Terminology -

PEREBOR – The Toll (Perebor). This is the slow tolling of each bell, beginning with the largest to the smallest and ending with a striking of all the bells at once. It is used at the carrying-out of the deceased from the church for burial and is known as the funeral toll. There is no… Read More

TOLL – The Toll (Perebor). This is the slow tolling of each bell, beginning with the largest to the smallest and ending with a striking of all the bells at once. It is used at the carrying-out of the deceased from the church for burial and is known as the funeral toll. There is no… Read More

GOD THE FATHER-The fountainhead of the Holy Trinity. The Scriptures reveal the one God is Three Persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — eternally sharing the one divine nature. From the Father the Son is begotten before all ages and all time (Psalm 2:7; II Corinthians 11:31). It is from the Father that the… Read More

HOLY SPIRIT – The Holy Spirit iis one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity and is one in essence with the Father. Orthodox Christians repeatedly confess, “And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped… Read More

NEW BIRTH – Receipt of new life. It is how we gain entrance into God’s kingdom and His Church. Jesus said, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). From its beginning, the Church has taught that the “water” is the baptismal water and the… Read More

DISCIPLINE – Discipline may become necessary to maintain purity and holiness in the Church and to encourage repentance in those who have not responded to the admonition of brothers and sisters in Christ, and of the Church, to forsake their sins. Church discipline often centers around exclusion from receiving communion (excommunication). The New Testament records… Read More

SPIRITUAL GIFTS – When the young Church was getting under way, God poured out His Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and their followers, giving them spiritual gifts to build up the Church and to serve each other. Among the specific gifts of the Spirit mentioned in the New Testament are: apostleship, prophecy, evangelism, pasturing, teaching,… Read More

KATHISMA – 1) A kathisma (pl. kathismas or kathismata; from Grk. kathemai, “sit”) is a twentieth part of the Psalter, that is, a section conveniently readable in one sitting or session. Each of the twenty kathismas is subdivided into 3 sections called stases or antiphons. A kathisma is often followed by meditative expository hymns called… Read More

ALL NIGHT VIGIL – (vsenoshchnoye bdeniye) A service of the Russian Orthodox Church that consists of Vespers, Matins, and the First Hour; in parish churches it is celebrated in the evenings before Divine Liturgy on Sundays and feasts; in monasteries the All Night Vigil sometimes follows a somewhat different format.

AVTOMELON – (samopodoben)  A term applied to certain hymns composed according to the principles of prosomoia, which bear a particularly close similarity to one another, often beginning and ending with the same words.

BULGARIAN CHANT – One of the liturgical chants of the Russian Orthodox Church, which came into use in Muscovite Russia in the mid-17th c. Since Bulgarian chant does not have a direct connection with the chant used in the Bulgarian Church, its Bulgarian origin has not been definitely established; it is possible that the term… Read More

CANTICLE – One of as many as fourteen Biblical and extra-Biblical odes originally gathered into an appendix to the Psalter to facilitate the singing of divine services; specifically, one of the scheme of nine canticles used at Matins by the Palestinian monks as the basis for the genre of liturgical poetry called the kanon. The… Read More

COMMON CHANT – A term used to identify simple melodies that are commonly known and widely used in the musical practice of a particular national Church, diocese, or region.

COURT CHANT –  Compendium of liturgical melodies, taken, for the most part, from abbreviated Kievan, Greek, and Bulgarian chants, which became standard in the usage of the Imperial Court Chapel in St. Petersburg during the late 18th-early 19th centuries. Eventually, it was systematized and published, first in two voices by D. Bortniansky in 1815, then… Read More

DAILY CYCLE – The cycle of liturgical services of the Orthodox Church, comprised of Vespers, Compline, Nocturns, Matins, First Hour, Third Hour, Sixth Hour, and Ninth Hour; Divine Liturgy, though strictly speaking not part of the d. c., falls between Sixth and Ninth Hour. According to church tradition, the Daily Cycle begins with Vespers, at… Read More

DEMESTVENNY CHANT – One of the monophonic chants of the Russian Orthodox Church; first mentioned in a source dating from 1441, it flourished in the 17th c. Hymns performed in Demestvenny Chant primarily belonged to solemn feast-day services and were marked by complexity of rhythm and freedom of melodic stucture. The hymns of Demestvenny Chant… Read More

DEMESTVENNY NOTATION – a type of neumatic notation used in early Russian church singing for notating monophonic demestvenny chant.

DEMESTVENNY POLYPHONY – A type of early Russian polyphony, dating from the 16th-17th c., that was contrapuntal in nature and characterized by a complex texture resulting from the relative rhythmic independence of the component voices.

Divine Liturgy – The central divine service of the Orthodox Catholic Church, the first portion of which centers on the reading of Scripture and common prayers, and the second portion, on the celebration of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. There are three main variants of the Divine Liturgy: the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great,… Read More

EIGHT TONES – A system of classifying liturgical poetry and melodies into eight categories, known as Tones. Derived originally from the Palestinian practice of singing Paschal hymns to a different melody (Tone) on each of the eight days of the feast, the Eight Tones came to be applied to eight week-long cycles of hymns. As… Read More

Ekphonesis – In a general sense, the chanted reading and exclamations of sacred text, which are used in the Orthodox Catholic Churches. In terms of melodic character, e. stands between psalmody, in which deviations from the main reciting tone occur only at the beginnings and endings of phrases, and singing proper, which has a well… Read More

ENTRANCE HYMN – (Entrance Verse) A brief hymn that accompanies the entrance of the clergy into the altar during the little entrance. At the Divine Liturgy on a day that is not a Great Feast, the Entrance Hymn consists of the verse “Come, let us worship and fall down before Christ,” followed by the refrain… Read More

EXAPOSTILARION – (PHOTAGOGIKON, Svetilen, lit. Hymn of Light) – A brief hymn, similar to a troparion, performed at Matins after the kanon. There are three types of Exapostilarion: resurrectional, which follow the cycle of 11 resurrectional Gospel readings and Gospel stichera; festal, which pertain to the feast being celebrated; and trinitarian, which are sung at… Read More

EXCLAMATION – A prayer said aloud by a priest or bishop, which in most instances is the conclusion of a longer prayer said in a softer voice; one of the forms of ekphonesis.