About three in the afternoon, we have Vespers, during which the moment of the death of Jesus Christ and the taking down from the Cross are portrayed with tender compunction. At the start the order of the service follows the usual Great Lenten sequence (the proemial psalm, “Lord, I have cried,” the appointed verses, the entrance with the Gospel). After the entrance and the prokeimenon, three Old Testament lessons are read. In the first, we learn how Moses prayed before the Lord for the sinful people of Israel and was granted a revelation of God’s glory. Moses praying for the people is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, the One who interceded for the whole world on Golgotha. In the second lesson it tells how God blessed Job for his patient bearing of his sufferings and trials. Job also serves as an image of the guiltless Divine Sufferer, Jesus Christ, Who brought again to mankind the blessing and mercy of the Heavenly Father. In the third lesson, the extraordinary abasement and Passion of Jesus Christ is foretold, how He was diminished “more than all the sons of men,” and how He was “led as a lamb to the slaughter,” and so on. After these readings, there follows one from the Apostle (1 Cor. 1:18-2:2), in which the Divine Wisdom, which was revealed by the Lord’s Cross, is proclaimed. The Gospel reading which follows tells of the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ. After this, we have the usual litanies, the threefold one and the supplicatory one, and then the aposticha, the last verse of which runs thus:

“Joseph with Nicodemus took Thee down from the Tree,who deckest Thyself with light as a garment; and looking upon Thee dead, stripped and without burial, in his grief and tender compassion he lamented, saying: ‘Woe is me, my sweetest Jesus! when but a little while ago the sun saw Thee hanging on the Cross, it wrapped itself in darkness: the earth quaked with fear and the veil of the Temple was rent in twain. And now I see Thee for my sake submitting of Thine own will to death. How shall I bury Thee, my God? How shall I wrap Thee in a winding sheet? How shall I touch Thy most pure body with my hands? what song at Thy departure shall I sing to Thee, O compassionate Saviour? I magnify Thy sufferings; I sing the praises of Thy burial and Thy Resurrection, crying: O Lord, glory be to Thee.’”

During the chanting of this hymn, the clergy cense the Winding Sheet (Plashchanitsa / epitaphios), which lies on the Holy Table and on which the Body of Jesus Christ is depicted [or often, the whole scene of the taking down from the Cross - transl.]. Then we have the “Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, O Master,” the trisagion and the “Our Father.” After the priestly exclamation at the end of the Lord’s Prayer, the clergy take up the Winding Sheet from the Holy Table, as if taking the Lord’s Body from Golgotha, and process with it into the centre of the church accompanied by candles, lamps and burning incense. At this time the chanters sing:

“The noble Joseph, taking Thine immaculate Body down from the tree, and having wrapped It in pure linen and spices, laid It for burial in a new tomb.”

“Unto the myrrh-bearing women did the Angel cry out as he stood by the grave: Myrrh-oils are meet for the dead, but Christ hath proved to be a stranger to corruption.”

After the dismissal of Vespers, in silent reverence, while holding lighted candles, those praying in church then listen to the service of Little Compline. In this there is a particularly touching canon, known as the Lamentation of the Theotokos, as she contemplates the tomb of her Divine Son. The Winding Sheet remains in the centre of the church for the three days (Friday evening, Saturday, and the eve of Sunday - until just before midnight) reminding us of the “three-day” sojourn of Jesus Christ in the tomb.

…to be continued with “The Special Services of Great Saturday”