www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization Synodal Divine liturgy

I live a pretty insular parish life, at a very orthodox parish in Northern Virginia (Holy Transfiguration if anyone is familiar). Because of this, I had never really been aware that there is something called the "synodal Divine liturgy." That may not even be the official term for it, but when I do a google search for it, I cannot find anything about it. I know that the Ruthenians have somewhat of a truncated liturgy compared to what we have at HT, but I always chalked that up to differences between the Greek and Ruthenian recensions of the rite. I've come to find out that many Melkite parishes in our eparchy use a truncated form of the liturgy as well (shortened first and second antiphon, little entrance at the Only Begotten Son, third antiphon completely eliminated). Is there a common version of this shortened form, or does it vary between the Melkites, Ruthenians and Ukrainians? Is this something only Byzantine Catholics use, or do some Orthodox use it as well?

I'm looking for something that explains its development and current usage.

Synodal Liturgy refers to the Nikonian Rite as opposed to the Old Rite. Rome terms the uses of the Byzantine Rite in Church Slavonic as the Ruthenian Recension(used by Ukrainians, Rusyns, Slovaks, Hungarians, Croats/Serbs) and the Vulgate Recension(Russians, Belarusans, Bulgarians). Each Church has abbreviated the Antiphons in their own way. What you describe is the Rusyn standard in the US but since 2006 the 3rd Antiphon (1 verse) was added back. I believe the Melkites require only one of the Antiphons be recited. I believe the Ukrainians allow the 2nd Antiphon to be omitted.

Thank you for your answer! Do any Orthodox abbreviate the liturgy in this same way? I'm wondering if this is something they do as well, or would look at as modernist? If they do it as well, does it have the same origin as ours do? When did we begin to do this?

I'm also curious about the Ruthenian and Vulgate recensions. Why does Rome call it vulgate? What are the main differences? I'm assuming it's a lot more than style of chant, and that chant really doesn't play into it. I have always thought chant in the Ukrainian church sounds much more similar to Russian chant than to prostopinije.

It depends on the jurisdiction. ACROD’s Liturgy is similarly abbreviated to ours. The Greek’s abbreviate the Antiphons in a different way and suppress the litanies between the Gospel and Great Entrance. The Russians usually take the Typical Psalms in place of the Antiphons and often only take a few verses of the Psalms. Not exactly sure when any of these started.

Don’t know why Rome chose Vulgate for the Russian Recension books they made. The differences aren’t drastic but the main differences are the Russian Recension has accretions the Ruthenian Recension never picked up like the Troparia of the Third Hour at the Epiclesis.

Christ is in our midst!!

When I was at Penn State in the early 1970s, we attended an OCA parish. The priest at that time took everything specified in the Russian usage; no abbreviations, no omissions. He had trained a four part choir. The Divine Liturgy was always prayerful and beautiful.