Topic: How often do you attend Church?

[Anastasios]

Hmm, one altar I thought, so multiple ones (if allowed) would allow for multiple services...

The intent of the canon is not to split up the community into parts by having several liturgical services that one may pick and choose to attend.

[EkhristosAnesti]

The intent of the canon is not to split up the community into parts by having several liturgical services that one may pick and choose to attend.

Which canon are you referring to?

As far as I am aware, the reason our Church prohibits the service of more than one Divine Liturgy at any given altar has something to do with Liturgical theology; i'll ask my priest what that is exactly, as I cannot recall anything specific.

In any event, people who do not plan to (simply because they cannot, or for whatever other reason) attend the Divine Liturgy everyday (which is obviously, and by far, the majority of people) are essentially given the opportunity to pick and choose which Liturgical service to attend, only in such cricumstances it is a matter of choosing which Divine Liturgy of the week, rather than which Divine Liturgy of the day. So the canon in question, in light of the intent you propose lies behind it, doesn't seem very practical.

[Fr. George]

I'm not sure which canon, but I do know the underlying principle behind limiting Divine Liturgy on a particular day:

The Eucharist is the sacrament that binds the local community together.  Theoretically, having more than one Eucharist on a day in a community actually splits the community into multiple parts - for while we are all bound together mystically through the partaking of the Eucharist generally, the local community is defined by who partakes of the Eucharist as part of the Synaxis of the Church, that is, the Divine Liturgy.  I've even heard a Romanian priest take this further and state that it should even be one chalice one Liturgy one Altar one Community (in contrast to the practice in most Greek churches of having multiple Chalices at Communion time if there are enough clergy to do so).  Anyway, the prohibition against having more than one Liturgy in the community on a particular day has roots in the idea that if there is more than one Liturgy then the Community is divided (i.e. those who go to the one versus the other) into two communities.

All this only applies to a particular day of course, and not the practice of having daily Liturgy.  If there is daily Liturgy and some people only come on Wednesdays or whatnot, then they are still part of the Community.  Of course, I believe that the canons referring to being out of communion if one misses three Liturgies are referring to Sunday Liturgies - coming to a weekday Liturgy is no substitute for Sunday Liturgy, which is the gathering of the Community on the Lord's day to celebrate His resurrection and renew the bonds of fellowship that we share amongst one another.

[Anastasios]

I'd have to look for the canon in question.  But Vespers/Matins, etc are not the unique and unifying Eucharistic sacrifice; one may indeed pray any of these services in his home (you can in the Coptic Church too, if I understand correctly).  For those services, you would not do it twice for the simple fact that these services are done at an appointed time of the day.  Sunday liturgy though is more than a service of the hours because of the Eucharist, and you would not want to have multiple celebrations of the Eucharist in one place since that would make multiple Churches (in the assembly sense of the word). This is one problem with having multiple bishops in one area, which is quite uncanonical strictly speaking.

Anastasios

[EkhristosAnesti]

Cleveland and Anastasios,

I understand what you guys are saying, but I'm not sure you guys understood my argument as to why, in terms of practical reality, such a canon seems pretty useless.

Practically speaking, the most common max. frequency that the average Orthodox Christian would likely participate of the Eucharist, is once a week; wouldn't you agree? If we can assume that such is a reasonable general assumption to make, then you still have the same problem (and I am just granting the assumption that there is in fact a "problem" for arguments sake here) of dividing the congregation at any given parish that performs more than one weekly Liturgy. For example, for the congregation of the parish that serves Sunday and Friday Liturgies, Sunday may be the ideal time for some of the congregation, whilst Friday may be the ideal time for others. Essentially then, you have the possibility of two distinct sets of faithful communing weekly on two different occasions, which according to your logic, is in effect the creation of two churches a week. Does this then call for a canon to limit the performance of Liturgies to once a week in order that all weekly attendants partake of the Eucharist on a common day without being split between different days of the week?

On a side note, my personal position on the matter is obviously influenced by the judgment of the late Pope St. Kyrillos who, according to our experience and faith anyway, had an intimate relationship with the Altar Angels. I highly doubt the Altar Angels would encourage a practice that is not in line with the will of God. I'm certainly not trying to make an argument of this but only to reinforce the fact that as far as the authorities that I have to consider go, it's pretty much a moot point. 

[EkhristosAnesti]

In my attempt to search for information on the canon in question, I discovered that the Syrian Orthodox Church has a canon prohibiting the service of more than one Liturgy per day, but the stipulated purpose of it clarifies the fact that this canon only relates to the idea of the service of more than one Liturgy per day by the same priest/Bishop.

I then found an article on the Divine Liturgy at the website of St. Tikhon's Theological Seminary. It has this to say on the matter:

"The Divine Liturgy can be celebrated only by a Bishop or a Priest, and neither can celebrate more than one Liturgy in one day. This is because they must partake of the Holy Gifts, having, of necessity, prepared themselves beforehand by fasting, prayer, etc. [If the Holy Gifts would be consumed before another Liturgy, the fast would therefore be broken!]"

Source: http://www.stots.edu/article.php?id=12

This again, seems to allude to a canon that is purposed towards addressing the situation of one and the same priest performing more than one Liturgy per day.

I would really appreciate any information on this canon in question which allegedly prohibits the service of more than one Liturgy per day regardless of whether the extra services are performed by other clergy on other altars.

[Matthew777]

My church only offers weekday services during Lent and Advent, which I rarely attend.