THE RUSSIAN CHURCH, ITS SYMBOLICAL BOOKS AND DIVINE SERVICES
The Russian Church is the largest branch of the Eastern Orthodox Apostolic Church. Other branches of the Orthodox Church are: a) the four Ancient Patriarchates of: 1) Jerusalem (the Mother Church of Christendom), 2) Antioch, 3) Alexandria, and 4) Constantinople. b) The Churches of: Greece, Cyprus, Serbia, Montenegro, Rumania, Boulgaria, Carpathian Russia (in Checho-Slovakia), the Russian Churches of Poland and North America. All these Churches are in Communion one with the other. They possess the Apostolic Ministry of Bishops, Priests and Deacons, and hold to the Nicene Creed as a great symbol of Faith.
THE CHURCH DIVINE SERVICES
The Church Divine-Services are devotional services to the Lord God, are performed, in accordance with an established order, by the faithful with the Bishop or priest at their head. The Ritual or order of the public Divine-Services is given in the Books of Divine-Services.
The books containing the Divine Services of the Orthodox Church may be classed under three heads, namely: 1) Those for the use of the Laity; 2) Those for the use of the Readers and the Choir; 3) Those for the use of a Bishop, Priest and Deacon.
1. The principal book for the use of the Laity is the Molitvoslov or Eucholigion, i. e. the prayer book, which contains extracts, more or less complete, from the various other Service Books, suitable for the needs of the people in their own homes, or when assisting at the public worship of the Church.
2. The books for the use of the Readers and the Choir are the Chasoslov or Horologion, the Psalter, the Irmologion, the Octoechos, the Menea [Menaion], the Lenten Triodion, and the Ferial Triodion or Pentecostarion. The Chasoslov contains the Daily Office of Vespers, Compline, Nocturns, Matins and Hours, with some of the more frequently used Commemorations, such, for example, as the Troparia for Sundays and Week Days, and other matters. The Psalter contains the Psalms of David, divided into twenty Kathismas, the Magnificats with selected verses for Festivals, the nine Scriptural Odes, and the Diptychs. The Prayers before and after the Holy Communion, a Service for Sunday and one for every day in the week, etc.
The Irmologion contains those parts of the Service that are usually sung by the Choir.
The Octoechos, the Menea, and the Triodia [Triodion] are books containing exclusively ecclesiastical compositions, namely, the Canons, Stichera, Troparia, etc., that make up Commemorations for the whole year. They are used concurrently. The Octoechos, or Book of eight tones, contains Commemorations for eight weeks; on Mondays, of the Angels; on Tuesdays, of the Forerunner; on Wednesdays, of the Mother of God; on Thursdays, of the Apostles and of St. Nicholas; on Fridays, of the Cross; on Saturdays, of all the Saints and of the souls departed; and on Sundays, of the Resurrection. The rule is to begin this Book on the Monday following the Sunday of All Saints, which is the first Sunday after the Pentecost, and in this week the Canons, etc., are sung in Tone One; in the next week those in Tone two, and so on, and when eight weeks have elapsed, Tone One is sung again; this order, with a few exceptions, being repeated throughout the year. Most of the music of today in the Eastern Church is constructed on chants, which were sung 1,500 years ago in Palestine and other countries of the East.
The Menea contains the Canons, etc., for the whole year according to the days of the month. It is published in two forms–one twelve volumes–a book for each month, and the other is a work of two volumes, one containing the Canons, etc., for the Greater Festivals, and the second containing those common for the Saints.
The Lenten Triodion contains the penitential Commemorations from the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee until Easter Eve; and the Ferial Triodion, the joyful ones from Easter Day until the Sunday of All Saints.
3. The books for the use of the Ministers of the Altar are the Sluzsebnik and the Trebnik. The Sluzsebnik or the Book of Service contains the prayers of the Priest and Deacon at Vespers, Matins, and the Liturgies. The Trebnik or Book of Needs, in its small form, contains the following offices:
- Prayers on the first day after a child is born to a woman.
- The orders of holy baptism and confirmation.
- The orders concerning confession and marriage.
- The order of the blessing of the oil.
- The office when in extreme urgency occasion ariseth to give communion to a sick person.
- The mortuary over lay bodies [prayers for departed lay persons].
- The mortuary order over a departed priest [funeral service for departed priest].
- The office of the burial of a babe.
- The order of the lesser blessing of water.
- The order of the blessing of water on the feast of the Theophany (6th of January).
- Prayers at the blessing of food and prayers for all other needs.
There is also a Large Trebnik, which contains, besides the aforementioned, the laying-on of hands in the Sacrament of Ordination, the tonsure of Monks, the Consecration of the Holy Table, the Antimins, Churches etc.
Now a word about the Book of books, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is ever kept, decorated in a precious binding, on the holy Table only. This book of the Gospel is used by a Bishop, Priest and by a Deacon, when taken from the hands of a priest. The Book of the Epistles (written by the Messengers–Apostles of our Savior) is read in public worship by a Reader who is a man set aside for such assistance in the services by the blessing of a Bishop. Sometimes the Book of the Apostles is read by an honorable member from among the Congregation. At the full episcopal Liturgy the second deacon is the minister who reads the Epistle.
The above text was excerpted from The Most Useful Knowledge for the Orthodox Russian-American Young People, compiled by V. Rev. Peter G. Kohanik (Passaic, NJ: n.p., 1932–1934), using only minimal adjustments to the original text (such as correcting typographical errors and adding clarification in brackets of alternate transliterated spellings).