Entrance (Liturgical)

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In Eastern Orthodoxy, an entrance is a liturgical movement from one part of the sanctuary to another. Entrances generally originated in times when functions now concentrated in the sanctuary, such as the proskomedia and the storage of liturgical vessels, were segregated into separate architectural elements and the procession was needed to bring the objects into the church.

The Little Entrance occurs during the Divine Liturgy when the Gospel book is taken from the altar, carried by the priest or deacon counterclockwise around the altar and out the North Door of the iconostasis, and then back into the sanctuary through the Holy Doors to be replaced on the altar. This entrance is quite elaborate when the bishop is present and a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy is being served, since it is at this time that the bishop himself also enters the sanctuary. Until that point he has been standing upon the episcopal ambo in the center of the church.

The Great Entrance occurs at a later point during the Divine Liturgy when the bread and wine to be offered are carried from the Chapel of Prothesis, a table on the north side of the sanctuary sometimes occupying its own apse, out the North Door and back through the Holy Doors to be place on the altar. This entrance interrupts the Cherubic Hymn and is accompanied by a series of intercessions formulated according to local custom.

There is also an entrance during Great Vespers when the priest, bearing incense and preceded by a server or deacon with a candle, moves in the same direction as in the Little Entrance. This entrance occurs during the singing of the dogmatikon on the verses of Lord I have cried (Psalm 140 LXX etc.) and immediately prior to the singing of O Gladsome Light. This entrance is not performed in Daily Vespers.

The Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts is celebrated on Wednesdays and Fridays during Great Lent and is a Vespers service combined with the distribution of Holy Communion that had been consecrated the previous Sunday. The Little Entrance here is made as the entrance for Great Vespers, but during Holy Week or other occasions when a Gospel reading is prescribed, the Gospel book is used instead of incense so that it resembles the Little Entrance at the Divine Liturgy. The Great Entrance is performed not with bread prepared for the offering but with bread that has already been consecrated, and in complete silence.