Seite - 176 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Band 07/01

176 | Christos Kakalis www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/1, 173–190 citizens are the majority and locals (from the United Kingdom) are only one group within it. Focusing on the role of books in Orthodox Christian praxis, I argue that the amalgamation of two ways of ordering the services, a more normative one (based on formal documents) and a more organic one (based on the parish’s needs) has allowed the community to produce its own soundscape. In its aural experience (heard or performed), “identity” as traditionally understood, mainly related to the nation state and ethnic background, is repositioned as a multi-vocal condition. This repositioning is the result of controlled and flex- ible transformations that respect the background of individuals and groups that are part of the community. Placing Books in Order In Orthodox Christian tradition, a rotating four-sided lectern has been grad- ually developed as a furniture piece that holds the books at an angle in order that the members of the choir can more easily read the parts of the liturgies.7 Placed on the angled surfaces of the lectern, variously sized books can be read undisturbed by a group of people standing in front of them or around them. The rotating lectern focuses the gaze of the cantors and facilitates the trans- formation of the texts into sound in the form of prose reading, melismatic reading and chanting. Due to the antiphonic character of the Byzantine Litur- gy, traditionally we find two lecterns in the zone in front of the sanctuary, pro- viding the conditions for discursive chanting and reading. In the St Andrew’s parish, there is only one lectern, usually placed where there is sufficient space for the cantors to stand. The number of books and use of rotating lecterns follow the Eastern Ortho- dox Christian tradition that organises its calendar according to a “feast cycle” based on the events of the life of Christ, the Mother of God and the Saints. The main theme is the Resurrection of Christ, celebrated at Easter, the first Sunday after the full moon of the vernal equinox. Thus, a “moving” festival cycle relat- ed to the fifty days of the preparation for Easter (Great Lent) and the fifty days 7 The introduction of this piece to Orthodox Christian worship cannot be precisely dated. It is not included in the sketches and descriptions made by 18th-century Russian pilgrim to Mount Athos Vasil Grigorovich Barsky in his depictions of liturgical practice at the Great Lavra Monastery. Earlier depictions and written descriptions contain diskeli (“of two legs”), which is closer to a typical music lectern.