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Question 3.

In the Priest's handbook there are three different types of Vespers and two for Great Lent. When are Small Vespers and the Daily Vespers without entrance used and how? The Typikon (Rubrics) do not mention when Small Vespers should be used instead of the usual Great Vespers. 
 

Answer to Question 3.
Firstly it should be said that the daily services which are served in the Orthodox Church are purely monastic services and the liturgical books which contain these services (Book of Hours, Paracletiki, the Menaia, Triodion and Pentecostarion) are monastic liturgical books. Town parishes had different services for Vespers, Mattins and Hours which have not survived except only in manuscripts. Thus up to the 7th and 8th century there were two sets of Rubrics, the monastic and the worldly which were used side by side. The monastic rule came form St. Savva's Monastery in Jerusalem and is called St. Savva's rule, and the worldly rule came from Antioch and Constantinople and is called the Constantinopolitan rule. In time the monastic rule took preference in parish churches and this is the rule we have today in all the Orthodox Churches. Small Vespers is never sung instead of Great Vespers or the Daily Vespers without Entrance. In general, it is sung only in monasteries on days when there is to be an all-night Vigil. On these days two vespers are sung, the Small Vespers and Great Vespers. At the usual hour for vespers, Small Vespers is sung after the Ninth Hour. After Compline, Great Vespers in sung together with Mattins. Small Vespers has therefore no place in the usual practices of parishes. It is found in the liturgical books only because as mentioned in the beginning, they are liturgical books of monasteries and only there can their complete application be found. Thus the usual Typikon used today by parishes makes no mention of Small Vespers, but only of Great Vespers and the Daily Vespers without Entrance.

With Small Vespers out of the way it remains to see when we use Great Vespers and when we use Daily Vespers without Entrance. Parish Churches serve the Liturgy on Saturdays, Sundays, on the Great feasts and on the feasts of popular Saints. On most of these days we find in the Menaia complete services for the feast or saint. If the saint in question does not have a complete service, it is often supplemented with specially printed pamphlets containing a complete panegyric service. On all these occasions, Great Vespers is sung. On days where the saint of the day does not have a complete service, the Daily Vespers without Entrance is used. If the Parish Priest only serves the Liturgy on the more popular feast-days, he will rarely have use of the Daily Vespers. If again the Parish Priest serves the 40 day liturgies before Christmas then on most of these days he will see that the saint of the day does not have a complete service and Daily Vespers is sung and not Great Vespers.

What needs to be said now is how the two Vespers differ. With Great Vespers, the Priest vests himself with the Epitrakhelion and Phelonion, the curtain and Royal Doors are opened and the Priest conducts the service from within the Sanctuary in front of the Holy Altar. At the singing of the Glory...Now and for ever... he will make the Entrance either with the censer or with the Gospel Book according to the Typikon. After the singing of "O Gladsome light", the Prokhimenon of the day, and prophetic readings if any, he will say the petitions beginning with "Let us all say with our whole soul, and with our whole mind, let us say." The reader will then recite the evening prayer “Vouchsafe O Lord” and the Priest will continue with the petitions "Let us complete our supplication unto the Lord."

Daily Vespers without Entrance has a slightly different structure. Firstly the Priest only vests with the Epitrakhelion. The curtain is opened, but the Royal Doors remain shut throughout the service. The Priest does not conduct the service from the Sanctuary, but stands in a seat outside preferably by the Chanters. He will give the opening blessing in the usual way and read silently the 7 evening prayers. After the Great Litany he will enter the Sanctuary to prepare for the censing during the singing of “Let my prayer be set forth before Thee as incense” and after the censing will return to his place outside of the Sanctuary. At the Glory... Now and for ever... he will not cense because there is no entrance. After the singing of the  Glory... Now and for ever..., he or the reader will recite the hymn "O Gladsome light". Then after the Prokhimenon the reader shall immediately recite the evening prayer “Vouchsafe O Lord”. The priest then says the petitions "Let us complete our supplication unto the Lord." and the rest up to the Doxology "Blessed and glorified is the power..." The Choir continue with the Aposticha and then the Priest shall say the “Song of Symeon” Lord, now lettest Thy servant depart in peace...Then folows the Trisagion and the Lord’s Prayer, ending with "For Thine is the kingdom, the power..." The choir sing the  the Apolytikia hymns and the Theotokion and then the Priest shall say the petitions beginning with "Have mercy upon us, O God..." which are usually said after the entrance with Great Vespers, but here have been moved to the end just before the dismissal. (Notice that the first two petitions have been dropped)
The Sunday Vespers in Lent and the Daily Vespers in lent are similar in structure to Great Vespers and Daily Vespers without Entrance respectively, but with special Prokhimena, hymns and prayers for the period. Daily Vespers in Lent also has readings from the Prophets.