The Divine Liturgy is the Orthodox Church's principal act of worship: the service in which the community offers bread and wine, asks God to make them the Body and Blood of Christ, and receives them back in Holy Communion. Everything else in Orthodox life orbits this. Walk into an Orthodox church on a Sunday morning, and this is it.

It unfolds in two halves. The first is the Liturgy of the Catechumens — catechumens are those being instructed before baptism — still its name in the service books, though some English-language writers now call it the Liturgy of the Word. The second, the Liturgy of the Faithful, is the Eucharist itself. What follows walks a normal Sunday in order, using the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, named for the archbishop of Constantinople whose form of it the Church has used for centuries. The English below is traditional service-book wording; your parish may use a modern translation or another language. The shape is the same. For the essentials in five minutes, read what the Divine Liturgy is.

What the Divine Liturgy Actually Is

The Greek leitourgia means a public work done for a whole people. The Liturgy is not a devotional exercise you attend as a spectator; it is the Church's action, and you are part of it by being present and praying. Eucharist simply means thanksgiving.

The shape is very old. In the mid-second century, St. Justin Martyr described a Sunday assembly any Orthodox visitor would recognize: the believers gather, "the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits," the presider preaches, all pray, bread and wine and water are brought, and the deacons distribute the gifts (First Apology 67).

Why It Lasts About Ninety Minutes, and Why It Is Sung

A Sunday Liturgy usually runs an hour to an hour and a half, longer with a bishop. It is not padded: one continuous sung prayer, with little empty space. It is sung by human voices alone, deliberately — the voice keeps the words intelligible as instruments do not, and the singing is understood as earthly worship joined to the worship of heaven. One exception you may meet is the organ, used in some Greek Orthodox parishes in North America: a local development, not the tradition's norm. More on choirs in Orthodoxy.

Why People Stand

Standing is the traditional posture of Christian prayer, and churches in the historically Orthodox countries have no pews; many North American parishes do. Stand for the entrances, the Gospel, and the Anaphora; sit when you need to.

Before You Arrive: The Proskomedia

First, the map. The nave is the large open room where the people stand. Behind the iconostasis, the wall of icons at the front, is the altar, also called the sanctuary, where only clergy and servers go. If you have come from a Protestant church, note that "sanctuary" means that inner area, not the room you stand in. Its central doors are the Holy Doors, through which every procession passes.

The preparation has already happened. Behind the iconostasis the priest has served the Proskomedia, or Service of Preparation, usually while Orthros — the morning service before the Liturgy — is sung out front.

From the prosphora, round loaves of leavened bread stamped with a seal, he cuts a cube called the Lamb, saying words from Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering servant. It is set on the diskos, a footed metal plate, and wine mixed with water is poured into the chalice. Particles are arranged around it for the Theotokos (the Mother of God), the saints, the clergy, and the living and departed whose names were handed in. What remains becomes the antidoron, the blessed but unconsecrated bread given out at the end.

The practical side of arriving — what to wear, when to come, the candle stand, venerating the icons by the door — is covered in our guide to what to expect at your first Orthodox service. One rule worth knowing before you walk in: do not cross the open center of the church during the Gospel, the entrances, or the Anaphora.

The Liturgy of the Word: Litanies, Antiphons, and the Little Entrance

The priest lifts the Gospel book: "Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages." The assembly is being placed inside the Kingdom, not merely praying toward it.

Then the Great Litany. The deacon — a clergyman who assists the priest, usually the one who chants petitions and carries the censer — sings out "In peace let us pray to the Lord," then prays for the churches, the parish, travelers, the sick; after each, the people answer "Lord, have mercy." Many parishes have no deacon; there the priest takes his part.

Next, the antiphons: psalm verses with a short refrain between them. Slavic practice ordinarily uses Psalm 102 (103), "Bless the Lord, O my soul," with the Beatitudes third; Greek refrains often differ, and feasts bring their own.

During the third antiphon comes the Little Entrance: the clergy process out with the Gospel book and bring it back through the Holy Doors. It is easily missed, but it is the Church going in to the Kingdom behind Christ, present in the book of His words. Then the hymns of the day, and the Trisagion: "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us."

The Epistle, the Gospel, and the Homily

A reader chants the Epistle, appointed by the lectionary rather than chosen by the priest. Around the readings the deacon or priest censes the church, swinging a metal vessel of burning charcoal and incense hung with small bells. If this is your first Liturgy, that smell is probably what you will remember longest; our article on incense explains why.

Then the Gospel is chanted. Everyone stands and nobody moves. It is not read as information but proclaimed as the voice of Christ addressing the assembly — which is why the book is carried, censed, and kissed. The homily follows, though some priests preach after Communion.

The first half closes with litanies, including ancient petitions for the catechumens and the call for them to depart. In the early Church the unbaptized genuinely left here; today almost nobody does, and parishes differ over whether the petitions are chanted in full, shortened, or omitted. If you are visiting, you are not being asked to leave — and an enrolled catechumen where the dismissal is still kept will already know what his priest expects.

The Great Entrance and the Kiss of Peace

Now the mood changes. The choir begins the Cherubic Hymn: "We who mystically represent the Cherubim … let us now lay aside all earthly cares that we may receive the King of all, escorted invisibly by the angelic orders." It is sung slowly, and meant to be.

Then the Great Entrance. The clergy carry the covered chalice and diskos out of the altar, through the nave among the people, and back through the Holy Doors, commemorating aloud the bishop, the clergy, the living and the departed, and all of you. As they pass, most people bow their heads and cross themselves; follow those around you. The solemnity can mislead: the gifts are still bread and wine, not yet consecrated — that comes in the Anaphora — and the reverence shown now is for what they will become.

After another litany the celebrant proclaims, "Let us love one another, that with one mind we may confess" — and the people answer, naming the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Trinity one in essence and undivided. This is the kiss of peace: in most parishes the clergy exchange it in the altar, in some the faithful do too, normally men with men and women with women; a visitor may simply return a bow. Reconciliation comes before the offering. Then the deacon calls, "The doors! The doors! In wisdom let us attend" — once a literal instruction to the doorkeepers — and the assembly confesses the Creed, sung in Slavic practice, more often recited in Greek, always in the first person singular. I believe. One faith is confessed before anyone approaches one chalice.

The Anaphora: The Heart of the Liturgy

The Anaphora — the word means "offering up" — is the great eucharistic prayer, the summit of the service. It opens with a dialogue Christians have used since at least the third century: "Let us lift up our hearts." "We lift them up unto the Lord."

The priest prays one long thanksgiving sweeping through creation, the fall, and redemption. The people break in with what the service books call the Triumphal Hymn, known in the West as the Sanctus — "Holy, holy, holy" — the hymn Isaiah heard the seraphim — an order of angels — singing (Isaiah 6:3). The prayer recalls the Last Supper, the priest saying the Lord's words over the bread in their liturgical form — "Take, eat: this is My Body, which is broken for you for the remission of sins" — and then the words of the New Covenant over the cup (cf. Luke 22:20). The liturgical wording is the Church's own, drawn from more than one scriptural account rather than quoting any single one.

The priest offers the gifts — "Offering unto Thee Thine own of Thine own, in behalf of all and for all" — and comes to the epiclesis, the invocation of the Holy Spirit: he asks God to send the Spirit down upon the people and the gifts, and to make this bread the Body of Christ and what is in this cup His Blood. Orthodox tradition has always held this invocation essential: the Spirit, asked for and sent down, is the one who changes the gifts. That is the historic difference with the Latin West, where the change is understood to be effected through Christ's words of institution, spoken by the priest in His person. Orthodox writers today prefer not to fix a bare instant, speaking of the whole Anaphora as one act with the epiclesis as its consummation. The Church confesses what the gifts become, not how; that they truly are His Body and Blood, not a symbol, is her settled faith. See our article on the real presence.

The priest commemorates the saints, beginning with the Theotokos, and the people sing "It is truly meet" — that is, truly fitting — "to bless thee, O Theotokos." Everyone sings the Lord's Prayer. Then the priest elevates the consecrated Lamb: "The holy things are for the holy" — and the people answer that One is holy, One is Lord, Jesus Christ. Nobody in the building is holy on his own account; the holiness is His, and it is given.

Communion, and Who May Receive

The chalice is brought out through the Holy Doors and the faithful called forward: "With fear of God and with faith, draw nigh" in Slavic usage; Greek usage adds "and love." Communion is given as the consecrated bread and wine together, from a spoon, directly into the mouth. Orthodox infants and children commune too, carried in their parents' arms: baptism and chrismation are given together in infancy, and Communion follows. The smallest receive the Precious Blood alone.

Here is what visitors most need to know: Holy Communion in the Orthodox Church is for Orthodox Christians who have prepared to receive it. The Church understands the chalice as the expression of an existing unity of faith and life, not a means of creating one, which is why it is not offered to non-Orthodox Christians; the reasoning is in why non-Orthodox are not admitted to Communion. If you are not Orthodox, stay where you are; nobody will single you out.

Preparation normally includes the pre-Communion prayers, fasting beforehand, being at peace with others, and regular confession; how strictly each applies varies by jurisdiction and parish. Settle those with your priest, who knows you, not with an article.

The Dismissal and the Antidoron

After Communion the gifts are returned to the altar table, a thanksgiving litany is chanted, and the deacon says, "Let us depart in peace." The priest comes out and prays among the people — the prayer behind the ambo, named for the raised platform the clergy once stood on — then blesses and dismisses them.

Then people come forward one at a time. The priest holds out a small hand cross; each kisses it, and often his hand with it, then takes a piece of antidoron from a basket beside him. Antidoron means "instead of the gifts": blessed bread left from the prosphora, not consecrated and not Holy Communion. Visitors are usually welcome to come up for the cross; if unsure, watch what others do. Many parishes offer it to everyone, as a welcome to those who could not approach the chalice; others reserve it for the Orthodox, so ask rather than guess. And there is usually coffee afterward, where many inquirers have their first real conversation about the faith.

Where the Liturgy Sits: Vespers, Orthros, and the Other Liturgies

Sunday morning is not a standalone event. The liturgical day begins at sunset, following Genesis: "So the evening and the morning were the first day" (Genesis 1:5). Sunday therefore begins on Saturday evening with Vespers, which some parishes combine with Orthros into an All-Night Vigil — despite the name, usually two or three hours in a parish. Early Sunday comes Orthros (Matins in Slavic usage): psalms, canons, and a resurrection Gospel, running into the Liturgy with only the Hours read between. Go to Vespers at least once: Saturday night and Sunday morning are one movement.

Two Other Liturgies You Will Meet

The Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is served ten times a year: the first five Sundays of Great Lent, Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday, the eves of the Nativity (Christmas) and Theophany (Christ's baptism), and St. Basil's feast. From the nave you notice two things: the priest's Anaphora prayers are longer, so the choir's hymns stretch to cover them, and in place of "It is truly meet" comes a longer hymn to the Theotokos.

The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is different in kind. On Lenten weekdays the Eucharist is not celebrated: the Liturgy is a celebration of Pascha (Easter), and those days belong to fasting and repentance. So that the faithful are not left without Communion, the Church joins Lenten Vespers to gifts consecrated the previous Sunday; there is no Anaphora, since nothing is consecrated. Traditionally attributed to St. Gregory the Dialogist — Pope St. Gregory the Great in the West — it is served on Wednesdays and Fridays of Great Lent, on the Thursday of the fifth week, and on the first three days of Holy Week; some parishes serve it on additional weekdays as well.

Common Questions

How long does the Divine Liturgy last?

Usually an hour to an hour and a half; with Orthros beforehand, two or more.

Can I attend if I am not Orthodox?

Yes. Orthodox services are open and visitors welcome; you simply do not receive Holy Communion. Find a parish near you and introduce yourself to the priest afterward.

What should I wear?

Dress modestly, a little more formally than for errands. Some women cover their heads and many do not; the custom varies by parish and jurisdiction, and it is normally expected at monasteries. In most parishes nothing is expected of a visitor, and nobody will say anything if you get it wrong.

Why is there no organ, piano, or guitar?

Orthodox worship has kept the ancient practice of unaccompanied singing, understanding the Liturgy as earthly worship joined to the worship of heaven. The exception is the organ used in some Greek Orthodox parishes in North America — a local development, not the norm.

What is the bread they hand out at the end?

Antidoron: blessed bread left from the loaves used to prepare the gifts. It is not Holy Communion. Some parishes offer it to everyone, others only to the Orthodox, so ask rather than assume.

Further Reading

  • For the Life of the World — Fr. Alexander Schmemann (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press). The modern classic on sacramental worship.
  • The Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom — Fr. Alexander Schmemann (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press). A theological reading.
  • A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy — Nicholas Cabasilas (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press). The Byzantine classic.
  • Welcome to the Orthodox Church — Frederica Mathewes-Green (Paraclete Press). A warm guided tour of parish life.