Editing Eastern Orthodox Church (section)

=== Church services ===

{{See also|Canonical hours#Byzantine Rite usage}}

The main service offered in the Church is the [[Divine Liturgy]]. Most parishes offer this service on Sunday mornings and on major feast days, though it can be offered almost any day of the year.<ref>{{cite web |title=First Time Visitors |url=https://stkatherineaz.org/first-time-visitors#:~:text=In%20the%20Orthodox%20church%20the,soon%20as%20the%20previous%20ends. |website=Saint Katherine Greek Orthodox Church |access-date=26 November 2024}}</ref> Additional services include [[Orthros]] and [[Vespers]]; prayer services in the morning and evening, respectively. The celebration of the feasts are distinguished according to their various degrees of solemnity. The great feasts are celebrated with an All Night Vigil. Lesser feasts will have a vigil according to the feast's custom.<ref name="CS">{{Cite web |title=Church Services |url=https://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/church_services.htm |access-date=2025-03-30 |website=www.fatheralexander.org}}</ref> 

Church service books are used in divine services, like the Gospel, the Epistle, and the Psalter. These books, often called ''divine service books'' were composed in accordance with the scriptures and traditions of the Church Fathers and teachers of the Orthodox Church. During fasting, in the middle of the week Holy Communion is given at all church services, without removing the characteristics of Orthodox Lent.<ref name="CS" /> 

==== Chanting ====

[[File:Patriarchate Constantinopolis.jpg|thumb|Chanters singing on the [[kliros]] at the [[Church of St. George, Istanbul|Church of St. George]], [[Patriarchate of Constantinople]]]]

Chanting is not considered "music" by Orthodox Christians, but rather sacred melody and prayer, in Orthodox Theology. An [[Divine Service (Eastern Orthodoxy)|Orthodox Divine Service]] is chanted in their entirely by the clergy, the choir, and the congregation from the start of the service to the end.<ref name="HD">{{Cite web |title=History and Development of Orthodox Liturgical Chant |url=http://holywisdomorthodox.com/liturgical/choir/liturgical_tradition.html |access-date=2025-03-30 |website=holywisdomorthodox.com}}</ref> Early Christian forms of chanting began with ancient Judaic traditions of chanting the Psalms, which priests have now declared with the hymns in the Book of Psalms. As the Church grew, so did persecution, and many new forms of hymns began to appear.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Liturgical Chant |url=https://www.saintbarbara.org/our_faith/orthodox_worship/liturgical-chant |access-date=2025-03-25|website=St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church |language=en}}</ref>

Liturgies contain the reading and chanting of prayers, headed by a bishop or priest.<ref name="CS" /> Many various forms of liturgies include different forms of chanting services (for example, the [[Liturgy of Saint Basil|Liturgy of St. Basil the Great]] has chanting of longer duration and the priest privately reads his prayers at the alter). For the composition of religious chant, the [[Octoechos]], an eight-[[Mode (music)|tone (mode)]] system, analogous to the [[Gregorian mode]]s in the West, and to other ancient Christian musical systems, is used. [[Byzantine music]] is [[Microtonal music|microtonal]].

Byzantine chants are associated with the Eastern Roman Empire's period (AD 330 to 1453) and developed form Jewish and Syrian traditions in the early-Christian Church. This continued to evolve throughout the 16th century. However, many mistake it for Greek Christianity in the east, but is unrelated to the ancient Greek period.<ref name="HD" />

Northern Slavs, however, have used simpler tonal systems evolved through the sundry local types of [[Znamenny chant]]; today [[Western culture#Music|Western music]], often with [[four-part harmony]], and the "tones" are simply sets of melodies. Russian liturgical chants (including some Ukrainian and Balkan churches) evolved from the Kievan Rus people in AD 988. Byzantine melodies adapted to the patterns of the [[Old Church Slavonic]] language. In the 14th century, Russian elements began to be used in the church. By the 16th century, Russian chants had many links to the Byzantine style.<ref name="HD" />

There are numerous versions and styles that are traditional and acceptable and these vary a great deal between cultures.{{sfn|Ware|1993|p=238}}