New York, July 27, 2020
Photo: regnum.ru
The Baptism of Rus’ has been celebrated annually in the Russian Orthodox Church since the millennial celebration in 1988 on July 28, the feast of St. Vladimir, the Baptizer of Rus’.
The service, originally published by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1988, is now available in English.
With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York, the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, the service has been translated into English and is available for download online, reports the ROCOR Eastern American Diocese.
The English service, “to our Lord God, Worshipped in Trinity, in Memory of the Baptism of Rus’,” can be downloaded here, and the Slavonic service here.
The Eastern American Diocese reports that many of the themes and hymns of the service are borrowed from the mid-11th century “Sermon on Law and Grace” by St. Hilarion, the Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus’. The sermon is foundational for Russian literature.
The service presents all necessary hymns and readings for the celebration of Vespers, Matins, and Liturgy for the feast, including three New Testament readings and Litia at Vespers, the Magnification of the Most Holy Trinity at Matins, the Antiphons of the feast of the Baptism of Rus’ and the Epistle and Gospel reading at Liturgy, and a prayer at the Moleben in Memory of the Millennium of the Baptism of Rus’.
The diocese also notes that the service can be combined with the Resurrectional hymns from the Octoechos and served on the last Sunday of July.
