Russian Orthodox Liturgical Resources

Liturgical Handbook
of the Practices of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad
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Handbook of Liturgical Practice of the Russian Church Abroad
Liturgical Question:
When multiple priests serve the Divine Liturgy, who bestows the peace upon the people at the various appointed portions of the service?
Handbook Category: Concelebrations of Multiple Priests (index)

While technically the presiding Priest (whoever is standing at the front of the Holy Table) would always bestow the peace throughout the whole of the Liturgy, it has long been the normal practice within the Church Abroad that when Priests concelebrate, the peace is bestowed upon the people by whichever Priest has pronounced the exclamation just before it — thus ‘sharing’ this act between the various Priests across the service. This is blessed as the normal practice for our Diocese.

This is not to be done, however, when an Abbot or Archimandrite serves within his own monastery. In this case the Abbot always bestows the peace.

(For more information on why certain elements of the Divine Liturgy are reserved to the chief celebrant Priest alone, see additional notes in the Handbook entry on the Prayer of the Cherubic Hymn during concelebrations.)

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This is an entry from our Liturgical Handbook of the practices of the Church Abroad. Please see the full handbook for more than 100 entries on other topics.

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