“First of all, Old Corps comment that panikhidas can be made only for Orthodox Christians and not for victims of terrorism in general is absolutely spot on! The Church can certainly offer a prayer for all victims, but the Church can not perform Orthodox funeral rites for the non-Orthodox, and panikhidas are equivalent to funeral rites.
Second,regarding OC’s’ comment on the archimandrite’s vestments, perhaps the panikhida was served immediately after the Divine Liturgy. I believe he would normally devest himself but I am not sure. I defer to Kolo and others who may be more familiar with the rules.”
My assumption was that the Memorial Service was for the Orthodox dead since Kosta is of course correct. A Memorial Service is done only for Orthodox people. In the Greek Church we can, and do, chant a Trisagion Service for non Orthodox dead.
In the Greek Orthodox Church I have never seen a priest, Archimandrite or otherwise, divest before performing a memorial Service after just finishing a Divine Liturgy. I do not know what the practice is in Slavic Churches.
Thank you, Kolo. The text clearly says the memorial service was for the terrorist victims around the world. It doesn't say Orthodox terrorist victims, and it makes no mention of the Trisagion Service, so maybe the OCA could explain this if someone wants to write to them.
In the Greek Orthodox Church I have never seen a priest, Archimandrite or otherwise, divest before performing a memorial Service after just finishing a Divine Liturgy. I do not know what the practice is in Slavic Churches.
I have never seen anyone devest before serving panikhida (parastas) memorial service immediately following the Divine Liturgy. There is no doubt that epitrachelion is required (just as with confession, or blessing of the home) as is the minimum amount of vestment required, not the maximum. In other words, I am pretty sure complete vestiture is not a problem, but less than epitrachelion is.