Service when there is no clergy?

[James Jufer]

What kind of service takes place if a parish does not have any ordained clergy? Just curious.

[Herman Blaydoe]

What kind of service takes place if a parish does not have any ordained clergy? Just curious.

You might want to check out this:
What can an individual faraway from a church do to keep the feasts? (http://www.monachos.net/forum/showthread.php?t=6518)

But most often, a reader service is held. It is a shortened version of the Divine Liturgy with the clergy parts omitted and some appropriate substitutions put in.

YOu might find this website useful:
The Online Reader Service (http://www.saintjonah.org/services/horologion.htm)

[Ryan Close]

Yes, the The Online Reader Service (http://www.saintjonah.org/services/horologion.htm) project is very helpful, except that it does not have a full number of sichera and apostakia for Vespers. None in fact. I have the Great Horlogion at home and the abbreviated calendar / Menaion has some Dismissal Hymns and the life of the saint, but no Matins cannons, Vespers stichera, and apostakia. My wife and I like to sing Vespers but unless I print this stuff out at work we don't have anything to say. So what I do is just chant the four dismissal hymns or whatever they are in place of the stichera and my wife chants the refrains from the Psalm.

I have three questions. First, what exactly are the parts provided in the abbreviated Menaion in the Great Horlogion? Second, where can we find the stichera, and apostakia we need to do Vespers at home? Short of photocopying the Menaion. And if it is a digital solution, we don't have internet at home and I would be concerned with what would happen if there was no more electricity one day, then we would be back where we started. What is a dismissal hymn and how do we use it at home?

[Michael Astley]

Dear Ryan,

It is commendable that you and your wife do this.

The stikhera and aposticha for each day of the week for each of the eight tones are to be found in the Octoechos. I have the four-volume set from the St John of Kronstadt Press but I only know of its existence online in Slavonic (http://www.st-sergius.org/services/services31.html). However, the texts for Sundays (Saturday evening Vespers) in the eight tones are available in English here (http://www.st-sergius.org/services/services2.html). That should be enough for a basic offering of the services as it will take you through the daily observances of the Church:

Sunday - the Resurrection of the Saviour
Monday - The Bodiless Hosts
Tuesday - St John the Forerunner
Wednesday - The Precious and Life-giving Cross
Thursday - The Holy Apostles and St Nicholas of Myra
Friday - The Precious and Life-giving Cross
Saturday - the Departed and All Saints

If you want to do more and have time to do the preparation, then you can also observe the Saints and feasts in addition to the daily celebrations. The texts of the stikhera and aposticha for each of the Saints may found in the Menaion, but this is very expensive (I'm talking about four figures for all twelve volumes). You may be able to find services to individual Saints online if you look hard enough (some of them are out there), but it is much easier to use what is called the General Menaion. This is a collection of what of us from western tradition will know as "commons". Therefore, this coming Saturday evening, instead of trawling the internet or buying the volume of the Menaion that contains the service to St Matthew the Apostle, you can just look in the General Menaion for the general service to apostles, and insert the name of St Matthew at the appropriate points. The General Menaion is online here (http://www.st-sergius.org/services/services1.html). I have the printed edition of 1899 which is now out of print. However, this edition is available in PDF format here (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/anonymous/menaion.html). You may be able to print and bind it so you have it ready for use at home.

The only snag with this is that there are rules for combining the stikhera of the day of the week (listed above) with those of the saint or other celebration of the day, and these vary depending on the rank of feast or Saint, and on some days there will be two Saints to observe in addition to the observance of the day. This sort of effort is needed when putting services together for church but it may be too complex for private prayers at home. You may find that you spend more time putting the services together than you do actually praying.

My suggestion, which you must feel free to completely ignore if it is not helpful to you in your situation, is to start small. Perhaps just do the basic services from the Octoechos to start with. In time, perhaps you can start departing from this on days such as the twelve great feasts, and on your and your wife's name days, when you would observe the service to your patron Saints. If you want to more later, then that's up to you, but the above seems more than adequate for simple household prayers.

There are some good resources here (http://www.rocor.org.uk/links.html).

In Christ,
Michael

[Olga]

Ryan, the dismissal hymn, also known by the Greek term apolytikion, is the main hymn (troparion) of the feast.

[Father David Moser]

Second, where can we find the stichera, and apostakia we need to do Vespers at home? Short of photocopying the Menaion. And if it is a digital solution, we don't have internet at home and I would be concerned with what would happen if there was no more electricity one day, then we would be back where we started. What is a dismissal hymn and how do we use it at home?

If you look at the liturgical materials on this page (Holy Archangel's, Phoenix) (http://www.holyarchangelschurch.org/) the octoechos and menaion materials are set out for each week. If you want to have the books, like if there's no electricity or whatever, well, then there's really no better solution than to purchase them. If services are so important (and they are for me!) isn't it worth a couple of thousand dollars (total outlay, at the most) to have all the liturgical resources at your fingertips?

Fr David Moser

[Nathaniel Woon]

Fr. David,

The services are important indeed but a couple of thousand dollars is quite beyond many people living outside the US. It will involve quite a bit of sacrifice to slowly gather the various liturgical books necessary.

[Ryan Close]

Vespers is my favorite service. And the sichera and apostakia are what makes each night unique and didactic. They also serve to remind you that we commemorate different saints every day of the year not just on Sundays. I know how to use the Menaion at our parish and it's startling simplicity actually inspired me to do as authentic a form of Vespers as I could at home. My wife loves the hymns "O Gladsome Light" and "Lord, now let your servant." My wife and I used the General Menaion service for the Theotokos this last week for Vespers of the Entrance. But you could definitely tell that the stichera and apostakia were general. It would be great to have to hymns and refrains for the Feast. So yes, I have thought of that. I hadn't thought of the Octoechos being a source of movable parts on the weekly level. These are good suggestions.

I called a friend from church and asked her and she said that Vespers is usually done in the community or in a Monastery. Then she told me about how she prays the Morning and Evening Prayers and then adds Akathists if she wants to pray more. Almost like she was trying to discourage me. Like, "Sing an Akathist instead, Ryan." I told my wife and she wants if we are even supposed to sing Vespers at home?

I want to work up to a full cycle of daily prayer. At first I thought of doing Vespers, Compline, Midnight, and Matins. But I think Matins is very complex. Evening Prayer from prayer books is a domestic form of Compline. Morning Prayer is a domestic form of Midnight. So here is what I plan to work up to, God willing, and if it is spiritually edifying and beneficial for my family. This prayer rule organizes our daily prayer into four times, Dusk, Dark, Dawn, and Day.

Dusk - 6:30 pm - Vespers (w/ Psalm 103, Phos Hillarion, Vouchsafe, & Nunc Dimittis) and occasionally Akathists & Cannons
Dark - 10:00pm - Small Compline or Evening Prayer (w/ Psalm 50)
Dawn - 6:30am - Midnight or Morning Prayer (w/ Psalm 50 (or 94 - Venite), Nicene Creed, Magnificat, and other canticles)
Day - Noon - The Hours 1st, 3rd, 6th, & 9th (or one per day when convenient)

If I don't do Matins, when would I read the morning Kathismata? I also want to add Te Deum to this somewhere.

Thanks for all your help.

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

I don't know if someone has already suggested this or not. But for great feasts like the Entrance of the Theotokos you should purchase The Festal Menaion. This has all of the material -Small Vespers, Great Vespers, Matins, material for Liturgy- which a person would use if they did these services. It is very affordable in price.

By the way, Vespers is very 'do-able' as a reader's service at home. Simply replace the litanies with Lord have mercy (12 or 40x) or a bit of the Jesus Prayer. Start and end the service with 'Through the prayers of our holy fathers O Lord Jesus Christ our God have mercy on us. Amen'.

Compline is normally done right after supper- not so late as 10pm.

Matins is much more difficult to learn to do and to accomplish on a daily basis.

The kathisma could be done at a certain point or certain points during the day. Otherwise just read through the Psalter one 'Glory' at a time at Vespers. It is very, very difficult to accomplish the actual Psalter schedule otherwise, if you are alone (even in parishes they often only do one or two psalms from the appointed 'Glory').

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[Father David Moser]

Fr. David,

The services are important indeed but a couple of thousand dollars is quite beyond many people living outside the US. It will involve quite a bit of sacrifice to slowly gather the various liturgical books necessary.

I realize this, and that was not the point of the comment. My comment was in reply to Ryan who was looking for some kind of printed resource that summarizes the various texts one would need for vespers. Since the typicon cycle is something like 400+ years (each day being different within that cycle) such a book would be huge and expensive (if it were even possible to print) - and by the way if you follow the so called new calendar there is no cyclical nature to the typicon and thus a new book every year in perpetuity would be required.

So if you are looking for the least expensive alternative to acquire the necessary materials for services and you don't want to use the internet (or at least don't want to rely upon the internet resources), it is best to simply purchase the books.

If one were to set out to purchase the books, here is how I would do it (listed prices are approximations drawn from my own memory and assumptions):
1. Psalter ($50)
2. Unabridged horologion ($50)
3. Sunday Octoechos ($30)
4. General Menaion ($30)
5. Festal Menaion ($40)
6. Lenten Trioidion ($40)
7. Paschal Triodion (Pentecostarion) ($40)
8. Full menaion ($1000)
9. Full Octoechos ($50)
10. Book of Needs (for occasional services) ($100)
11. Misc services

Another approach is to use the "old standbys" that were all we had in English back in the day:
King James Bible (with some reference on how to "translate" the psalm numbering)
Hapgood's Service Book
Nasser
Orloff Octoechos (Sunday only)
Orloff General Menaion
Faber and Faber Triodion
Faber and Faber Festal Menaion
There was also the Monastery of the Veil Octoechos and Triodion Suppliment, but they were hard to find then and are almost impossible to find now.

Hapgood is still available, I don't know about Nasser (but I would assume so). Both of Orloff's books are out of print. The Faber and Faber books have been reprinted and should be available.

Fr David Moser

[Ryan]

St. Tikhon's press publishes the Lenten Triodion and Festal Menaion now. They also publish a supplement to the Lenten Triodion- not sure if this is the same as the Monastery of the Veil text. St. Tikhon's is currently having a Thanksgiving sale (it goes until 11/30) with 40% off of all their publications, so it might be worth visiting them now to get your hands on their liturgical texts. Go to stspress.org to order online.

[Nathaniel Woon]

Dear Fr. David,

Father bless!

I agree with you that it is best to obtain the books. We tried printing services out from the Net and there is always a problem of what to do with the printed sheets that are no longer in use. The most expensive item on your list is the Menaion. Through the kindness of many benefactors, our mission has everything else that we need.

Most of the books listed can be obtained fairly easily - the obnly item that is a little hard to obtain is the Pentecostarion by HTM (though SJKP has published a wonderful version of the Pentecostarion now).

I am intrigued by you comment 'by the way if you follow the so called new calendar there is no cyclical nature to the typicon and thus a new book every year in perpetuity would be required.' I am aware that some fasts ( e.g. the Apostles fast) sometinmes are shortened or disappear with the use of the new calendar.

Kissing your right hand,

Nathaniel

[Nathaniel Woon]

Hi Ryan,

The Lenten Triodion Supplement is by the same people who translated the Lenten Triodion and Festal Menaion, Metropolitan Kallistos and Mother Mary. i am not sure if the supplemet has everything that completes the Lenten Triodion as SJKP had some time back yet another books iwth some services not in the supplement(which was at that time then published in France)

Is the discount really for all STS publications? We could do with some prayer books if so.

Nathaniel

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

Nathaniel Woon wrote:



i am not sure if the supplemet has everything that completes the Lenten Triodion as SJKP had some time back yet another books iwth some services not in the supplement(which was at that time then published in France)

The STS Press Lenten Triodion Supplement supplies everything not found in the main Lenten Triodion (also published by STS Press). In effect this means most of the weekday services of Great Lent.

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[Herman Blaydoe]

I am intrigued by you comment 'by the way if you follow the so called new calendar there is no cyclical nature to the typicon and thus a new book every year in perpetuity would be required.' I am aware that some fasts ( e.g. the Apostles fast) sometimes are shortened or disappear with the use of the new calendar.

I believe I read somewhere that the Old Calendar cycle repeats itself every 576 years or so. The fact that the Revised Calendar still uses the Old Calendar in reckoning the date of Pascha, it throws the revised cycle off a bit. Not to put too fine a point on it, but in that none of us will live long enough to observe a "full cycle", and who knows what the next centuries hold in the way of calendars, typicons, Paschalia, recording media, and the Second Coming, I suspect the point is somewhat moot.

Herman the cyclic Pooh

[Theodora E.]

Yes, Nasser is still available - it's the the source text for the Antiochian Archdiocese. You can get it through Light & Life, St. Tikhon's Monastery Bookstore, and various other Orthodox sources. I think it runs about $40 (or less). Translation is quite awkward in places, though.

If someone wants to start out small, by doing the Hours, STS Press has a new Hours and Typika little book that is quite nice.

[Nathaniel Woon]

Fr. Raphael,

This is the book that I am speaking of - is everything here to be found in the newly published Lenten Triodion Supplement? How useful would this be for a group of Orthodox away from the nearest parish?

Lenten Triodion & Pentecostarion Supplementary Texts
trans. Br. Isaac Lambertsen
Originally published in Living Orthodoxy, here compiled are a number of texts for the Triodion & Pentecostarion periods which are not found in any of the published editions. These texts are primarily canons for use at Compline throughout the period.

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

Nathaniel wrote:


This is the book that I am speaking of - is everything here to be found in the newly published Lenten Triodion Supplement? How useful would this be for a group of Orthodox away from the nearest parish?

Sorry- I don't know what you mean by: is everything here to be found in the newly published Lenten Triodion Supplement? But if you have this book plus the Lenten Triodion (Kallistos Ware, etc) then you have every service for Great Lent including Holy Week.



Originally published in Living Orthodoxy, here compiled are a number of texts for the Triodion & Pentecostarion periods which are not found in any of the published editions. These texts are primarily canons for use at Compline throughout the period.

These canons are only for the period of the Pentecostarion. Some editions in Greek & Slavonic have them- others do not.

In Christ- Fr Raphael
PS: I remember that Isaac Lambertsen also translated the 'missing' canon to the Holy Prophets from the first Sunday in Great Lent and this appeared in Living Orthodoxy. I think it would be done at Small Compline on Sunday night of the first week of Great Lent. I can't remember whether this canon is found anywhere else than Living Orthodoxy.

[Father David Moser]

Fr. Raphael,

This is the book that I am speaking of - is everything here to be found in the newly published Lenten Triodion Supplement? How useful would this be for a group of Orthodox away from the nearest parish?

Unless this group is planning on having weekday services during Lent the suppliment may not be at all useful. The Lenten Triodion from Faber and Faber has all the weekend material as well as first week, holy week and some of the days of the 5th week (Great Canon and Akathist). In the parish, the only time I actually use the supplement is to pull the vesper hymns used at presanctified liturgy throughout the week.

Fr David Moser

[Nathaniel Woon]

Fr. Raphael and David,

Thank you for clarification. I have the Lenten Triodion and have recently got a copy of the Lenten Triodion Supplement. We have to make orders of books way in advance if we need them. The group of folks who meet up every Sunday in Kuala Lumpur is growing and so we have to be more prepared for the future.

Nathaniel in Malaysia

[Anthony]

Are reader services always an option when there is no priest available, or does one need a special blessing? What about a situation where there is no reader, or no Orthodox community at all? Is it better in such a case to stick to private prayers?

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

Are reader services always an option when there is no priest available, or does one need a special blessing? What about a situation where there is no reader, or no Orthodox community at all? Is it better in such a case to stick to private prayers?

These are mainly matters of discussion with one's parish priest/spiritual father.

However if we are members of a parish since that is where services occur then normally at home we only do the Morning & Evening Prayers from the Prayer Book.

Reader's services are possible at home- but this should be seen as the exception since the services are a liturgical reality. For example services within the church always involve the movement of the clergy in a liturgical fashion. This movement is an inherent aspect of the service as a liturgical reality and should never be seen as just some sort of functional add on. In general then reader's services should only be done in those exceptional circumstances where a parish is not available as part of one's Church life.

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[Father David Moser]

Are reader services always an option when there is no priest available, or does one need a special blessing? What about a situation where there is no reader, or no Orthodox community at all? Is it better in such a case to stick to private prayers?

Having a reader service presupposes some kind of parish structure (even if as a detached mission you are functioning as a subset of an existing parish). Thus whoever is assigned as the rector of the parish or mission should give a blessing for any kind of formal public service (that is a reader service when there is no priest). That usually means that you ask the bishop/priest/person-in-charge if its ok to have the services when the priest is not available - usually not a problem.

When there is no community at all (like when you are part of a parish but live in an isolated area - I have a few members in this situation), then you can have the reader services in your home (with the blessing of the rector of the parish of which you are a part). Remember, however, that such services are not private events but public prayer and thus your home becomes a little Church and you must be willing to welcome all who come to pray with you (just as you would welcome visitors at the Church). In my parish, when there are reader services in a private home (in one of those outlying homes) many times those services are "advertised" in the local area (basically just letting folks know - sometimes by word of mouth or maybe an occasional notice in the local paper, whatever - that its happening) as a missionary effort.

Fr David Moser

[Ryan Close]

However if we are members of a parish since that is where services occur then normally at home we only do the Morning & Evening Prayers from the Prayer Book.

Dear Father,

This sounds like the advice someone from my parish gave me. She said that Vespers is done in the community so that normally people just do the Morning and Evening Prayers at home. These correspond to a domesticated form of Midnight and Compline. But like I said, I would like to start doing a more full schedule of services myself. I have asked my parish to add services but they are not going to do it. I am choir member, an altar server, and on a few committees. I am not a reader. I asked our choir mistress and she said has given me some advice on how to pray the hours with the Church. I thought that this was the ideal. For all Christians to be able to pray with the Church. That is why Archimandrite Cherubim from the Monastery of the Paraclete, in Attica Greece published his little Manual of the Hours. But now I have heard from two very respected persons on the idea that Orthodox lay people should not pray the Hours with the Church. I just want to do what is right.

Ryan

[David James]

Dear Father,

This sounds like the advice someone from my parish gave me. She said that Vespers is done in the community so that normally people just do the Morning and Evening Prayers at home. These correspond to a domesticated form of Midnight and Compline. But like I said, I would like to start doing a more full schedule of services myself. I have asked my parish to add services but they are not going to do it. I am choir member, an altar server, and on a few committees. I am not a reader. I asked our choir mistress and she said has given me some advice on how to pray the hours with the Church. I thought that this was the ideal. For all Christians to be able to pray with the Church. That is why Archimandrite Cherubim from the Monastery of the Paraclete, in Attica Greece published his little Manual of the Hours. But now I have heard from two very respected persons on the idea that Orthodox lay people should not pray the Hours with the Church. I just want to do what is right.

Ryan

Servant of God Ryan:

The heart of the Divine Office is praying the Psalms. Certainly one thing you could do, if you wish to do more than the morning and evening prayers in the Prayer Book, is to include the reading of the Psalter as part of your prayer rule (always assuming that you discuss your prayer life with your confessor and follow his advice). This is a very traditional practice in Orthodoxy. If you look in the Psalter, there are prayers for before and after reading the Psalter, and the troparia and prayers printed in the Psalter after each kathisma are specifically for those reading the Psalter at home. Depending on your strength and available time, you can read the Psalter one stasis at a time, or one kathisma at a time, or even try to read the Psalter through weekly, following the guidelines printed in the Psalter. For your private prayer, this is a more traditional way to augment your prayer rule.

As other posters have commented, the church services are communal by their nature. There are guidelines for conducting the whole cycle of services as reader services, but these are intended for parishes that are too small to support a resident priest, or if the priest is ill or absent for some reason and a substitute cannot be found, or in missionary situations, where one is attempting to gather a community together for the purposes of founding a parish. In the later case, this should only be undertaken after consulting the diocesan bishop, and with his blessing. For replacing the services at home, when one is unable for some reason to attend the services at one's parish, there are other practices, such as the Rite of the Twelve Psalms, which are, again, explained in the Psalter. It should be noted that, if one does chant these "substitutes" for actually attending the services in church, that they do not replace one's prayer rule, which ought still to be performed.

I am sure one of the clergy members can comment more authoritatively, but I just wanted to bring the recitation of the Psalter to your attention.

David James

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

Ryan Close wrote:


Vespers is done in the community so that normally people just do the Morning and Evening Prayers at home. These correspond to a domesticated form of Midnight and Compline. But like I said, I would like to start doing a more full schedule of services myself.

This all sounds good. Also keep in mind what Fr David has written above for it is very good advice.

One aspect of this question is liturgical & the other is practical. As we have said, the divine services belong in the church since they are a liturgical reality. However reader's services are possible in appropriate conditions.

Practically speaking though the question is always: 'do we have the strength do this?' And connected to this will also be the question: 'am I doing this according to God's will or mine?'. In any case- often it is better to begin with the more modest and more assured elements such as Morning & Evening Prayers. Then as God wills other elements could be added- Psalter readings, reader's services, etc.

But the point is that one most often ends up doing what is according to one's strength- so that one can afford to find this proper measure by going step by step from the more modest rule to the more expanded.

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[Seda S.]

Please try these two links. You can also download the videos.

Morning prayer rule
http://media.tv-soyuz.ru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1194&Itemid=117


Evening prayer rule
http://media.tv-soyuz.ru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1193&Itemid=117


The clergyman in the videos is Hegumen Flavian Matveyev from the Yekaterinburg Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.

[Ryan Close]

Unfortunately, it was all in Russian.

[Seda S.]

Unfortunately, it was all in Russian.

Yes, naturally. But one can imagine he or she is in Russia and attends services there :).

[Michael Stickles]

Practically speaking though the question is always: 'do we have the strength do this?' And connected to this will also be the question: 'am I doing this according to God's will or mine?'. In any case- often it is better to begin with the more modest and more assured elements such as Morning & Evening Prayers. Then as God wills other elements could be added- Psalter readings, reader's services, etc.

In handling this, seeking the guidance of one's spiritual father is a good idea. For example, mine has actually had me simplify my devotions for a bit, rather than expand them, since I'd tried expanding them on my own and progressed beyond my strength (and fell flat on my face doing so).

In Christ,
Michael