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Liturgy finishes before 12

ophadeceophadece
edited December 1969 in Coptic Orthodox Church
Dear all,
Having been reading posts on this forum for the last couple of days I can infer that 90% of the churches in Egypt and the diaspora finished liturgies before 12am. I don't agree with such a practice (although I do understand that for practicality issues some in the diaspora are used to finishing early anyway). My biggest disappointment is that the evil one managed to shake our rites. Would love to hear your views
Oujai

Comments

  • gregorytheSinnergregorytheSinner
    I remember hearing once a priest's take on something along the same lines.  To crudely summarize what he said, fasting or breaking fast never depends on the laws of time, in the sense that only at 12:00am is one allowed to break his fast.  Granted, one shouldnt take advantage of this and break his fast at say 7:00pm, but nonetheless the idea of breaking at a designated time is not a set-in stone rule.  If anything it should depend more on the person's control and his effort in fasting.

    I understand your question was referring to the time the mass finishes, but I assume the same theory can apply to it. 

    On a side note, my church here said the creed at around 11:15, so I assume we finished well past 12.  [I didn't attend the liturgy to the end.]
  • geomike
    Mine, finished 12:45 a.m.
  • Michael Boutros
    Does it really make a difference whether one finishes at 11:45 PM or 12:00 AM? I am fairly conservative with church rites, but I don't see the issue at all...
  • ophadeceophadece
    I always believed that you have to get past midnight as you would have gone into a new day. That is to say we may pray vespers, midnight praises, but matins and liturgy are always next day. That said even on feast nights we do everything in a haste but the Communion should be distributed after midnight, unless a church covers an area of hundreds of miles for example.
    Oujai
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