Schedule of Services

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

An All-Night Vigil

An All-Night Vigil (Greek: αγρυπνία - agrypnia, "without sleeping"; Slavonic: Vsenoshnoe Bdenie) is a combination of multiple services whose makeup varies significantly according to regional and local tradition. In the Byzantine tradition, the service lasts through the night, consisting of the entire liturgical cycle, culminating in the Divine Liturgy. In Slavic tradition, it does not last all night but normally includes Vespers (or Great Compline), Matins and the First Hour, and it is the standard Saturday evening service. When the Vigil is celebrated, the particular rubrics for its constituent services are altered.

One of the unique characteristics of the Vigil is that Small Vespers (different from both Daily and Great Vespers) is served earlier in the evening (usually this service is only done in cathedrals and monasteries, however). This practice originated so that the monks could observe a shorter form of vespers at the canonical time (sunset), have their evening meal, and then later begin the All-Night Vigil (which includes the fuller form of Vespers). Additionally, the inclusion of the Litia and Artoklasia has as its purpose the sustenance of the faithful as they attend a service which may last eight or more hours through the night, when done in the full traditional manner.

Length of All night Vigil - about 2 hours

The Divine Liturgy

The Divine Liturgy is the primary worship service of the Church. The Divine Liturgy is a eucharistic service. It contains two parts: the Liturgy of the Catechumens, sometimes called the Liturgy of the Word, at which the Scriptures are proclaimed and expounded; and the Liturgy of the Faithful, sometimes called the Liturgy of the Eucharist, in which the gifts of bread and wine are offered and consecrated; the faithful then partake of them in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. The Church teaches that the gifts truly become the body and blood of Jesus Christ, but it has never dogmatized a particular formula for describing this transformation. The Prothesis (or Proskomedia), the service of preparing the holy gifts, can be considered a third part which precedes the Liturgy proper.

Length of Liturgy - about 1 1/2 hour