Orthodox liturgy question

[Alex111]

I’ve recently attended a Divine Liturgy and a couple of Vespers services at an Orthodox Church (OCA). After the main servive was over, and most people had left, a woman was reading aloud from a large book on a stand (not the pulpit, but sort of off to the side in front of where the choir stands). She was reading in a low voice and I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but I’m guessing it’s the Bible, or some sort of prayer book.

What does this mean? Is this a normal, licit practice; or some sort of modernist liturgical innovation? It wasn’t something I’d seen before but I’m not very familiar with Orthodox liturgy.

 

[Nine_Two]

I’ve never been to a church where it is read too low to hear, but it is a simple prayer of thanksgiving. It’s read in every church I’ve been to.

 

[dvdjs]

I’ve recently attended a Divine Liturgy and a couple of Vespers services at an Orthodox Church (OCA). After the main servive was over, and most people had left, a woman was reading aloud from a large book on a stand (not the pulpit, but sort of off to the side in front of where the choir stands). She was reading in a low voice and I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but I’m guessing it’s the Bible, or some sort of prayer book.
What does this mean? Is this a normal, licit practice; or some sort of modernist liturgical innovation? It wasn’t something I’d seen before but I’m not very familiar with Orthodox liturgy.

You probably heard after divine liturgy, not vespers, the prayers of thanksgiving after communion:
stlukeorthodox.com/html/orthodoxy/liturgicaltexts/prayersofthanksgiving.cfm

They are normal in the OCA and in the Russian Catholic Church in my experience. I am not familiar with licity in the context of prayers after liturgy, nor can I comment on their being modernist. This form of the prayers could only date back to the 10th century at the earliest. How old does an innovation have to be before it is no longer thought of in those terms?

 

[Hesychios]

I’ve recently attended a Divine Liturgy and a couple of Vespers services at an Orthodox Church (OCA). After the main servive was over, and most people had left, a woman was reading aloud from a large book on a stand (not the pulpit, but sort of off to the side in front of where the choir stands). She was reading in a low voice and I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but I’m guessing it’s the Bible, or some sort of prayer book.

Was this after Divine Liturgy, or after Vespers?

What does this mean? Is this a normal, licit practice; or some sort of modernist liturgical innovation?

Wow, I feel bad for anyone newly coming into a church and not surprised to find or even possibly expecting to find innovations.

It wasn’t something I’d seen before but I’m not very familiar with Orthodox liturgy.

If it was in the evening what you possibly heard were Psalms, it would be OK to stay and listen/pray. Is it possible you attended an “all night” vigil? You may read a bit about that here. Sometimes the congregation breaks off and returns early in the morning.

I don’t know the customs of the parish you visited or which service, so I don’t know how to explain it, but it is common in many temples for the Hours to be chanted by a single cantor. You might find that if you arrive early for Divine Liturgy you will observe someone doing that also, possibly chanting the first and third hours.

Of course, you could always go back again and ask

Since you seem to be studying to enter the RC, you might be interested in learning about the Liturgy of the Hours as served in that church (although the western form normally is served at monasteries, not parishes). You might like to take it up, as it is the official prayer of the church (no other devotion, not even the Rosary chaplet or Divine Mercy chaplet or Taizé prayer can claim that standing).

 

[Nine_Two]

Given that I can find Greek sites containing the prayer, and Latin sites containing their own “prayers after communion”, you’re full of yourself if you think a prayer being said after communion is an innovation. Given the age of some of the prayers it would be an innovation to forgo them.

As for whether or not they have always been appended to the Liturgy, anyone who thinks the liturgy is static probably has no authority to speak on the liturgy.

That said I suspect your just trolling.

 

[Alex111]

Was this after Divine Liturgy, or after Vespers?
Wow, I feel bad for anyone newly coming into a church and not surprised to find or even possibly expecting to find innovations.

I know; I don’t like having that mindset. I’m still negatively affected by some of the wacky new agey liturgical thibgs I saw in the Episcopal church.

If it was in the evening what you possibly heard were Psalms, it would be OK to stay and listen/pray. Is it possible you attended an “all night” vigil? You may read a bit about that here. Sometimes the congregation breaks off and returns early in the morning.

I don’t know the customs of the parish you visited or which service, so I don’t know how to explain it, but it is common in many temples for the Hours to be chanted by a single cantor. You might find that if you arrive early for Divine Liturgy you will observe someone doing that also, possibly chanting the first and third hours.

Of course, you could always go back again and ask

Since you seem to be studying to enter the RC, you might be interested in learning about the Liturgy of the Hours as served in that church (although the western form normally is served at monasteries, not parishes). You might like to take it up, as it is the official prayer of the church (no other devotion, not even the Rosary chaplet or Divine Mercy chaplet or Taizé prayer can claim that standing).

I have gone back to that OCA church a few times; the services are very nice. Thanks for the link; it is too bad more churches don’t do regular Liturgy of the Hours.