Church utensils
Liturgical spear
A flat double-edged knife shaped like a spearhead, used to cut the Lamb and the commemorative particles from the prosphora.
Церковный справочник
Что означают слова, которые звучат в храме: облачения, богослужения, таинства, устройство храма.
Разделы
Sacraments
The seven sacraments of the Church: Baptism, Confession, Communion, Marriage, Unction and the rest.
Divine services
Liturgy, vigil, vespers, moleben, panikhida — what each service is and how they differ.
Vestments
Cassock, riassa, phelonion, epitrachelion, mitre — the clergy's garments and what they mean.
Parish practice
How to submit a commemoration note, light a candle, ask a blessing and prepare for confession.
The church building
Narthex, altar, iconostasis, solea, ambo, kliros — the parts of a church and their purpose.
Church utensils
Chalice, diskos, censer, lampada, antimension, epitaphios — the objects used in worship.
Clergy and ranks
Patriarch, bishop, archpriest, deacon, reader — who is who in church and how to address them.
Icons
What an icon is, how it differs from a painting, and how to recognise the most common images.
Feasts and fasts
The Twelve Great Feasts, the patronal day, the four fasts, old and new style.
Books and chant
Typikon, Menaion, Octoechos, Triodion; troparion, kontakion, sticheron, litany.
Ranks of sanctity
Martyr, hierarch, venerable, blessed — why saints are titled differently and what it means.
Found: 229
Divine services
Liturgy of St Basil the Great
The older and longer form of the Liturgy, served only ten times a year — on the Sundays of Great Lent and a few other days.
Divine services
Liturgy of St John Chrysostom
The ordinary form of the Liturgy, served on almost every day of the year — the one heard on any Sunday outside Great Lent.
Divine services
Liturgy of the Catechumens
The second part of the Liturgy, from the opening exclamation to the Gospel and the sermon — the part the unbaptised were allowed to attend.
Divine services
Liturgy of the Faithful
The main part of the Liturgy, from the Cherubic Hymn to the dismissal: the Eucharist itself and the Communion of the faithful.
Divine services
Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
A Lenten service at which the faithful receive Gifts consecrated in advance, on the previous Sunday; no Eucharist is celebrated at it.
Vestments
Mantle
A long sleeveless cloak: plain black for a monk, coloured and striped for a bishop.
Sacraments
Marriage (crowning)
The sacrament of marriage: crowns are held over bride and groom, they drink from a common cup and circle the analogion three times. It does not replace civil registration.
Ranks of sanctity
Martyr
Literally a witness: a Christian who could have renounced the faith and lived, and did not.
Divine services
Matins
The longest service of the daily cycle. Appointed for the morning, but in parishes it is served in the evening as the second half of the vigil.
Feasts and fasts
Meatfare and Cheesefare
Two thresholds before Great Lent: meat is eaten for the last time on Meatfare Sunday, dairy on Cheesefare Sunday, with Maslenitsa standing between them.
Feasts and fasts
Memorial Saturdays
Days of general commemoration of the departed: two universal ones before Maslenitsa and Pentecost, three in Great Lent and one in early November.
Books and chant
Menaion
The book arranged by calendar date: for each day, the service to its saint or feast. Twelve volumes, one per month.
Clergy and ranks
Metropolitan
The senior title of a bishop, usually heading a major see or a metropolia; recognised by the white klobuk with a cross.
Icons
Miraculous icon
An icon linked with attested answers to prayer. It is the Church's veneration that makes an icon miraculous, not a property of the board itself.
Divine services
Moleben (service of supplication)
A short service of petition or thanksgiving, usually served after the Liturgy and lasting twenty to forty minutes.
Clergy and ranks
Monk
One tonsured with the vows of obedience, poverty and celibacy; monasticism and priesthood are separate things.
Feasts and fasts
Movable feasts
Days with no fixed date: they are counted from Pascha and cover some eighteen consecutive weeks of the year.
Ranks of sanctity
Myrrh-bearers
The women who came at dawn to the tomb to anoint the body and were the first to learn of the Resurrection.
Vestments
Nabedrennik
A rectangular cloth hung at the right hip — the first liturgical award given to a priest.
Parish practice
Name day
The feast of the saint whose name one bears — a personal church feast, unrelated to one's birthday.
The church building
Narthex
The first room inside the church doors, between the porch and the nave; once the place of catechumens and penitents.
The church building
Nave
The main space between narthex and sanctuary where the congregation stands.
Ranks of sanctity
New Martyr
Those who suffered for the faith under the Soviet persecutions; their joint commemoration is the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.
Icons
Nimbus (halo)
The circle of light around the head. Christ's always contains a cross and the letters Ο ΩΝ; everyone else's does not.
Divine services
Nocturns (Midnight office)
The midnight service recalling the prayer in Gethsemane and the sudden coming of Christ; in parishes it is served once a year, before the Paschal Matins.
Clergy and ranks
Novice
One living in a monastery under obedience but not yet tonsured and bound by no vows; he is free to leave.
Books and chant
Obikhod
The collection of the most commonly used chants — and the plain melodies an ordinary parish choir sings most of the time.
Books and chant
Octoechos
The book of the weekly cycle: eight tones, each with services for every day of the week.