Setting the Services

In the Byzantine Rite (as in most Christian liturgical traditions), the services of the Church are composed of two parts:

the ordinary or fixed parts of the service, which are said or sung every time it is celebrated; and
the proper or changeable parts, which vary from one celebration of the service to the next

The determination of the proper parts (or "propers") for a particular liturgical celebration is an important part of preparing for the service; this is called "arranging" or "setting" the service. Cantors must be familiar with this process in order to carry out their responsibilities in church.

The Typikon of the Byzantine Catholic Church

The typikon is the liturgical book which contains the rules for arranging all the services for the church year. Since this book is only available in Greek and Church Slavonic, and requires a great deal of background knowledge to use, most Byzantine Churches prepare an annual summary showing how the rules of the typikon apply to the services of the current year.

For the Byzantine Catholic Church, the Byzantine Seminary Press publishes a Common Typikon (summarizing the rules of the typikon) and an Annual Typikon which applies these rules for a particular calendar year.

The following articles explain how to arrange the services for a particular day: