The holy liturgy should be celebrated every Sunday, greater feast-day, and on special occasions such as weddings, ordinations, and so on. Only one liturgy may be celebrated on any altar on one day; nor may the holy vessels and instruments be used more than once a day. The bread is leavened, made the same morning in flat round cakes about an inch thick and three inches in diameter. It is stamped with nine crosses, and around them the Trisagion (in Greek).[1] Three are baked; the celebrant chooses one for consecration, the others become the antidoron (p. 285). There is some uncertainty about the wine. During the worst periods of Moslem persecution it was forbidden under severe penalties to ferment any wine at all in Egypt. It seems that from that time the use of unfermented grape-juice for the liturgy began. Butler says roundly: "The Eucharistic wine is unfermented."[2] This is a mistake. At any rate, now they make a liquid of dried raisins and leave it to ferment. Fermented raisin-juice is wine, and would satisfy our condition of validity.[3]
The holy liturgy is celebrated in the morning, generally at about seven o'clock. It should follow the office of the third hour. The celebrant, and all who receive Communion, must be fasting since midnight. On the altar stand all the vessels required; the chalice is put in the ark (p. 271), where it stands till the Communion; the two candles are lighted; the haikal doors are open and the curtain is drawn back during the whole liturgy. While the choir finishes the office,[4] the celebrant and deacon see that all is ready and say preparatory prayers. The celebrant chooses the loaf to be consecrated (called the "Lamb") and washes his hands. The deacon bears the
- ↑ See the illustration in Butler: op. cit. ii. 278, who points out that Neale's picture (Holy Eastern Church, vol. v. 214, copied from Denzinger: Ritus Orient. i. 81) is incorrect.
- ↑ Op. cit. ii. 281.
- ↑ I believe that in Upper Egypt they sometimes use fermented date-juice, which we, of course, should deny to be valid matter.
- ↑ In small churches there is no choir; the people sing the responses. In practice the celebrant, deacon, and one or two more learned laymen get through the office at a tremendous pace, then begin the preparation of the liturgy. There is often no deacon. So the celebrant takes his part too, and manages as best he can with help from people standing round. They are all very careless, and often ignorant what to do next. They stop and argue about it at the top of their voices in excited Arabic. I have seen men finishing their cigarettes in church after the liturgy has begun.
