The living list contains names of people who are alive. The departed list contains names of those who’ve died. Both are read during the Divine Liturgy and other services so the Church prays by name for specific people, asking God’s mercy, healing, and salvation for the living, and rest and forgiveness for the departed.
If you’re coming from a Protestant background, this might feel unfamiliar. Most Baptist churches in Beaumont have prayer lists for the sick or missionaries, but praying for the dead? That’s new territory. But here’s the thing: we believe the Church is one Body, and death doesn’t sever that. Your grandmother who died in Christ is still part of the Church, still alive in Him, and we can still love her by praying for her.
How the lists work
When you submit names to the church office, they’re commemorated at specific points in the Liturgy. During the Proskomedia (the service of preparation before Liturgy begins), the priest takes particles from the prosphora, the offering bread, for each name. He places these on the diskos while saying prayers for the living and the departed. Later, during the Great Litany, we hear petitions like “for the health and salvation of” followed by names from the living list. We pray for the departed during memorial services and at other points in the cycle of worship.
Some parishes read every name aloud. Others, because of time, rotate names monthly or commemorate them silently. It varies.
The content of the prayers differs. For the living, we ask for health, protection, guidance, repentance. For the departed, we ask that God grant them rest, forgive their sins, and number them among the saints. The language shifts because their situation has changed. Your cousin fighting cancer needs one kind of prayer. Your father who died last year needs another.
Why we pray for the dead
This isn’t some medieval superstition we forgot to drop. It’s ancient Christian practice rooted in Scripture and the life of the early Church. Second Maccabees describes prayers and offerings for the dead. The Church Fathers wrote about it constantly. St. John Chrysostom preached that our prayers help the departed. St. Cyril of Jerusalem taught catechumens about praying for those who’d fallen asleep.
We do it because love doesn’t stop at the grave. If you loved your mother when she was alive, why would you stop praying for her now? She’s not gone. She’s just in a different room of the Father’s house. And we trust that God’s mercy is bigger than we can imagine, that our prayers matter, that the communion of saints is real.
This isn’t about earning salvation for the dead or bypassing Christ’s work. It’s about participating in the Church’s ongoing intercession. We’re asking God to do what only He can do, show mercy, grant forgiveness, bring healing. We’re just asking.
A pastoral note about non-Orthodox departed
You’ll notice the departed list at most parishes says “Orthodox Christians.” This can sting if your Baptist grandmother just died and you want to commemorate her. Here’s the pastoral reality: the full liturgical commemoration is traditionally for those who died in communion with the Church. But many priests will accept non-Orthodox names for private prayer or will offer a prayer asking God’s mercy on them. It’s not that we think God can’t save them. It’s that we’re being honest about the boundaries of our liturgical practice.
Talk to your priest. He’ll help you navigate this. And remember, you can always pray for your grandmother privately. God hears those prayers too.
What this looks like in practice
Most parishes have forms in the narthex where you write names. Some have books, you can buy your own “Book for the Commemoration of the Living and Dead” if you want to keep a personal list for your prayer rule at home. People update their lists when someone gets sick, when a baby is born, when someone dies. It’s a living document.
On Sundays, you might hear the deacon or priest read names during the litanies. During memorial Saturdays (Soul Saturdays), the departed list gets special attention. Families often request a Pannikhida, a memorial service, on the anniversary of a death or forty days after someone dies.
It’s one of the ways the Church stays connected across time. Your great-grandfather who died in 1952 isn’t forgotten. His name is still spoken in the Liturgy. The Church still prays for him. That’s what it means to be part of a communion that death can’t break.
When you submit your first list of names to the church office, you’re doing something your ancestors in the faith have done for two thousand years. You’re entrusting the people you love to the Church’s prayer. And the Church, in turn, lifts those names to God, again and again, week after week, in the Liturgy that never ends.
