{"id":3809,"date":"2015-05-14T08:19:50","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T08:19:50","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-04-12T11:55:48","modified_gmt":"2020-04-12T09:55:48","slug":"epistle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orthodoxalbania.org\/2026\/en\/2015\/05\/14\/epistle\/","title":{"rendered":"Epistle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana,geneva;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; During the solemn singing of the <strong>Thrice-Holy Hymn<\/strong> to the Most Holy Trinity, the clergy proceed to the <strong>High Place<\/strong> behind the altar table, blessing Christ who \u201csits upon the throne of glory, upon the cherubim\u2026\u201d From this place, as we have already mentioned, the celebrant turns and blesses the people with the <strong>Peace of Christ<\/strong>. After the <strong>Peace<\/strong> is returned, the <strong>Epistle<\/strong> of the Divine Liturgy is chanted, usually by a layman of the Church or one in the minor order of <strong>Reader<\/strong>. <br \/> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana,geneva;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The epistle reading in traditional Church language is called the <strong>apostle<\/strong> or the <strong>apostolic reading<\/strong>. This is so since the reading may be taken from the <strong>Acts of the Apostles<\/strong> as well as from one of the apostolic letters of the New Testament scriptures. The word <strong>epistle<\/strong> means <strong>letter<\/strong>. We should note here that the only book of the new Testament writings which is not read liturgically in the Orthodox Church is the <strong>Book of Revelation<\/strong> because of its apocalyptic character.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana,geneva;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; There is a series of epistle readings prescribed in regular order for each day of the Church Year, with the exception of the week days of Great Lent when the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated. There are also special epistle readings prescribed for particular Church celebrations. Thus at any given Divine Liturgy more than one epistle lesson may be chanted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana,geneva;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Before the actual reading of the epistle, an appointed verse from the Psalter is sung called the <strong>prokeimenon<\/strong>, which literally means, \u201cthat which goes before.\u201d As usual, the prokeimenon, with its verse, is suited to the particular liturgy and prepares the people to listen to the Word of God.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; During the solemn singing of the Thrice-Holy Hymn to the Most Holy Trinity, the clergy proceed to the High Place behind the altar table, blessing Christ who \u201csits upon the throne of glory, upon the cherubim\u2026\u201d From this place, as we have already mentioned, the celebrant turns and blesses the people with the Peace [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1876],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-divine-liturgy-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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