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Added to See also the Typika service, and Sacraments, which seem rather relevant
[[Image:Divine Liturgy, (Damaskinos).jpg|thumb|right|The [[Divine Liturgy]]. [[Michael Damaskinos|Damaskinos]], 1579-1584.]]
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The '''Divine Liturgy''' is the primary worship service of the [[Orthodox Church|Church]]. The most commonly celebrated forms of the Divine Liturgy are the [[Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom]], the [[Liturgy of St. Basil]], and the [[Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts]], but there are other extant liturgies, such as the [[Liturgy of St. James]], the [[Liturgy of St. Mark]], the [[Liturgy of St. Gregory the Great]], and the [[Liturgy of St. Tikhon of Moscow]]. The Divine Liturgy is a [[eucharist]]ic service. It contains two parts: the ''Liturgy of the [[Catechumen]]s'', sometimes called the ''Liturgy of the Word'', at which the [[Holy Scriptures|Scriptures]] are proclaimed and expounded; and the ''Liturgy of the Faithful'', sometimes called the ''Liturgy of the [[Eucharist]]'', in which the gifts of bread and wine are offered and consecrated. The Church teaches that the gifts truly become the body and blood of [[Jesus Christ]], but it has never dogmatized a particular formula for describing this transformation. The ''Prothesis'' (or ''[[Proskomedia]]''), the service of preparing the holy gifts, can be considered a third part which precedes the Liturgy proper.
== Preparation ==
After a [[dismissal]] common to the services of the Church, the faithful come forward to venerate the [[Blessing cross|cross]] and leave the church. Renewed by the eucharistic meal, they are sent forth as witnesses to Christ in the world.
== Forms of the Divine Liturgy ==
The most commonly celebrated forms of the Divine Liturgy are the [[Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom]], and the slightly older [[Liturgy of St. Basil]]. The former is celebrated on most Sundays and Feast Days, throughout the year, whereas the latter is celebrated in on the six Sundays of Lent (unless the [[Annunciation]] should fall on one of them), and in [[Holy Week]], on Holy Thursday and Great and Holy Saturday, in total, ten times throughout the year. Most of the differences between the two liturgies are in the prayers said by the Priest behind the iconostasis, which were historically inaudible to the congregation, but increasingly in some parishes are heard. A third liturgy, the [[Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts]], is celebrated on weekdays in Lent, when the celebration of the Divine Liturgy is forbidden, due to its festal nature. The Presanctified Liturgy, documented by [[Gregory Diologos]], and historically attributed to him, but according to recent scholarship, very possibly having originated with the [[Oriental Orthodox]] patriarch [[Severus of Antioch]], is celebrated in the early evening, and features the reception of the reserved sacrament, consecrated at the previous Divine Liturgy.
There exist Less commonly celebrated liturgies such as the ancient [[Liturgy of St. James]] and the [[Liturgy of St. Mark]]. The Divine Liturgies of St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom are said to derive from the former, which was the ancient Rite of Jerusalem, the see of St. [[James the Just]], with influence from the ancient [[Anaphora of the Twelve Apostles]] historically used in Antioch, whereas the latter is the ancient rite of Alexandria, the See of St. [[Mark the Evangelist]]. The former is increasingly widely celebrated on October 23rd, the Feast of St. James (and also remains the basis for the liturgy of the [[Syriac Orthodox Church]], while the latter has in recent years been celebrated in some seminaries on the Feast of St. Mark; a variant of it named for [[St. Cyril]] is occasionally used, mainly in Lent, in the [[Coptic Orthodox Church]]. Recently, Metropolitan [[Seraphim of Piraeus]] celebrated the ancient Divine Liturgy of [[St. Serapion]], based on the ancient Priest's Service Book attributed to the same, an Alexandrian Rite liturgy similar to that of St. Mark; this may have been the first celebration of that ancient Orthodox liturgy in more than one thousand years.
In the Antiochian [[Western Rite]] Vicarate, two liturgies are used, the [[Liturgy of St. Gregory the Great]], derived from the [[Roman Catholic]] Tridentine Mass, and the [[Liturgy of St. Tikhon of Moscow]], based on high church Anglican liturgics; in both cases, the liturgies have been corrected to reflect Orthodox theology. The Western Rite parishes in [[ROCOR]] primarily celebrate the [[Sarum Rite]], the ancient use of the Cathedral of Salisbury prior to the Great Schism.
==See also==
* [[Typika]]
* [[Sacraments]]
* [[Blood in the Bible]]
* [[Eucharist]]
