?

[Brad Simmons]

So, I'm one of a handful of Orthodox Christians who live in a small town without an Orthodox Church. We're thinking of getting together and doing some priest-less services. We'll probably meet around dinnertime on Saturday night - although we may also meet on some Sunday mornings.

So what should we do? I Googled around and I ran into a whole bunch of terminology regarding priest-less (not to mention deacon-less) services in the Orthodox Church. But I don't know the differences between these nor do I know when you're supposed to do one vs. the other. So, briefly, what are the differences in practice and purpose between the following services?
-Typika
-Akathist
-Vespers
-Compline
-Reader's Service

I'm assuming these are all different things? Or is there some overlap? Is there an appropriate time/day to do one as opposed to another?

[Herman Blaydoe]

So, I'm one of a handful of Orthodox Christians who live in a small town without an Orthodox Church. We're thinking of getting together and doing some priest-less services. We'll probably meet around dinnertime on Saturday night - although we may also meet on some Sunday mornings.

So what should we do? I Googled around and I ran into a whole bunch of terminology regarding priest-less (not to mention deacon-less) services in the Orthodox Church. But I don't know the differences between these nor do I know when you're supposed to do one vs. the other. So, briefly, what are the differences in practice and purpose between the following services?
-Typika
-Akathist
-Vespers
-Compline
-Reader's Service

I'm assuming these are all different things? Or is there some overlap? Is there an appropriate time/day to do one as opposed to another?

I believe that "Typika" and "Reader's service" are the same thing, and it follows the form of the Divine Liturgy minus the priest's parts and obviously the Eucharist, although I have seen where if a deacon is present with a previously consecrated host, the Eucharist is dispensed to the faithful. At any rate, this would be an appropriate service for Saturday or Sunday morning if no priest is available. We will be celebrating the Reader Service this Sunday since our priest has to go out of town and was not able to get a substitute. It could also be combined with Third or Sixth Hour prayers to make the joy last a little longer.

An Akathist service generally has a "theme", it is somewhat similar in composition to a simplified Matins service. I have a book of akathists that lists 22, 1 to the Trinity, for repentance, 6 to Jesus Christ, 4 to the Theotokos and the rest to various saints. I don't know that there is any particular time that is "right", it can be done most any time. I believe in the Greek practice, the Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos is done on Friday evenings during Great Lent.

Vespers is specifically an evening service, typically sundown or thereabouts. Many comprehensive prayer books have the basic form included. It is one of my favorites.

Compline would be the "last service of the day", celebrated after the evening meal or before bed, say around 9pm or so. Along with Vespers, it is one of the "Hours". You might want to get a Book of the Hours which will have several services, including Midnight, First Hour, Matins, Third Hour, Sixth Hour, Ninth Hour, Vespers, and Compline. Lots to choose from there!

So I would recommend doing a Vespers service if on a Saturday night and you could combine it with Compline or an Akathist if you like. If Sunday morning, the Typica/Reader's Service which again could be combined with 3rd and 6th Hours depending. But hopefully there is a priest somewhere nearby that can give you a blessing to do so and perhaps might have a suggestion or two of his own?

Herman

[Anthony Stokes]

So, briefly, what are the differences in practice and purpose between the following services?
-Typika
-Akathist
-Vespers
-Compline
-Reader's Service

I'm assuming these are all different things? Or is there some overlap? Is there an appropriate time/day to do one as opposed to another?


Herman has already given some good information.

All of these can be done as a Reader's Service. Any service, besides the Liturgy or sacraments, can be done as a Reader's service. There is a form for Akathists, basically the Usual beginning with Psalm 50, then the Akathist or canon.

Vespers and Matins are done without clergy parts, replacing litanies with a specific number of Lord, have mercies (3 for Little Litanies, 40 for Great Litanies or Augmented Litanies -I think, that could be 12).

Typika is usually done instead of the Liturgy, attached to the 3rd and 6th hour.

Compline and Nocturnes are basically already Reader's Services, minus the litany at the end.

Also note that all of these can be done with a choir or chanters singing the usual sung parts of the services.

As far as times of day, Vespers is the evening service, followed by Compline before bed, Nocturnes early in the morning, Matins is the morning service, followed by the hours and Typika. The Akathist can be served any time.

Hope this helps a little.

Subdeacon Anthony

[Paul Cowan]

You might want to contact the jurisdiction (Antiochian) the group leans towards and see if they will be willing to open you up as a (Antiochian) mission. If so, I am sure they can give you all the material to move forward. You will also fall under the presiding (Antiochian) Bishop who can give you direction or appoint a "nearby" (Antiochian) priest to come celebrate with you once a month or quarter. At least you will be on someone's radar and not floundering on your own.

Paul

Sorry for all the subliminal (Antiochian) messaging. ;)

If for some strange reason you were thinking about looking at the Antiochian side of the house, here is their link (http://antiochian.org/missions)for more info.

[Father David Moser]

This website (http://pages.prodigy.net/frjohnwhiteford/services.htm) has the entire horologion set up for reader's services. It also has files which are kept up to date for the changeable parts of the typica service, which are set up to fit right in with the horologion files. Since Vespers has a lot more changeable material, it is harder to do without the books and without some kind of "knowhow". I would suggest for a beginner, to use the typica for morning and small compline for evening. I send off a file each week to a mission that I "take care of" with the vespers material, because they wouldn't be able to do it otherwise (and even my stuff I get from another priest who sends it out to his outlying missions). A website with these files would be working in murky copyright areas since the translations of the daily and octoechos materials (the changeable stuff) are all under copyright.

Fr David Moser

[Sophronia]

So, I'm one of a handful of Orthodox Christians who live in a small town without an Orthodox Church. We're thinking of getting together and doing some priest-less services. We'll probably meet around dinnertime on Saturday night - although we may also meet on some Sunday mornings.

Christ is Risen!
I am the acting Reader for a small priestless (at the moment) parish in Northern NH so most services here are conducted by our Deacon or myself. If you wish to Serve the reader's Service of Vespers on Saturday eve or eve of Feasts and need the weekly changeable parts just go to oca.org and go to the section Liturgical Texts and Services. It is wonderful resource as they post the text of Stichera, Troparia and Kontakia which are in PDF format to download and print for Liturgical use for every weekend of the year and major feasts. This material combined with the website Fr. David posted should get you all that you need.

Iconographer Alexandra

[Michael Astley]

I wonder whether I may ask for some help.

I am doing the typika on Sunday as our priest is away. We shall do the hours first then go straight into the typka. I have studied the texts and rubrics in the horologion and it seemed a fairly straightforward service. However, having consulted Father John Whiteford's excellent site, I am now wondering whether I have misunderstood something.

According to the rubrics of the horologion, after the Lord's Prayer comes a series of kontakia. This is the only reference that I can find to them in the course of the service. Fr John's site also lists these kontakia in order but, in addition, gives the texts of some troparia in a separate position before the Prokeimenon and Epistle. You can see what I mean here (http://www.saintjonah.org/typ/typ_hf7council.htm). However, nowhere are these troparia mentioned in the horologion.

As the typika is excerpts from the Divine Liturgy, Fr John's placement of the troparia would make perfect sense. However, they are not mentioned in the rubrics. Is this simply an oversight in the horolgion rubrics? If so, how should it properly be structured?

Thank you.

Pax,
Michael

[Anthony Stokes]

As the typika is excerpts from the Divine Liturgy, Fr John's placement of the troparia would make perfect sense. However, they are not mentioned in the rubrics. Is this simply an oversight in the horolgion rubrics? If so, how should it properly be structured?
Thank you.
Pax,
Michael


Michael,
it is correct in the horologion. There is no place in the Typica for the Troparia of the day. They would be read at the Hours, but the Typica does not use them. You would just use the Kontakia of the day when appointed.

Sbdn. Anthony

[Father David Moser]

According to the rubrics of the horologion, after the Lord's Prayer comes a series of kontakia. This is the only reference that I can find to them in the course of the service. Fr John's site also lists these kontakia in order but, in addition, gives the texts of some troparia in a separate position before the Prokeimenon and Epistle. You can see what I mean here (http://www.saintjonah.org/typ/typ_hf7council.htm). However, nowhere are these troparia mentioned in the horologion.

I'm not sure what you looking at. In the online text of the reader's typica (http://www.saintjonah.org/services/typica.htm) from the horologion that is on Fr John's website the place for the troparia and kontakia are quite clearly marked. There are even embedded links to the texts of the troparia and kontakia of the day. The troparia come, just as in the liturgy, after the entrance hymn and before trisagion. The kontakia come much later in the service after the Creed and the Our Father as you noted.

Fr David Moser

[Michael Astley]

Thank you, Subdeacon Anthony. You have corroborated my previous understanding.

Thank you, as well, Father David. I had not explored Fr John's site in very great detail and had only looked up the variable portions of the Typika. I had not realised that he also included the "common" text of the typika.

Following the link that you kindly provided, I see that the text on Fr John's site differs in a number of places from the horologion that I have. As mentioned above, the horologion does not include the troparia that would be sung at the Liturgy. Fr John's version also includes the "Come, let us worship" and the Trisagion, which do not appear in the horologion. I am sure that these are perfectly legitimate variations and that there are just different traditions that exist but the horologion is what I have been blessed to use by my priest in his absence so I shall stick with that for now. However, I am grateful for the exposure to the fuller version that appears on Fr John's website and shall perhaps ask a blessing to use that in future.

Pax,
Michael

[Michael Astley]

I think that I may have found the cause of the difference. I have followed the link to the main page of the "Reader Service Horologion" on Father John's site and found the following:


The structure of these services is based on the Old-Rite Typikon for Reader’s Services, by Bishop Daniel (ROCA), as translated by Fr. George Lardas.

These are the forms of service in use prior to the Nikonian reforms. I actually prefer the fuller forms of the Old Rite as they better highlight the similarities between then Typika and the Missa Sicca (which is the Western Rite equivalent). However, I am not sure that we would be able to receive a blessing to use them. I could always ask, of course.

In Christ,
Michael

[Father David Moser]

Following the link that you kindly provided, I see that the text on Fr John's site differs in a number of places from the horologion that I have. ... I am sure that these are perfectly legitimate variations and that there are just different traditions that exist

One of the reasons for these differences is that the horologion (at least the one that Jordanville prints) is not set up for reader's services but is instead the typical service for the entire cycle. When one is doing the entire cycle, the typica never "stands alone" but is always done in the context of the hours and the liturgy (yes, the typica is done even when the liturgy is done, iirc). The typica in this context is not a "replacement" for the liturgy but rather the liturgy is an extraordinary insertion into the regular full cycle of services of which the typica is a part. I'm not sure that this inclusion of the typica is normally done in many places (certainly not outside of a monastery). During Great Lent, however, typica plays a much more important role in the cycle of the weekday service. In that case, the typica is always chanted, even when the liturgy of the presanctified gifts is served.

In the regular rotation of horologian services the typica is not presumed to be separated out as a replacement for liturgy, however, it certainly would be a placeholder. The reader's service horologion that Fr John posted on his site is set up for priestless services (such as you are using) and thus the typica does play a more prominent role since there will be no liturgy and so it is an "enriched" text since it now stands not as a supplement to but rather as a replacement for the liturgy.

When I have been in a situation to serve the morning cycle but without the liturgy (for example in a missionary situation where I would be the only baptized Orthodox Christian there and so could not do the liturgy), I usually choose to do matins along with hours and typica - or only matins and typica (similar to the way most Byzantine parishes do with matins/liturgy on Sunday mornings).

Fr David Moser

[Michael Astley]

Oh my!

It's much more complicated than I originally anticipated. I think I understand, though.

I shall speak with my parish priest about this perhaps for the next time we do this and see what he says. I would prefer to do the "enriched" version.

Thank you, Father David.

In Christ,
Michael