The Court Liturgical Order and the Church-Legal Regulation of the Liturgical Practice (The Synodal Period)

Abstract

Divine service is one of the main spheres of the life of the Orthodox Church, so it is regulated by the church law. The main code for the liturgical life of the Church can be found within the corpus of liturgical books which are edited with the blessing of the higher authorities of the Local Churches. In the Russian Orthodox Church, before the Old Ritualist schism, the development of the liturgical practice was reflected in the service-books in the context of the Revision of the Books (Rus.: knizhnaya sprava). During the Synodal period the service-books did not see any meaningful change because of the fear of a new schism; nevertheless, the liturgical practice continued to develop. In the 18th century and later, Russian Orthodox liturgical practice was being considerably influenced by the liturgical tradition of the new capital — St. Petersburg. This tradition was formed due to the Court Choral Capella (or, otherwise, Court Choral Chapel), which was to provide court churches with choirs. The particular court liturgical rite, much shorter than the one prescribed by the Typikon, was not reflected in the corpus of service-books but in the musical books of the Court Choral Capella. These church-choral editions, as they had a brand of the «Imperial choir», with the blessing of the Most Holy Synod were spread throughout all the Russian Church as exemplary patterns. The exclusive right of the Court Capella to train and assess precentors precipitated the spreading not only of the court chant, but also of the particular features of the court liturgical order. The Most Holy Synod, while formally disapproving the court innovations in the liturgical practice, was in fact facilitating their promotion, by giving administrative support to the activity of the Court Capella.