The Divine Liturgy in English translation is published with the blessing of His Eminence Archbishop Stylianos of Australia. It is the product of the continuing work of the Committee on the Translation of Liturgical Texts, formed in 1990 under the chairmanship of Dr John Lee. Work on the Divine Liturgy began in mid 1992. His Grace

The Divine Liturgy is the central worship service of the Orthodox Church. It accompanies the sacrament of Holy Communion. In public churches, it is always practiced on Sunday mornings, the day which commemorates the Resurrec- tion of Christ, …

The word liturgy means common work or common action. The Divine Liturgy is the common work of the Orthodox Church. It is the official action of the Church formally gathered together as the chosen People of God. The word church, as we remember, means a gathering or assembly of people specifically chosen and called apart to perform a particular task.

In English there are no comprehensive guides for serving Divine Liturgy or for the other services of the Orthodox Church Such do exist in Russian. One work, known as (actually, the name of its author) “Bul-gakov,”2 in a photo-reprint edition, became ubiquitous in the libraries of Russian Priest in emigration: it