Liturgical Texts

Official Liturgical Texts approved by the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA

 

Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed

The Assembly of Bishops, at its October 2024 meeting, reviewed the text and agreed to have the Executive Committee make minor revisions and approve the text. The AoB Executive Committee made the final revisions and approved the prayer on February 6, 2025.

 

Sunday of Orthodoxy Vespers

The Assembly of Bishops, at its October 2024 meeting, approved the text of the service with minor revisions, and the AoB Executive Committee approved the service itself on February 6, 2025.

     

 

Memorial Prayers for Instances of Stillbirth or Miscarriage

The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America, in its June 2022 Statement “On the Sacredness of Human Life and Its Untimely Termination,” affirmed a critical pastoral need: “to provide new rituals and ways to address these circumstances [stillbirth and miscarriage], which include prayers of mourning, compassion, and healing.”

The Assembly approved these two liturgical services – Prayers in the Instance of Stillbirth or Miscarriage and Prayers upon Internment for Stillborn or Miscarried Infants – on November 7, 2025.

 

Prayer for the Youth

The Assembly of Bishops Executive Committee approved this prayer during the Year of the Youth on March 12, 2021.

 

Process

Throughout history, the saints, bishops, monastics, and other ecclesiastical leaders have composed services and prayers for inexhaustible circumstances of their time and place. As such, the Assembly of Bishops' Committee for Liturgy is tasked with generating common English translations of Liturgical Texts as well as prayers and services to meet the needs of the faithful in our modern time and country. 

When proposing common translations, the Committee uses a comparative approach, taking into consideration all of the existing English translations as well as the original text in its original language. When proposing prayers or services, the Committee consults the totality of tradition as well as subject matter experts and individual experiences. The proposed texts and prayers are submitted to an annual Assembly of Bishops meeting, where all the active Hierarchs in the country are invited to meet together, discuss, and approve the work by consensus as an official prayer, liturgical text, or translation. Subsequently, these agreed texts are meant to be utilized in any pan-Orthodox gathering or by any priest/parish who receives the blessing of their Hierarch. Additionally, each jurisdiction is encouraged to adopt the agreed texts for official use within their jurisdictions.