Rites and symbolic actions are necessary in worship not only because they are a natural manifestation of the human soul and because they express sacred thoughts, but also because they are of ancient Christian origin. Most of them are sanctified by the example of Jesus Christ. From various Gospel stories it is evident that during the days of His life, Jesus Christ, when praying and communicating grace-filled help to people, repeatedly raised His eyes to heaven (when feeding 5000 people with five loaves of bread (Matt. 14:19) and during the high priestly prayer (John 17:1); kneeling in the Garden of Gethsemane before suffering (Matt. 24:39; Luke 22:41-44), with raised hands He blessed the disciples (before the ascension – Luke 24:50) and children (Matt. 19:15); after the healing of a man born blind commanded him to wash in the holy water of Siloam (John 9:11). In the radiance of light – oil and lamps in the parable of the ten virgins he depicted the triumph in the Kingdom of God (Matthew 25:1-13). Likewise, in the days of the Apostles, divine services were accompanied by genuflections (Acts 7:60; 9:40; 20:36; Ephesians 3:14), the raising of lamps (Acts 20:7-8), and the lifting up of hands (1 Timothy 2:8)... The best Christians, the holy martyrs, did not shorten, but enriched the divine services with ritual and symbolic actions.

17. The purpose of the divine service

It is necessary to study the divine services: in order to understand the order and alternation of the various prayers, hymns and sacred actions that are part of the church services, to understand the meaning of these prayers, hymns, rites and actions, and, finally, to create in one's heart a reverent love for the Church of God and Orthodox worship.

18. Worship at home and in church

Divine services can be performed either for the whole community of believers, or at the request of individual Christians. Most services can be performed not only in church, but also at home. However, most often our services, not excluding those that can be performed at home, are performed in church because the church is more suitable for performing divine services. In church, believers can better remember that they are children of the One Heavenly Father. Here the distinctions of class, social and property are rather forgotten, and, thus, public worship is more conducive to the awakening in the hearts of people of the feelings of Christian love, brotherhood and mercy.

19. The Concept of the Temple

A temple is a building that differs in appearance from other buildings and is intended for worship. Temples are also called churches, because the faithful who gather here for prayer constitute the Church (i.e. an assembly or society). Churches are consecrated by the bishop or, with his permission, by priests during a special service for the consecration of churches (§ 148). All churches are dedicated to God and in them the Lord is invisibly present by His Grace. In addition to these general names, each church has its own particular name, depending on the sacred event or person in whose memory it was built, for example, the Church of the Nativity of Christ, the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, in honor of St. Trinity, in the name of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine and Helena. If there are several churches in the city, then the main one is called a "cathedral": the clergy of various churches gather here on solemn days, and the service is performed by a "council". The cathedral at which the bishop's cathedra is located is called "cathedral".

20. The Origin of Temples

Originally, in the Old Testament, under the patriarchs (Adam, Noah, Abraham, etc.). Divine services were performed on altars in the open air. For sacrifice, places were chosen where God appeared to man and where He showed some kind of beneficence, or places, by their greatness, mystery and beauty, which involuntarily disposed a person to think about God's power and God's wisdom, etc. After the Jews left Egypt, the prophet Moses, during the time of the Sinai law, received from God a command to build a portable temple, which was called the tabernacle, which was divided into a court, a sanctuary, and the Holy of Holies. The Jews had only one temple in order to maintain in the Jewish people the consciousness of the "One" God. Under King Solomon, instead of the tabernacle, a stone temple was built, which had the form of a quadrangle with a semi-sloping roof, without windows, with two high columns near the entrance4 and with a large courtyard around the temple (Fig. 1, sheet 1). Inside, Solomon's temple was divided, like the tabernacle, by a curtain into two parts: the sanctuary and the Holy of Holies. The Temple of Solomon was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar before the Babylonian captivity. On their return from captivity, the Jews built a second temple on the model and plan of the first, but much poorer in decoration. Shortly before the birth of Jesus Christ, King Herod decorated this temple and made some additions in comparison with the first temple (Fig. 2, sheet 1). During His earthly life, Jesus Christ visited this temple, taught in it, took care of order in it (twice expelled the merchants from the temple – John 2:13-20 and Matthew 21:12-13) and its splendor (He Himself brought a denarius to the temple – Matt. 17:24-27; He set as an example a willing donation, the mite of the Gospel widow – Luke 21:1-4). By His example, the Savior approved the custom of performing divine services in the temple, sanctified the very thought (or idea) of the church and the need for it. He performed Communion in a private house. In a conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus Christ said that the time would come when God would be worshipped not only in the temple of Jerusalem, but also in other places (John 4:21).