Included in our Divine Liturgy, during that part that we call the Anaphora, the living and the dead are mentioned. This is to signify that the entire community of believers – living and dead – celebrate the Divine Liturgy together. In the early Church the names of the living and the dead were written on diptychs (i.e., a pair of hinged writing tablets that had a waxed inter-surface that could be written on with a stylus). When they were not in use they were folded together and kept with the sacred vessels.

It is important when we celebrate the Divine Liturgy that each of us remembers the living and deceased people we know and love. This is yet another way that we personalize our worship. The way that I lead our worship is that I stop and ask you to call to mind the memories of your deceased relatives and friends and to mention, in the quiet of your hearts, the names of your relative and friends that you want to include in your prayer. I believe that it is essential that we stop and do this. If you have to, write the names down and bring a small piece of paper with you to the Divine Liturgy so that you can include this ancient practice in your worship.

The commemoration of the dead is first attested by Cyril of Jerusalem, and so spread widely in the East. That of the   living was soon added. In some churches they were read out before the Anaphora began, but there is no reason to think that at Constantinople they were read elsewhere than in the course of the intercession within the Anaphora. The names in both sets of diptychs were ranged in hierarchical order, the clergy first, then the laity. I personally don’t believe that is necessary. I personally arrange the names in the order of those that I consider closest to me – immediate family first, then friends and others. The contents of the diptychs had become by the early fifth century a matter of great popular interest, and the inclusion or    exclusion of a particular name could arouse fierce passions among the congregation. You will recall that the exclusion of the Patriarch of Rome’s name in Hagia Sophia before the Great Schism only added fuel to the fire. At the beginning of the fifth century the diptychs were chiefly of interest as showing with which churches or individuals any given church was in communion.

Although fallen into disuse in many of our Eastern Churches, I believe that it is a very critical practice for each of us to make an attempt to remember, during the Divine Liturgy, both the living and dead that play a part in our lives. It also reinforces the idea that our worship is not something we do alone