Available as a PDF here. It even addresses one of my biggest pet peeves: "It is not necessary to cross oneself when the priest is giving a blessing or censing the congregation. Instead, one should bow to receive the blessing."
 |
Sunday, February 4, 2018
A Guide to Church Etiquette
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
As to when to cross and bow vs. simply bow, I was told we don't cross ourselves before venerating people. That is, we only cross and bow before a priets when he is blessing us with holy things such as the Gifts, across, a relic, etc. His simply blessing by hand or with a censer is not holy "enough". In fact, crossing and bowing before a priest is tantamount, this Romanian hieromonk said, to wishing the priest were dead, i.e., relics.
ReplyDeleteThe simple rule of thumb is: If you are being blessed, you don't need to bless yourself with a cross. Receive the blessing with a bow.
DeleteIt's a very easy mistake to make when you are first Orthodox to cross yourself when you make a bow to get a blessing from a priest because you do it with icons.
Yea, the crossing oneself when being blessed by a priest (think how many times he does this during a normal liturgy) is something probably most of American orthodoxy does "wrong".
ReplyDeleteMy priest (God bless him) blesses us like he is a bishop (instead of simply holding the cross, he crosses us with it as a bishop would do), so these errors flow both ways I suppose. I don't ever mention any of this as I am simply glad these people show up at all in our oppressive, secular age.
I have trouble believing that it is an "error." I've been attending Liturgy in Russia for five years now, and crossing the parishioners with a cross is something every priest does at every Liturgy.
DeleteI was told by a Serbian priest that only a bishop blesses with the cross. The exception is at the dismissal at liturgy or when the priest proclaims "Many years".Here, I've seen it in the OCA. I haven't seen it either in the Russian or Ukrainian(EP) churches.
DeleteThat’s a simple jurisdictional difference. Blessing with a cross is an episcopal prerogative that some jurisdictions have permitted priests to use at different times. Some allow it never and some always and some at certain times. My jurisdiction for example allows me to use a cross only during Paschaltide. Other such prerogatives include wearing the polystavron, wearing a mitre, etc.
DeleteOf course,Father. For example, the Russian/Ukrainian tradition gives the silver cross to each newly-ordained priest. Many priests who have served 40 years or more end up being awarded the miter. Actually, in Ukraine, where the canonical church has to compete with Uniates and schismatics, many priests get the miter in far less time. As for the Serbs, the priest is not given the right to wear the cross until long after he's made an Archpriest. So for the Serbs, being awarded the cross is kind of like being awarded the miter for Russians.
DeleteAs for Paschaltide, Russian usage calls for dismissal with the hand cross throughout Bright Week after every Vespers, Orthros, and Liturgy. The rest of the year, the cross is not used at the dismissal at Vespers or Orthros. One Paschal practice of almost all Serbs in the U.S. that I don't care for is celebrating Paschal Matins at midnight and then coming back again for Liturgy at the usual time Sunday morning.I much prefer serving everything together without a break, even if local conditions,i.e., an elderly majority, warrent everything to be done Sunday morning, instead of midnight. Of course, that's just one variant and one man's opinion.
A more complete guide from Orthodoxinfo.com:
ReplyDeletehttp://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/guidech1.pdf