My first quiz, about Orthodoxy, please take and leave me feedback

[ThePilgrim]

what language is that? We are trying to translate it and it's pretij hardish

It's a crazy dialect of Russian that some people like to call Ukrainian. ;-)

Actually, that's partially what we're discussing in "Ukrainian" ;-)

John

 

[choirfiend]

Um, I took the quiz--and I think there's a new mistake. Now it told me I answered incorrectly when I replied that the Great Entrance is when the Gifts are transferred from the table of preparation to the Altar. And that's not right

 

[Melethiel]

It's a crazy dialect of Russian that some people like to call Ukrainian. ;-)

Actually, that's partially what we're discussing in "Ukrainian" ;-)

John

Skil'ky raz ya mayu tobi kazaty shcho Ukrains'ka NE YE Rosijska? Yaksho vono b bulo, ya by mohla luche hovoryty po Rosijskomu.

 

[ThePilgrim]

Skil'ky raz ya mayu tobi kazaty shcho Ukrains'ka NE YE Rosijska? Yaksho vono b bulo, ya by mohla luche hovoryty po Rosijskomu.

Ja duzhe radij, tomu scho ya vce zrozumiv! Teper mozhu kazaty, scho chitaju po-ukrajinc'komu! Tse ne tezhko!

Tvij ljubimyj amerikanets,
John

 

[Katherine_van_Orvelte]

Um, I took the quiz--and I think there's a new mistake. Now it told me I answered incorrectly when I replied that the Great Entrance is when the Gifts are transferred from the table of preparation to the Altar. And that's not right

Bah. I really did double check it. I really did.

I'll make it again.

 

[Melethiel]

Ja duzhe radij, tomu scho ya vce zrozumiv! Teper mozhu kazaty, scho chitaju po-ukrajinc'komu! Tse ne tezhko!

Tvij ljubimyj amerikanets,
John

Duzhe dobre! Mozhe skoro ty navit' budesh kazaty shcho po-ukrain'skomu luche hovoryty.

It's "tyazhko".

 

[Matrona]

Antiochians are fast-free from Pascha to Pentecost. No Wednesday-Friday fasts.

 

[choirfiend]

(but thats a rather recent allowance and it's not the norm)

But yea, maybe a different fasting question would be good?

 

[Xpycoctomos]

Antiochians are fast-free from Pascha to Pentecost. No Wednesday-Friday fasts.

Wow, I'd never heard of that... I gotta change parishes!

 

[BabyLutheran]

Finally figured out where the 2nd quiz was. I got 16 right this time, a 60% improvement over the first quiz.

I did have a question about the censing. It said it is normally done by a deacon. Where I attend, I only see the deacon doing it when the communion items are being brought down from the altar area by the priest, as they go out the side of the sanctuary and enter back through the main door. At all other times the priest has done the censing.

So I was unsure of that question.

 

[choirfiend]

The deacon is typically doing it when censing the icons, church, and people. The priest is generally censing the things on the altar table. Most parishes are not so lucky as to have a deacon:\

If the deacon really never does it in your parish, then that's strange. Are you sure he's a deacon, and not just an adult acolyte? Deacons have a special vestment that they wear over their shoulder called an orarion, that they move and wrap around their backs in the shape of a cross later in the service. The deacon would also be saying most of the Litanies. And, the Liturgical movement you describe is called the Great Entrance.

 

[BabyLutheran]

Well, the guy I am speaking of wears a light colored robe, sort of light gold color, almost white. During the Great Entrance, he walks backwards and censes in front of the priest as he walks holding the elements (i am not sure of what he is carrying, it looks like a big metal goblet with a fancy cloth over it.

The same man and a woman sing before the service for about a half hour. There is also another guy who reads the epistle, but the priest always reads the gospel.

The priest always censes us at a certain time during the service. He censes the choir, then moves slowly across the sanctuary, sort of aiming at each set of people as he goes. He does some fancy twirling of the censer as he does to the left and then to the right.

Our church is pretty small, so as you say , we may not have a deacon.

I am probably not maiking any sense, but I do appreciate your help, Choirfiend. You are really good at explaining things to us enquirers.

 

[choirfiend]

Well, the guy I am speaking of wears a light colored robe, sort of light gold color, almost white. During the Great Entrance, he walks backwards and censes in front of the priest as he walks holding the elements (i am not sure of what he is carrying, it looks like a big metal goblet with a fancy cloth over it.

The same man and a woman sing before the service for about a half hour. There is also another guy who reads the epistle, but the priest always reads the gospel.

The priest always censes us at a certain time during the service. He censes the choir, then moves slowly across the sanctuary, sort of aiming at each set of people as he goes. He does some fancy twirling of the censer as he does to the left and then to the right.

OK, let me tell you what you've got going on

The guy in the light robe is just a grown up altar boy! Having grown men being the altar servers (acolytes) is preferrable, especially when there are some younger altar boys, because they take care of a lot of the things that need to happen tha tthe priest is too busy praying to do, like cut up the remainder of the prosphora into the antidoron (the blessed bread, not communion).

The singing you hear before the Liturgy begins is most likely the reading of the Hours. Some parishes have Matins (Orthros in Greek) and some pray the Hours. There is 3rd, 6th, and 9th Hours, and they are short prayer services that correspond to the 3rd, 6th, and 9th hours of the day (about 9am, 12noon, and 3pm).

An altar server definitely does walk backwards, censing the gifts, when the priest carries them from the table of preparation to the altar in the Great Entrance. He is carrying the Chalice with the wine and the Patens (plate) with the Lamb(part of bread that is consecrated into the Body) on it. Both are covered, because you wouldn't just leave them sitting out, especially in the middle eastern climate--you'd get bugs and dust and such, and the covers keep them pure.

"anyone" can read the Epistle. If someone is a tonsured Reader (a minor office) they will probably do it. Lacking a Reader (or Deacon) in your parish, someone who knows how to properly intone (read in that singing way) will do it. The Priest or Bishop reads the Gospel, being the shepherds intrusted with instructing the people.

The priest is censing the icons, starting with Christ, then the walls of the Church and the icons on them,(sometimes, like in Vespers, he walks around all the whole church) then the people, because we, too, are icons of Christ!!!


Hope that helps! Time to go to Presanctified! We have an Agape dinner afterwards, and I'm cooking receipes from When You Fast, an Orthodox Lenten cookbook. I hope people like my CousCous with dried dates, cranberries, and almonds!

 

[ThePilgrim]

Duzhe dobre! Mozhe skoro ty navit' budesh kazaty shcho po-ukrain'skomu luche hovoryty.

It's "tyazhko".

Duzhe djakuju Ale chomu tebe nevaje na AIM?

 

[Melethiel]

Duzhe djakuju Ale chomu tebe nevaje na AIM?

"nemaye"

Bo menuly' nich ya bula na druhomu computeri...ya varyla sup i hotila buty blyzche do kuhni.

 

[gzt]

Deacons read the Gospel if there is one. It's one of their main functions. A deacon almost certainly would not read the Epistle.

 

[BabyLutheran]

All I know (and I plead ignorance of which is the Epistle and which is the Gospel), at the Church I have been attending, the non Priest person reads the first Bible reading, and a few minutes later, the Priest reads the second one. I could have sworn the first reading was the Epistle and the second one was the Gospel, but I haven't been enough times to remember really well.

 

[choirfiend]

You're right. The reader should be announcing something like, "The reading frm the Epistle of St. ____ to the ______" and later, "The reading is from the Gospel of St. _____"


And, gzt, you're right on the Epistle/Gospel/Deacon thing...It's been so long since I'd had any family members who were deacons that I wasn't remembering correctly~ Thanks!

 

[BabyLutheran]

Hey Choirfiend, what you said jogged my memory. That's exactly what happens. Does that mean we have a deacon? If so, then that brings up the question on the censing again, because this fellow does no censing that I can see from the sanctuary.

 

[choirfiend]

No, you dont have a deacon.

See the dudes standing behind the Bishop (on the platform) who have the extra bands of cloth that cross once on their shoulders and hang down? Those are deacons. There are a few others in the pic, too, but they're the easily findable ones.


If the person doesn't have the extra vestment (orarion) then they are just a non-ordained person.

This guy? Deacon.

These vestments? Deacon vestments.A Deacon serves all the services in his cassock, over which he wears a Stikharion. The Stikharion, a long straight vestment with wide sleeves, which covers the whole person, is called "the robe of salvation and the garment of the joy." It is symbolical of a pure and tranquil conscience, a spotless life, and the spiritual joy in the Lord which flows therefrom, in him who wears it. The Orarion is a long wide band of material which is sometimes worn over the left shoulder, sometimes crossed upon the breast and back , in the case of the Deacon. Sometimes the Angelic hymn, "Holy, Holy, Holy," is embroidered upon the stole. The Deacon wears also the Cuffs, for convenience during the service, and to remind him that he must not put his trust in his own strength alone, but in the hands of the Lord.

This icon? Definitely Deacon

Anyone wearing just a robe over their regular clothes is just a server, child or adult.