Some liturgical particularities among the Greeks and the Russians and their significance

This article by Bishop Basil Krivocheine examines the liturgical particularities specific to the Greek and Russian traditions, drawing on a series of concrete examples taken from the Divine Liturgy, the Lenten offices and Holy Week. Of a comparative and critical nature, the text analyses divergences such as the commemoration of angels at the prothesis, interpolations in the anaphora of Saint Basil, the theological status of the eucharistic wine in the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, and the differences in popular piety surrounding the Cherubikon and the prayer of Saint Ephrem. The author distinguishes local liturgical creations of genuine spiritual richness from textual deviations which he considers necessary to correct. His principal contribution is to show that these particularities, far from setting the Churches against one another, bear witness to the profound unity of the Orthodox faith, while calling for a critical and serene reassessment of practices in the light of the great Tradition, without liturgical fundamentalism.