LITURGY (Gk. Netroupyla, argia, ser vice. Iron: Xecroviry6s. 1. r wos, minister. from Teiros, /citos, public rin OV, ego /. work).
form of public worship. especially for the cele bration of the Lord's supper. I he word i. fre quently used in the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament to denote the great public service of the Hebrews, the sacrifices of the Temple, and the work of the priests. Thence it passed into the New Testament, where it is used for any min istry, including the ministry of the worship of the Church. Its ecclesiastical use was soon lim ited to the public religious service, and especially to the Lord's Supper, which is still called in the Greek Church 'the Divine Liturgy.' From the days of the Apostles there has been a form of worship connected with the Lord's Sup per, no doubt reproducing in more or less detail the ritual and ceremonies of the first institution of that Sacrament by Christ. This form was in fluenced probably in some degree by the old Jewish Passover ritual, and numerous attempts have been made to trace the connection. The ref• erences to the liturgy in the first three centuries are not very numerous, but by a comparison of these we are led to think that in the ante-Nicene period there was a form of service very similar in all parts of the Church. Such a form may very probably he found in the early documents from which the Eighth Book of the Apostolic Constitutions was compiled, but whether this form was reduced to writing or was a matter of tradition is a disputed point.
With the conversion of Constantine a new epoch in the history of the Liturgy begins. The influx of large numbers of the higher classes into the Church, the decay of the cateehumenate, the building of large and magnificent places of wor ship resulted in the enrichment of the service and the elaboration of the ritual.
In various parts of the Empire the develop ment was different, and as a result we have a number of types of liturgy resembling each other in their main features, but differing in details; in all of them the service is divided into two great parts, the first devoted to instruction and consisting of the reading of Scripture, sermon, and prayers. To this part of the service all were
admitted, and it received the name of ,Missa Catechumenorum, or the Mass of the Catechu mens.
The second part was reserved for those who were to partake of the Sacrament and was called Missa Fidelimn, or Mass of the Faithful; this began with the kiss of peace, then followed the offering of the bread and wine, the Sursum Corda, Preface, the great prayer of thanksgiving (Eueha rist) including the words of institution; this was followed by the invocation of the Holy Spirit upon the elements and intercession for the living and dead. After this, the consecrated elements were distributed, with a formula, and the service ended with a prayer of thanksgiving and the dis missal of the faithful. The names Missa Cate chumenorum and Missa Fidelium are of Western origin, but the Greek liturgics are divided on nearly similar lines into Pro-anaphora and Ana phora.
The two great classes of liturgies, the Eastern and the Western, may be subdivided into families. The best division of the Eastern liturgies is into national rites.
The Syrian rite had its centre at Anti och and is at present represented by the Greek liturgy of Saint James still used on the festival of that saint at Zante. Some account of the earlier form of this liturgy can he gathered from the earlier writings of Saint Chrysostom. The Maronite Church of Mount Lebanon still uses a Syriac version of this liturgy. The services in the early Church at Jerusalem as reconstructed from the writings of Saint Jerome and Saint Cyril, and the Pcreyrinatio of Saint Silvia show a very strong resemblance to this liturgy; it is also closely related to the liturgy found in the Apostolic Constitutions and known as the Clem entine liturgy.
The Persian rite, now used by the sect of Nesto thins, is represented by the liturgy of The Apos tles Addai and Mari. The centre of this rite is at Edessa. There is one common proanaphora, to which may be attached numerous anaphoras. The language is Syriac. Within recent years many of these Nestorians have joined the Ortho dox Eastern Church and use its liturgy.