كنيسة القديس استفانوس القبطية الأرثوذكسيةسايبريس، تكساس
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تعلّم · مرجع

المصطلحات

تعريفات بسيطة للمصطلحات الليتورجية والكنسية المستخدمة في تعلّم. 57 مصطلحًا، من «Abouna» إلى «Vestments».

هذا المحتوى باللغة الإنجليزية

A

Abouna
A common Coptic way to address a priest, meaning our father, because priestly service is pastoral and fatherly within the life of the Church.
Why do people call the priest Abouna?
Absolution
The priestly prayer of forgiveness and release, prayed by the authority Christ gave His Church for repentance and reconciliation.
What is absolution?
Agpeya
The Coptic Book of Hours, a daily pattern of psalms, Gospel readings, and prayers that teaches the day to return to Christ.
What is the Agpeya?
Alleluia
A biblical word of praise meaning praise the Lord, sung often in worship as the Church responds to God's presence and works.
What does “Alleluia” mean?
Altar
The holy table in the sanctuary where the Eucharistic gifts are offered and consecrated, treated with reverence as the center of liturgical worship.
What is the altar?
Amen
A word of assent meaning truly or let it be so, by which the faithful receive and affirm the prayer being offered.
What does “Amen” mean?
Anaphora
The Eucharistic prayer of offering and thanksgiving. The word means a lifting up or offering, and it includes the Church's great thanksgiving over the gifts.

B

Baptism
The sacrament of new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, joining a person to Christ's death and resurrection and to the life of the Church.
What is baptism in the Coptic Orthodox Church?
Bishop
A successor in the apostolic ministry who shepherds the Church, ordains clergy, guards the faith, and presides in the unity of the local Church.
What is the difference between a priest, monk, hegumen, bishop, metropolitan, and pope?

C

Cassock
The black clerical garment worn outside altar service as a visible sign of priestly identity, repentance, sobriety, and pastoral availability.
Catechesis
The Church's ordered teaching and formation in faith, worship, repentance, doctrine, and sacramental life.
Catechumen
A person being prepared to enter the Church through teaching, repentance, worship, and the sacramental path given by the Church.
Can a visitor, inquirer, or catechumen go to confession?
Censer
The vessel that holds burning coal and incense during prayer. Its movement helps express prayer rising to God and reverence for the Gospel, altar, and people.
What is the censer, and why is incense used?
Chrismation
أيضًا: Myron
The anointing with holy Myron after Baptism, sealing the newly baptized with the gift and indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
What is chrismation or myron?
Confession
The sacrament of repentance in which a person confesses sins before God in the presence of the priest and receives absolution and guidance.
What is confession?
Coptic
A word connected to Egypt and the Egyptian Christian heritage of the Church of Alexandria, founded through the preaching of St. Mark.
What is baptism in the Coptic Orthodox Church?
Creed
The Church's shared confession of faith, proclaimed in the Liturgy before the Eucharistic prayer as the faithful stand together in apostolic belief.
What is the Creed, and why does everyone say it together?

D

Deacon
An ordained servant who assists the bishop or priest and leads parts of the people's liturgical response, reading, order, and service.
Divine Liturgy
The Church's central Eucharistic worship, where Scripture, Creed, offering, thanksgiving, consecration, and Communion are gathered into one prayer before God.
What is the Divine Liturgy?

E

Epiclesis
The prayer calling upon the Holy Spirit to descend upon the gifts and sanctify them as the Body and Blood of Christ.
Episcopal see
The church or territory entrusted to a bishop. In this article, the See of St. Mark means the apostolic patriarchal church of Alexandria.
Eucharist
A Greek word meaning thanksgiving. In Orthodox worship it names the sacrament in which bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ.
Why are Baptism, Chrismation, Confession, and Eucharist central to salvation?

G

Great Lent
The major fasting season before Holy Week and the Resurrection Feast, ordered around repentance, prayer, fasting, and return to God.
What is Great Lent?

H

Hegumen
A senior priestly rank in the Coptic Church, commonly given to a priest entrusted with mature pastoral service and responsibility.
What is the difference between a priest, monk, hegumen, bishop, metropolitan, and pope?
Holy Communion
أيضًا: Communion
The faithful receiving the true Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, after baptismal life, repentance, confession, fasting, reconciliation, and pastoral preparation.
What does it mean to be spiritually prepared for Communion?
Holy Tradition
The apostolic life of the Church handed down in Scripture, worship, doctrine, councils, saints, and sacramental practice.
Why does the Church rely on Holy Tradition?
Holy Trinity
The one God confessed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one essence and three Persons, worshiped and glorified together.
What does the Coptic Orthodox Church teach about the Holy Trinity?

I

Icon
أيضًا: Icons
A sacred image of Christ, St. Mary, an angel, a saint, or a holy event. In Coptic practice, church icons are consecrated with Holy Myron and are venerated, not worshiped.
What is the difference between an icon and an idol?
Iconostasis
أيضًا: altar curtain
The icon-bearing screen and curtain before the sanctuary, marking the holy altar space while teaching the faithful through icons and liturgical movement.
What is the altar curtain or iconostasis?
Incarnation
The mystery that the eternal Word of God truly became man for our salvation while remaining fully divine.
Incense
Fragrant offering used in worship as a biblical sign of prayer rising before God, especially around the altar, Gospel, icons, clergy, and faithful.
What is the Raising of Incense?
Intercession
Prayer offered on behalf of another. The Church asks the saints to pray with and for us because they are alive in Christ.
Why do people ask for the intercession of specific saints?

K

Kiss of Peace
A liturgical sign of reconciliation and peace before approaching the Eucharistic prayer and Communion.
What is the Kiss of Peace, and how do I participate without feeling awkward?
Korban
أيضًا: Qurban, Holy Bread, Eulogia
The holy bread prepared for the Coptic Liturgy. During the Offering of the Lamb, one is selected to be offered and consecrated as the holy Body of Christ.
What is the blessed holy bread given after the Liturgy?
Kyrie Eleison
Greek for Lord have mercy, one of the most repeated prayers in Orthodox worship because mercy means God's healing and saving compassion.
What does “Kyrie eleison” mean?

L

Lamb
The holy bread selected during the Offering of the Lamb, named in relation to Christ the Lamb of God who gives Himself for the life of the world.
What is the Offering of the Lamb?

M

Matins
The morning prayer service, often joined to the Raising of Incense before the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning.
What is Matins?
Metanoia
A bodily bow or prostration expressing repentance, reverence, and humility before God, often practiced in prayer and before receiving a blessing.
What is a metanoia?
Myron
The holy chrism oil used in Chrismation and other consecrations, associated with the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Church's sacramental life.
What is chrismation or myron?
Mysteries
أيضًا: Mystery
The Orthodox name for the sacraments, calling attention to God's grace given through visible rites such as Baptism, Chrismation, Confession, and the Eucharist.
What are the Holy Mysteries in the Coptic Orthodox Church?

N

Nayrouz
The Coptic New Year and the beginning of the Calendar of the Martyrs, a feast remembering faithful witness and renewal.
What is Nayrouz?

O

Offertory
The early part of the Liturgy when the bread and wine are selected, prepared, and offered to God for the Eucharistic prayer.
Oriental Orthodox
The family of ancient Orthodox churches, including the Coptic Church, that share the same non-Chalcedonian Orthodox Christological confession.
Why is the Coptic Church called Oriental Orthodox?
Orthodox
Right worship and right belief, naming the Church's received apostolic faith and the life of worship that preserves it.
What is baptism in the Coptic Orthodox Church?

P

Pascha
أيضًا: Holy Week
The holy week of Christ's Passion, Crucifixion, burial, and Resurrection, marked by intense Scripture readings, hymns, fasting, and prayer.
What is Holy Week or Pascha?
Praxis
The Acts reading in the Coptic Liturgy, showing the life and witness of the apostolic Church after the Resurrection and Pentecost.
What is the Praxis or Acts reading?
Prostration
أيضًا: Prostrations
A full bodily bow to the ground, used in seasons and prayers of repentance as the body joins the soul in worship.
Why do people kneel or make full prostrations?

R

Raising of Incense
A Coptic service of psalms, doxologies, litanies, absolutions, and incense, commonly prayed in Vespers and Matins.
What is the Raising of Incense?
Relics
The honored remains or belongings of saints, kept with reverence because the body is called to resurrection and the saints remain alive in Christ.
Why are relics kept in churches?

S

Sacrament
أيضًا: Sacraments
A visible mystery through which God gives grace to His people. In Coptic usage the sacraments belong to the whole healing life of the Church.
What is the sacrament of anointing of the sick?
Sanctuary
The set-apart altar area of the church, entered by appointed clergy and altar servers according to the rite because it is ordered around the holy mysteries.
Why does the Church set the sanctuary apart?
Sign of the Cross
The Christian gesture of tracing the Cross on the body while confessing the Holy Trinity and Christ's saving Cross.
Why do people make the sign of the Cross?
Synaxarium
The liturgical book of saints' lives and commemorations read in church so the faithful remember the witnesses who lived the Gospel before them.
What is the Synaxarium?

T

Theotokos
A title for St. Mary meaning God-bearer or Mother of God, confessing that the One born from her is truly God the Word incarnate.

V

Veneration
Reverent honor shown to icons, saints, relics, and holy things. Worship belongs to God alone.
Vespers
The evening prayer service, often joined to the Raising of Incense, preparing the Church to enter the coming liturgical day in prayer.
What is Vespers?
Vestments
Liturgical garments worn for service at the altar, setting the minister apart for prayer and symbolizing purity, service, and the grace of the priesthood.
Why does the priest wear white vestments during the Liturgy?