ABSTRACT
To suggest that in the compass of a few pages one can describe the funeral rites of the Orthodox churches is folly of the highest order. Leaving aside the fundamental division between Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian churches, each Orthodox Church is, in effect, a national church. The Orthodox pay great attention to the preparation of the body for burial. And it is burial that the Orthodox choose. The Funeral Service is essentially the Matins service, with the canon and other hymns selected from the Matins for Great Saturday – the day of Christ's burial. The deacon repeats the Little Litany for the Departed, followed by the prayer secretly uttered and the exclamation. As always, the overwhelming impression of the Orthodox is the rootedness in scripture and tradition. The extended preparation with the repeated prayers and acclamations combine to deliver a sense of the unending liturgy of heaven into which the faithful are drawn and upon whose threshold the departed stand.
