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Course 21 · Lesson 2.2

The liturgical families of East and West

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 21 outline

Module 1: The Theology of Worship

  1. What liturgy is: the word, the idea and the debate
  2. Worship in the Old and New Testaments
  3. Praying and believing: how worship shapes doctrine and doctrine shapes worship
  4. Word, sacrament and sign across the traditions

Module 2: How Christian Liturgy Developed

  1. The earliest descriptions: the Didache, Justin Martyr and the early church orders
  2. The liturgical families of East and West
  3. The Reformation and the revision of worship
  4. Liturgical renewal in the twentieth century

Module 3: The Christian Year: Calendars, Feasts and Fasts

  1. Sunday, the week and the hours of the day
  2. Easter, Holy Week and the dispute over the date
  3. Advent, Christmas and Epiphany
  4. Lent, the Orthodox fasting seasons and Protestant approaches to fasting
  5. Saints days and the second cycle of the calendar

Module 4: Sacred Space and Sacred Images

  1. From house church to basilica: the development of church buildings
  2. The meaning of church buildings: altar, table, orientation and the Orthodox and Gothic examples
  3. Icons and the Incarnation: John of Damascus and the Second Council of Nicaea
  4. Images and the Reformation: Lutheran, Reformed and Anglican approaches

Module 5: Material Signs: Incense, Water, Oil and Blessings

  1. Incense: Scripture, temple worship and its use in the churches
  2. Water: baptism, the renewal of baptismal vows and holy water
  3. Oil: anointing of the sick, chrismation, confirmation and ordination
  4. Blessings: what the church means when it blesses a person, a house or an object
  5. Sacraments and sacramentals: the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant vocabulary

Module 6: Popular Piety and Devotional Practice

  1. What popular piety is, and why scholars take it seriously
  2. Pilgrimage, relics, medals and pious objects
  3. The rosary, the Stations of the Cross, litanies and akathists
  4. How the churches have regulated and corrected popular devotion

Module 7: Telling Tradition from Superstition

  1. What the theologians mean by superstition, and why the line is hard to draw
  2. A method: source, date, doctrine, authority and consequence
  3. Case studies: apocryphal legends, magical formulas and invented history
  4. Honesty and respect in judging other people’s devotion

All courses

Program / Course 21: Liturgical Theology / Lesson 2.2

What you will learn

  • Name the main liturgical families and the regions in which they arose.
  • Describe the Byzantine and Roman rites and how each took its historic form.
  • Explain why liturgies grew different and why one rite came to dominate a region.
  • Recognize that Catholic, Orthodox and Oriental churches each keep several rites.

The big idea

Christian worship did not spread as one script. From the fourth century onward, major cities such as Antioch, Alexandria, Rome and Constantinople developed their own ways of celebrating the Eucharist and the other services. Scholars group them into families that share a structure and style. The Byzantine rite became the main form of Orthodox worship, and the Roman rite became the main Latin form in the West. Other rites survive in the Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Catholic and a few Western communities.

Key terms

Rite
A complete tradition of worship, with its own texts, music, ceremonies and customs, that belongs to a church or region.
Liturgical family
A group of rites that share a common ancestor or structure. Scholars usually name West Syrian, East Syrian, Alexandrian, Roman and Gallican families.
Byzantine rite
The rite of Constantinople, used by most Orthodox and some Eastern Catholic churches. It descends from Antiochene sources.
Roman Canon
The central eucharistic prayer of the Roman rite, in use in much the same form since late antiquity.
Oriental Orthodox
A family of churches, including the Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian, Syriac and Malankara churches, that did not accept the Council of Chalcedon (451).
Eastern Catholic churches
Churches in full communion with the pope that keep Eastern rites, such as the Maronite, Melkite and Ukrainian Greek Catholic churches.
Missal
A book containing the texts for celebrating the Mass.

Background

In the first three centuries each local church had a good deal of freedom in its worship. The leader often prayed the central prayer in his own words within a customary frame. From the fourth century, when Christianity became legal and then favored, the great cities began to fix their texts, and bishops and monks spread them. Pilgrimage and imperial influence carried forms from one place to another, and the major sees gave their liturgies a reputation.

Scholars sort the results into families. The main ones are the West Syrian, which includes the liturgy of Antioch and Jerusalem and the Byzantine rite; the East Syrian, in the church that spread eastward from Mesopotamia; the Alexandrian, in Egypt and Ethiopia; and in the West the Roman rite and the Gallican family, which includes the Ambrosian rite of Milan and the Hispanic or Mozarabic rite of Spain. This sorting is a scholarly tool, and some features cross the lines.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The West Syrian family and the Byzantine rite

The Liturgy of St James, linked to Jerusalem, and other Antiochene liturgies are early examples of the West Syrian type. The Byzantine rite of Constantinople grew from this stock. Its two chief eucharistic liturgies are those named for John Chrysostom, used on most days, and Basil the Great, used on certain days such as Sundays in Lent. A third, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, is used on weekdays in Lent. The attribution to Chrysostom and Basil is traditional, and scholars think the texts took shape over time and under their influence rather than from their own hands. The Byzantine rite spread with Byzantine missionaries to the Slavs and others, and it is used in Greek, Slavonic, Arabic, English and many other languages.

Step 2: The East Syrian and Alexandrian families

The East Syrian rite, used by the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church, has as its main eucharistic prayer the Anaphora of Addai and Mari. It is one of the oldest, and it is unusual because the surviving text does not contain an explicit narrative of the Last Supper. In 2001 a Roman Catholic body issued guidelines accepting this anaphora as valid for Chaldean Catholics, which shows how Catholics themselves judge older Eastern texts by their own standard. The Alexandrian family includes the Liturgy of St Mark, and the Coptic and Ethiopian churches keep rites of this type, with the Coptic Liturgy of St Basil and its distinctive prayers and chant.

Step 3: The Roman rite

Rome first used Greek and then, in the fourth century, shifted to Latin. The Roman Canon, a short, firm prayer with a long list of saints, took its place by the late fourth to sixth century in forms close to what is used today. The Roman rite came to dominate Western Europe from the Carolingian period (eighth and ninth centuries), when Frankish rulers adopted Roman forms. In 1570, after the Council of Trent, Pope Pius V issued a Roman Missal which required uniformity wherever local rites were not at least 200 years old. In 1970 Pope Paul VI issued a revised Missal after Vatican II. Some Latin Catholics still celebrate the older form under the permission and limits set by popes.

Step 4: Gallican, Ambrosian and Hispanic rites

Gaul, Milan and Spain had distinct rites with their own prayers and ceremonies. The Gallican rite largely merged into Roman forms after the Carolingian reforms. The Ambrosian rite, linked to Ambrose of Milan, survives in the archdiocese of Milan. The Hispanic or Mozarabic rite survives in a limited way in Spain, notably in Toledo. These rites show that the Latin West was never wholly uniform.

Step 5: Rites in the Reformation and today

The Reformation produced new families: Lutheran orders based on the Mass, the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, and the Reformed orders of Geneva and Scotland. These come from the Western tradition but changed it. Meanwhile Eastern churches continued to worship in their older rites. Today the Catholic Church includes more than twenty churches of different rites. The Orthodox churches use the Byzantine rite mainly, but there are also Western Rite Orthodox parishes in some places, which use adapted Western forms under Orthodox bishops. This is a minor and sometimes debated development. A person studying alone can read and compare the texts of these liturgies in English, though a text on the page does not replace participation in the service.

  1. Which family does this liturgy belong to, and what is its center of origin?
  2. What is the name attached to the liturgy, and is the attribution traditional or documented?
  3. What language does it use, and was that always so?
  4. Which texts are fixed and which vary with the day?
  5. Who imposed or adopted this rite in a region, and why?
  6. How do the members of this tradition describe its relation to the apostles?

Examples

Chrysostom and Basil

An Orthodox parish uses the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom on a normal Sunday and the Liturgy of St Basil on a few special Sundays. The Basil liturgy has longer prayers. Orthodox believers hold these as inherited from the fathers, while scholars say the texts grew over time. Both statements can be true: the church receives them as the fathers’ liturgies, and historians trace development.

A Maronite Catholic Mass

A Maronite Catholic church in union with Rome uses a Syriac-derived rite with its own prayers, parts in Aramaic and a distinct set of ceremonies. A visitor from a Roman-rite parish would recognize the Eucharist but not the order of every prayer.

The Ambrosian rite

In Milan, many Catholic parishes follow the Ambrosian rite, with a different calendar for Lent. Milan kept this tradition even after the wider Roman reform, because of its long local history.

Different perspectives

Catholic

The one Catholic Church celebrates in many rites. Vatican II taught that the rites are of equal dignity and that the church wishes to preserve them (Sacrosanctum Concilium 4). The Roman rite is the largest, but not the only one.

Orthodox

The Liturgy is received from the fathers and is not subject to revision by committee. The Byzantine rite is the main form, but Orthodoxy does not hold that it is the only valid one, as shown by the existence of Western Rite parishes.

Oriental Orthodox

These churches hold that their liturgies, such as the Coptic and Armenian, come from the apostolic age and the early centuries. They keep distinctive prayers, language and music.

Anglican, Lutheran and Reformed

These churches see themselves as part of the Western tradition and revised its forms in the light of Scripture. They hold that no rite is binding as such, though Anglicans and Lutherans kept much historic structure.

Scholarly

Historians see families as useful categories but warn against drawing a neat family tree. Texts crossed regions, borrowed from one another and were edited. Attributions to saints are often traditional and not historical.

Why it matters

Without the idea of families, a student might think that worship has always been one thing and that other forms are deviations. Seeing the variety of rites shows how much Christians of the same faith have differed in prayer, and it prepares for a fair look at the Reformation and the modern renewal. It also warns against claiming that a single historic form is the only apostolic one.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: The Roman Mass is the oldest form of Christian worship.

Correction: Several Eastern rites have equally ancient roots. The Roman rite reached its fixed form by gradual stages and spread widely from the Carolingian period.

Misunderstanding: Chrysostom wrote the entire Liturgy that bears his name.

Correction: The attribution is traditional. Scholars think the liturgy took shape over time and under his influence, and the earliest manuscripts come later.

Misunderstanding: Eastern Catholics are Roman Catholics who use a different language.

Correction: Eastern Catholic churches have their own rites, laws and traditions. They are in communion with Rome and keep their own heritage.

Misunderstanding: Latin was always the language of Christian worship in the West.

Correction: Rome first used Greek and moved to Latin in the fourth century. Many Western Christians outside Rome used other languages.

Knowledge check

Name three liturgical families and a region for each.

West Syrian, from Antioch and Jerusalem and including the Byzantine rite of Constantinople; Alexandrian, from Egypt; East Syrian, from Mesopotamia; Roman, from Rome; Gallican and Hispanic, from Gaul and Spain. Any three with regions are acceptable.

What are the main Byzantine eucharistic liturgies?

The Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, used on most days, and the Liturgy of St Basil, used on certain days. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is used on weekdays in Lent. The attributions are traditional.

Why is the Anaphora of Addai and Mari interesting?

It is one of the oldest eucharistic prayers and, in its surviving form, does not have an explicit narrative of the Last Supper. In 2001 a Catholic body issued guidelines accepting it for Chaldean Catholics.

How did the Roman rite become dominant in the West?

Rome’s prestige, the Frankish rulers’ adoption of Roman forms in the eighth and ninth centuries, and the Missal of Pius V in 1570 all contributed. Some local rites, such as the Ambrosian and Mozarabic, survived.

Think it through

  1. Does the fact that rites differ weaken or strengthen the claim that worship is the church’s shared act?
  2. Why might a tradition insist that its liturgy not be revised?
  3. What does it mean to say that a text is traditional but not documented?
  4. What would a person lose by studying only the liturgy of their own tradition?

Independent assignment

Compare two eucharistic prayers

In your own notebook, write 400 to 600 words comparing the eucharistic prayer of two traditions, for example the Roman Canon and the Chrysostom anaphora, using English translations from a book or church source. List three shared elements and three differences. Note where each prayer mentions the Spirit, the saints and the offering. State which differences you think are most important and why. Do not send this to anyone.

Further study