The Epistle is a reading from the New Testament chanted during the Divine Liturgy, taken from the letters of the apostles or the Book of Acts. It’s one of two Scripture readings at every Liturgy, the other being the Gospel.
When you come to St. Michael’s on Sunday morning, you’ll hear the Epistle about halfway through the service. It comes after the Little Entrance and the singing of the Trisagion (“Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us”). The priest says “Peace be unto all,” the reader responds, and then he chants the appointed Epistle for that day. Right after, we sing the Alleluia, and then the priest or deacon reads the Gospel.
The reader is usually a layman. That’s intentional. In the early Church, the order of Reader was one of the minor orders, and it still is. You’ll see him standing in the center of the church or at the front, chanting from the Epistle book. Sometimes a deacon reads it, but typically the deacon saves his voice for proclaiming the Gospel while the reader handles the Epistle.
What Gets Read
The Epistle readings come from the letters of St. Paul, the catholic epistles (James, Peter, John, Jude), and the Acts of the Apostles. We don’t read from Revelation during the Liturgy. So one Sunday you might hear Romans, another Sunday First Corinthians, another Sunday Acts. The Church has assigned specific readings to specific days throughout the year, and this pattern is the same across Orthodox churches. On the Sunday of the Paralytic, for instance, we read Acts 9:32-42 everywhere, at St. Michael’s in Beaumont, at a parish in California, at a monastery on Mount Athos.
The Epistle and Gospel work together. They’re not random selections. The Church pairs them so they speak to each other, often around the theme of the feast or the season. During Lent you’ll notice the readings have a penitential character. During Bright Week after Pascha, we read nothing but the Gospel of John and Acts because we’re celebrating the Resurrection and the birth of the Church.
Why It Matters
This isn’t just a Bible study moment dropped into the service. The Epistle is apostolic teaching proclaimed in the midst of the Liturgy as we prepare to receive the Eucharist. We’re hearing the same words the early Christians heard read aloud in their assemblies. Most of them couldn’t read. They didn’t own personal copies of Paul’s letters. The public reading of Scripture was how they encountered the Word of God, and we continue that practice.
Before the Epistle, we sing the Prokeimenon, a verse from the Psalms that prepares us to hear what’s coming. After the Epistle, we sing the Alleluia. The whole sequence builds. Psalm, apostolic letter, Alleluia, Gospel. It’s a crescendo of the Word.
If you’re visiting for the first time, you might find it hard to follow along at first. The reader chants, and if you’re used to someone reading from a modern translation at a pulpit, this can feel foreign. But there’s something about hearing Scripture chanted that lets it sink deeper. You’re not just processing information. You’re receiving it in a way that engages more than your intellect.
The Antiochian Archdiocese publishes the daily Epistle and Gospel readings on their website, so you can read ahead if you want to come prepared. Some people do. Others prefer to hear it fresh. Either way, you’re encountering the apostolic witness as the Church has preserved and proclaimed it for two thousand years, and that’s no small thing.
