Liturgical Handbook of the Church Abroad, 2nd Edition: A Concise Handbook on Liturgical Practice

by Bishop Irenei of London and Western Europe

A concise handbook on liturgical practice for clergy in the Church Abroad, dedicated to preserving the unique liturgical heritage of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), with question-and-answer discussion of a large array of points, providing practical instruction on how to celebrate aright, according to the inherited customs of the Church Abroad.

Writing in the introduction, Bishop Irenei of London and Western Europe notes, 'The Orthodox Church, the mystical Body of Christ and inheritor of the faith of the Apostles, receives anew in every generation the customs of ecclesiastical life handed down to us through generations and centuries. Maintaining a life of liturgical worship revealed from heaven and bestowed upon creation by divine mercy, she guards with extraordinary diligence the sacred rites and practices by which she draws man into the Life of God. Our Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia has inherited her immediate liturgical customs not merely from instructors or interpreters of a generic tradition, but from living saints who themselves received these customs as handed down by their forebears, and guarded them as a "pearl of great price" (Matthew 13.45, 46) in the midst of a world of constant renovationism and reform.'

Preserving that 'pearl of great price' through a right celebration of the Divine Services, following the unique customs preserved in the Church Abroad, is the focus of the present Handbook. More than 150 themes are treated, in question-and-answer style, under the headings 'Vestments and Vesting Prayers', 'The All-Night Vigil and Other Evening Services', 'The Proskomedia', 'The Divine Liturgy', 'Concelebrations of Multiple Clergy', 'The Hierarchical Divine Liturgy', 'Diaconal Rubrics and Services', 'Lenten Services', 'Prostrations, Bows and Kneeling', 'General Comportment in the Altar', 'Monastics and Monasteries', 'Icons, Relics and Adornments', and 'Readers, Reading, and Texts and Translations'.The Handbook is specifically focussed on treating these themes from a ROCOR perspective, so that the precious gem of the liturgical heritage of the Church Abroad is not lost. 'It is, today,' writes Bishop Irenei, 'easier than in almost any other generation to be exposed to the variant liturgical practices of other regions, jurisdictions and patriarchates, and there is a great temptation to emulate whatever is seen elsewhere, even if this involves the abandonment of traditions long enshrined in our practice, or introducing into it customs that have never been part of the living liturgical inheritance of the Church Abroad. ... The present Handbook is but a small offering intended to aid in the necessary work of cherishing and preserving this inheritance.'

In addition, this Second Edition — which is more than doubled in length from the first — includes as an appendix the complete text of Bishop Irenei's text, 'To Serve in My Father's Reflections on Service in the Holy Altar'. Formerly published separately, this text has become one of the most-requested documents on the ethos and attitude of Divine Service at all levels, especially those of Readers, Subdeacons and Altarniki.

371 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 20, 2023

Reviews

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very comprehensive handbook for Russian Orthodox clergy. Note that Russian practices don't always translate to Byzantine practices.