The Liturgy of St James

(Image source: www.comeandseeicons.com) Liturgy along with, Scripture and the teachings of the Holy fathers together form what we Orthodox call Sacred Tradition.

As Paulos Mar Gregorios Thirumeni said, we cannot understand one part of tradition without knowing about the other two.

The Divine Liturgy is deeply ingrained within us, it nourishes us every Sunday. We live it every week. In fact liturgy means people's work. We use the liturgy as an expression of our corporate worship as one community. It helps of course that it was given to us by a figure as revered as St James, Bishop of Jersusalem, Saint and Martyr. This article is just some basic information about it.

Different churches, around the world use different liturgies, The Coptic Church in Egypt uses the liturgy of St Mark,

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the Ethiopians have their own in Geez and Amharic, and the Armenians use their liturgy attributed to St Gregory the Illuminator, although it has been influenced heavily by the Roman Missal and the Syrian Liturgy and we in Malankara use the liturgy of St James

The Liturgy of Saint James is based on the traditions of the ancient rite of the Early Christian Church at Jerusalem, as the Mystagogic Catecheses of St Cyril of Jerusalem imply. It is used by the Syrian Orthodox church of Antioch, by the MOSC and on special feast days by the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchates of Antioch, Cyprus and Jerusalem.

The liturgy we use is the Syriac version of the St James Liturgy, this liturgy Holy Tradition tells us, was first chanted by St James, Bishop of Jerusalem, on the Wednesday after Pentecost Sunday. St James said that the words of the Liturgy were recited to him by the risen Christ himself saying, "God lives I have not added anything to or omitted anything from what I have heard from the Lord"

This liturgy was used in the ancient church in Antioch. Before the Council of Chalcedon, both the Greeks and Syrians used the liturgy. In fact the only extant copy of the liturgy is in Greek. St Basil and St John Chrysosotom have also be added to this liturgy in their time. After the schism of Chalcedon in c 451, the ethnic Greeks and Syrians separated. The Syrians continued to use the liturgy with additions by Mar Severios, Mar Timothy Aerelus and Mar Philexenos of Mabbug. The Greek Orthodox Church subsequently started using the Byzantine Divine liturgy of St John Chrysostom. They use St James Liturgy only on Oct 23rd, the Feast Day of St James, and on the Sunday after Christmas.

Our church is among the few to use this liturgy on a regular basis.

- Suraj Iype, Secunderabad.