Schedule of Services

Matins

 The morning service of the Church is called Matins. It opens with the reading of six morning psalms and the intoning of the Great Litany. After this, verses of Psalm 118 are sung:

God is the Lord and has revealed himself unto us.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

The Troparion is then sung and, if it be a monastery, various groups of psalms which differ each day are read. Once again there are hymns on the theme of the particular day. On major feast days, special praises and psalms are sung, which on the Lord’s Day sing of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. On major feasts and on Sundays, the Gospel is also read.

After the Gospel there is a long intercessory prayer followed by a set of hymns and readings called the Canon. These songs are based on the Old Testamental canticles and conclude with the song of Mary, the so-called Magnificat (Lk 1.46–55). The Great Doxology is chanted followed by the morning litanies. The troparion is also repeated once again before the congregation is dismissed to begin the activities of the day.

The Matins service of the Church unites the elements of morning psalmody and prayer with meditation on the Biblical canticles, the Gospel reading, and the particular theme of the day in the given verses and hymns. The themes of God’s revelation and light are also always central to the morning service of the Church. Sometimes, particularly in churches of the Russian tradition, the Matins and the Vespers services are combined to form a long vigil service. On special feast days, the blessing of bread, wheat, wine, and oil is added to the Vespers, even when it is served separately from Matins. The faithful partake of the blessed food and are anointed with the oil as a sign of God’s mercy and grace.

Length of Matins about 1 hour

Vespers

Vespers is celebrated in three basic forms: Great Vespers, Daily Vespers, and Small Vespers.

Great Vespers follows the order described above and is appointed to be served on Saturday nights and on the eves of all feasts ranked higher than Fourth Class.

Daily Vespers is an abbreviated form of Great Vespers and is served on any day that Great Vespers is not appointed. Generally, Daily Vespers is served by a priest alone without the assistance of a deacon, although there is some variation in this practice. In such a case, the deacon's parts are completed by the priest. At Daily Vespers, the Small Entrance is usually omitted; there are fewer stikhera inserted in Lord, I have cried unto Thee; and the Litany following the prokeimenon is abbreviated and moved to follow the apolytikion. The service ends with the Little Dismissal.

Small Vespers is appointed to be served only on days when there is to be an All-Night Vigil. Small Vespers is identical in form to Daily Vespers, but omits the Litany of Peace, the kathisma and the Small Litany that follows it, the Litany of Fervent Supplication, and the Prayer at the Bowing of the Heads. The litany that follows the apolytikion is also further abbreviated. It also has no more than 4 stichera at "Lord, I have cried", and unlike Great Vespers or Daily Vespers, the variable portions of Small Vespers are never combined from multiple sources (such as a double commemoration of the menaion, or a combination of the menaion with the octoechos).

Length of Vespers about 30 min

Memorial Services

Memorial Services ((Greek): Μνημόσυνα (mnemosyna, memorial) or Παραστάς (wake); (Old Church Slavonic): Паннихида (Latinized as Pannikhída, Pannichida, or Panikhída; from the Greek for "all the dead") are special prayer services offered for the benefit of the departed. Length about 20 minutes