How long is your liturgy?

[Tsarina]

I never really timed it, but it's probably around 1hr and 45 minutes.

It depends each Sunday.. some Sunday's we have more than one Priest, which speeds things up.. and other weeks we have only one Priest, which results in a longer DL... no complaints.

 

[Lotar]

Is that with or without a homily?

I go to a small parish, and I've noticed that a liturgy with a single chanter tends to go faster than one with a choir, and if Father doesn't do a homily, the whole liturgy is only about an hour.

Probably without.

All I know is that my fiancee and I wanted to go to Liturgy at the church we are getting married at, but an unexpected rain shower and power outage made us an hour late. We got there and the church was already empty and they were getting ready for a baptism.

 

[MariaRegina]

Once when my son was sick, we got to the local Greek Orthodox church 30 minutes late only to discover that they had just finished singing the Cherubic Hymn and were preparing for the Nicene Creed. Yes, the Divine Liturgy ended before 1 hour with time to give the sermon at the end.

 

[Shubunkin]

It's about two hours. We have Catechism class immediately after, and frequently do not leave until after 1:30.

 

[Silentchapel]

Usually hour and 15 minutes, turns to hour and 30 minutes if sermon is tad longer (aka - read from a slip of paper) and there are a lot of communicants.

 

[zebu]

I honestly don't understand how Divine Liturgy can be under an hour and a half! The shortest Divine Liturgy I have been to was Antiochian, 1.25 hours, and it didn't have a sermon. If you have a sermon, then how do all y'all have liturgies lasting an hour or an hour and 15 minutes? What do you do that is so different??? I don't say this as a criticism, but I seriously don't understand how liturgy can be SO short. Most liturgies I have been to are between 1 hour 45 minutes and just over 2 hours, with a few well over 2 hours. And the longest one, clocking in at about 2 hours and 45 minutes, had a sermon that was about 2 minutes long! Gotta love that slooooow Russian singing...

 

[Matrona]

I honestly don't understand how Divine Liturgy can be under an hour and a half! The shortest Divine Liturgy I have been to was Antiochian, 1.25 hours, and it didn't have a sermon. If you have a sermon, then how do all y'all have liturgies lasting an hour or an hour and 15 minutes? What do you do that is so different???

We knocked Matins from 90 minutes to an hour just by switching to different music. All the words are the same, it just doesn't take as long.

 

[Ilian]

The relative length is usually fairly easy to identify and is usually the same reason why the liturgy of St. John Chyrsostom is shorter than the liturgy of St. Basil. It comes through the reduction of various prayers, responses and so forth. Some don’t include the little litanies, or the beatitudes or various antiphons, etc.

Another factor can often be the style of liturgical music used. A cantor or psalti can move at a much different pace than a parish with only a choir. Some churches will actually read instead of chant parts of the liturgy, which can often be accompanied by long pauses. All of these add up to change the overall pace, and therefore the elapsed time of the liturgy.

The liturgy itself is not the only thing that can be shortened. The Antiochian Archdiocese has unfortunately stipulated that the celebration of the great feasts that don’t fall on Sunday be observed with a evening, or vesperal divine liturgy. This is a combination of vespers and the liturgy done on the eve of the feast, instead of vespers and the liturgy separated in to two services. So there are many things out there that can bring about shortening of the services.

Also, in regards to the GOA in this country since it was mentioned, I have never been to a liturgy in a parish of that jurisdiction that is less than two hours. This is not because there is a more zealous observation of the rubrics, but because many of the same parts of the liturgy are given in both Greek and English.

 

[Oblio]

From "Blessed is the kingdom.." until you get the antidoron at the end....

I've heard that the antidoron at the cross veneration is a Greek practice, though we just started this at our OCA parish.

 

[choirfiend]

It is. Slavs have the antidoron and zeon to help rinse down any Eucharist which may remain in the mouth. The Greeks pass antidoron out at the end and don't have zeon.

 

[Matrona]

The liturgy itself is not the only thing that can be shortened. The Antiochian Archdiocese has unfortunately stipulated that the celebration of the great feasts that don’t fall on Sunday be observed with a evening, or vesperal divine liturgy. This is a combination of vespers and the liturgy done on the eve of the feast, instead of vespers and the liturgy separated in to two services.

I don't want to take this thread off topic, but what's wrong with the Vesperal Divine Liturgy? I've always thought that it's a wise concession to the difficulties in attending (and preparing for, and sometimes serving) weekday services. It allows us to celebrate the feasts of the Church in spite of the difficulties imposed on us by our lives.

 

[Oblio]

The zeon is nice, especially for the choir and readers, double especially if you serve Matins.

 

[Oblio]

I'll agree with Matrona here. We had to serve the Dormition at 6 AM (with a 50 min drive) and there was no way we could serve Matins prior. While it was a awesome service, it is hard to do especially when there is not a church in every city, let alone every streetcorner. I pray that these concessions are only temporary economy until we take over America. n.b. I don't think our Bishop allows Vesperal Liturgies except for when the rubrics call for them.

 

[Matrona]

I pray that these concessions are only temporary economy until we take over America.

I think they are. It's just that in a parish like mine, where nearly everyone has work (incl. the priest) or school, even if Father could serve the liturgy in the morning instead of the night before, hardly any of us would be able to enjoy it. Having a VDL instead just makes sense.

 

[gzt]

we served dormition at 6:30am, there were 22 communicants.

 

[Oblio]

Once we take over the US, we will all have feast days off, at least that is what Emporer Lotar will decree.

 

[rusmeister]

Receiving Communion takes a loong time with us - there is one Chalice and often well over 100 people receiving - probably 20-30 minutes is typical, so we normally go over 2 hrs. At Pascha the choir has to go into marathon singing mode on "Telo Khristovo" (Receive the Body of Christ..." when upwards of 300 receive.

 

[eoe]

The zeon is nice, especially for the choir and readers, double especially if you serve Matins.

especially if the antidoron has been frozen and has as much moisture in it as:

Recently we had some antidoron that I think was frozen next to some fish:o


I would love a little sip after that.

 

[Ilian]

I don't want to take this thread off topic, but what's wrong with the Vesperal Divine Liturgy? I've always thought that it's a wise concession to the difficulties in attending (and preparing for, and sometimes serving) weekday services. It allows us to celebrate the feasts of the Church in spite of the difficulties imposed on us by our lives.

I actually made a mistake in terminology, because the vesperal divine liturgy (the combination of great vespers and the liturgy) is something appointed in the typikon for only a few days of the year. Holy Saturday for instance.

The evening divine liturgy is what I meant to say. So, I think on one side you would have people who would say it's a reasonable accommodation to modern life where people have outside responsibilities, jobs, etc. On the other hand I think the argument would be made that it is not an accommodation, but kind of caving in to the secular world. Regardless, I don’t think one could dispute that the evening divine liturgy shortens the overall services (which is what is being talked about) and is something that is not found in the tradition of the church. I don’t think this is necessarily a problem in and of itself. To me the real issue is the evening divine liturgy is not an option for the priests in the Antiochian Archdiocese, it’s a requirement for the feast days that meet the criteria for its celebration. They do not have the option to take the fuller services. That to me is more problematic.

Slavs have the antidoron and zeon to help rinse down any Eucharist which may remain in the mouth. The Greeks pass antidoron out at the end and don't have zeon.

I confess I have never seen anyone directly consuming zeon, which is the warmed water added to the chalice. What I have seen in churches of the Great Russian tradition is a table to the side which will hold both antidoron and zapivka (warmed, non consecrated wine) which the faithful will partake of after communing.. Not all churches of Slavic heritage do this though. Mine doesn’t for instance, and antidoron is only distributed after the end of liturgy at the veneration of the cross.

 

[eoe]

Receiving Communion takes a loong time with us - there is one Chalice and often well over 100 people receiving - probably 20-30 minutes is typical, so we normally go over 2 hrs. At Pascha the choir has to go into marathon singing mode on "Telo Khristovo" (Receive the Body of Christ..." when upwards of 300 receive.

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