Christian liturgy

Lore & Background

The holding of church services pertains to the observance of the Lord's Day in Christianity. The Bible has a precedent for a pattern of morning and evening worship that has given rise to Sunday morning and Sunday evening services of worship held in the churches of many Christian denominations today. In Numbers 28:1–10 and Exodus 29:38–39, God commanded the daily offerings in the tabernacle to be made once in the morning and then again at twilight. In Psalm 92, the prophet David writes about giving thanks to the Lord in the morning and declaring his faithfulness by night. Church father Eusebius of Caesarea declared that throughout the whole world in the churches of God at the morning rising of the sun and at the evening hours, hymns, praises, and truly divine delights are offered to God.

Reader's Guide

Christian liturgy encompasses a wide variety of worship patterns across denominations. Communion liturgies, in which the Eucharist is celebrated, include the Roman Catholic Mass, the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy, the Holy Qurbana of Syriac Churches, and the Divine Service or Holy Communion in Lutheran and Anglican traditions. Many Protestant traditions, such as Reformed and Methodist denominations, vary in their liturgies or orders of worship, though some have developed similar patterns drawing from ancient sources. Common elements found in most Western liturgical churches include the procession, invocation, confession, scripture readings, creed, prayers, consecration, and communion. The Divine Office marks the hours of each day with prayer, with forms including the Liturgy of the Hours in the Western Catholic Church, the Byzantine Rite's daily cycle of seven non-sacramental services, and Anglican Morning and Evening Prayer. Liturgies are generally presided over by clergy wherever possible, but lay leaders preside in many cases.

Did You Know?

• The term liturgy comes from Greek and means 'public work'.
• The majority of Christian denominations hold their principal church service on Sunday, known as the Lord's Day.
• In the Roman Catholic Church, the sacred liturgy in which the Eucharist is celebrated is generally called the Mass.
• The Byzantine Rite maintains a daily cycle of seven non-sacramental services, beginning with Vespers at sunset.