Number of Divine Liturgies on Sunday

[Little_Boy_Lost]

Hi Ya’ll,

A while back when I was first exploring orthodoxy, I read that an altar can only be celebrated on once for the Divine Liturgy, and that Cathedrals would make side altars so multiple Divine Liturgies could be celebrated on a feast day or sunday. Is this accurate or not? I’ve yet to see these “Side Altars” I was told about it. Also, is it because Eastern Churches are typically smaller parishes and have less people or because the idea is one community one liturgy that most non-cathedral parishes try and celebrate one Divine Liturgy on Sunday? When and why did the west deviate from celebrating together at one liturgy? Thanks!

 

[Hesychios]

Hi Ya’ll,

A while back when I was first exploring orthodoxy, I read that an altar can only be celebrated on once for the Divine Liturgy, and that Cathedrals would make side altars so multiple Divine Liturgies could be celebrated on a feast day or sunday. Is this accurate or not?

Well, yes. The priest is fastng and the altar is fasting, one liturgy per altar per day under normal circumstances.

Personally I have not seen the extra altar in a cathedral, but in a parish. Most parishes, even cathedrals, in the USA probably do not have enough room behind an iconostasis for it.

The parish I am thinking of had a Polish congregation that met in the afternoon. The priest/pastor of the temple speaks Polish (so does his son, a deacon for the present) so the other congregation is treated like a separate mission that borrows the location for the time being.

Oddly enough, some of the members asked father to begin introducing English, they want to get used to it. So that mission may eventually dissolve itself and merge with the regular parish.

On another site there was a Melkite Orthodox parish that needed a home and was allowed to use an OCA temple for afternoon liturgy in my area. I never attended but I am pretty sure the OCA bishop allowed the use of the main altar, because there could not possibly have been room for another back there, the temple barely could accomodate the deacon doors.

 

[5Loaves]

Hi Ya’ll,

A while back when I was first exploring orthodoxy, I read that an altar can only be celebrated on once for the Divine Liturgy, and that Cathedrals would make side altars so multiple Divine Liturgies could be celebrated on a feast day or sunday. Is this accurate or not? I’ve yet to see these “Side Altars” I was told about it.

I believe at least in the Russian tradition it is possible to have a second DL if the priest uses a different antimension.

In a regular parish the “side altar” you are seeing is probably the Altar of Prothesis or Preparation although this is behind the iconostasis.

 

[ConstantineTG]

Whats it like in places that have many Orthodox? I mean like in the Philippines where its predominantly Roman Catholic, parishes will be saying Mass every hour by the hour on Sundays and will be filled. Masses start from 5am all the way to noon. Then there is a ban on starting Mass after noon until 3pm (not sure of the reason, but one I heard is to give the priests a break and probably clean up the parish) then Masses start again every hour until the latest Mass I’ve seen is 9pm. And these are all regular Sunday Masses.

So if you can only have one Divine Liturgy in an area that has millions of Orthodox, how do you accommodate all of them?

 

[5Loaves]

On another site there was a Melkite Orthodox parish that needed a home and was allowed to use an OCA temple for afternoon liturgy in my area. I never attended but I am pretty sure the OCA bishop allowed the use of the main altar, because there could not possibly have been room for another back there, the temple barely could accomodate the deacon doors.

This is an example of where the Melkite priest in the afternoon uses a different antimension from the one the OCA priest uses in the morning on the same main altar, so it’s not the same “altar”.

 

[Hesychios]

This is an example of where the Melkite priest in the afternoon uses a different antimension from the one the OCA priest uses in the morning on the same main altar, so it’s not the same “altar”.

I am sure that is the case, each priest would use the antimension from his own bishop. It would also suffice in the event a consecrated altar was not available. In this case a consecrated altar is available, with it’s own relics, so there is no need to substitute.

I think that this is a type of economy. The ideal is to actually use a different altar, the physical stucture of a Holy Table, in it’s own space. I don’t think Orthodox are thinking of it so much as a ‘technically’ different altar because of the antimension. The Orthodox just bend the rules, a bishop can do that. The bishop can also require the visiting priest to bring his own antimension, and the other bishop can require his own priest to bring an antimension. That probably has a lot more to do with a bishop’s authority over that priest and congregation (his name is on the antimension), moreso than a rule about altar use.

The liturgy could be celebrated in the wilderness on a big rock, if necessary, because the antimension has a relic sewn into it.

 

[Patchunky]

The liturgy could be celebrated in the wilderness on a big rock, if necessary, because the antimension has a relic sewn into it.

My friends from Ukraine told me of their father, a priest, celebrating the Divine Liturgy on tree stumps in the forest during the Communist times. They also used abadoned cemeteries and the cellars of houses in the villages where they used feed grain saks as an altar.:byzsoc: