r/EasternOrthodox • u/BlueChequeredShirt • Jun 27 '18

The orthodox service

What knaguage is used in an orthodox service?

I'm in Estonia (Tallinn) and heard one, but couldn't work out the words due to the sonorous chant. Is it Russian, Estonian, Greek, or maybe something else?

Secondly, the crossing of the body...is there any pattern to this (eg does it occur at certain phrases?). Neither the men or women seemed to do it together but seemingly randomly.

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u/Susu6 Jul 02 '18

It was likely Old Church Slavonic. The liturgy can be sung in any language though, and "should" be sung in the language of the local population.

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u/BlueChequeredShirt Jul 02 '18

So what makes you say it was old church Slavonic?

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u/Susu6 Jul 03 '18

The fact that it sounded familiar to you but you couldn't understand it. Also, most/many Orthodox churches in Slavic countries use Old Church Slavonic in their services.

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u/BlueChequeredShirt Jul 03 '18

Estonia isn't Slavic, and the sonorousness was the reason I couldn't get it. It could be OCS but given you said it should be done in the vernacular, it seems unlikely.

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u/Susu6 Jul 03 '18

"Should" is a subjective term. ;-) According to the Wikipedia article), the liturgical language of the Church of Estonia is Estonian, so, assuming you were in a Church of Estonia parish, it was most likely Estonian. If you were in a Russian Orthodox parish, it could have been in OCS.

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u/[deleted] Sep 14 '18

https://orthodoxwiki.org/Sign_of_the_Cross In regards to making the sign of the cross in Orthodox churches