Currently, we meet most Saturday nights for the “All Night Vigil”, known in Russian as “Всенощное бдѣніе”, the typical service combining the Vespers evening service and the Matins early morning service that is prescribed for Saturday nights and the eves of Great Feasts. Our Vigil begins at 5:30 and typically runs for around two hours. We serve the full Vigil with the typical ROCOR parish abbreviations, and the service is somewhat abridged due to serving the “reader’s version” with no litanies, processions/lityas, or priest’s prayers.
Our services are conducted almost entirely in English, with some Slavonic and Greek used sparingly. We are an English-speaking community of both converts and “cradle” Orthodox who mostly attend St. Xenia Orthodox Church in Methuen, MA. However, due to our long commutes, we were given a blessing by His Eminence, Metropolitan Nicholas, to begin a mission in our beloved New Hampshire.