Page "Good Friday" Paragraph 49
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In the afternoon, around 3 pm, all gather for the Vespers of the Taking-Down from the Cross, commemorating the Deposition from the Cross.
During the service, the body of Christ ( the soma ) is removed from the cross, as the words in the Gospel reading mention Joseph of Arimathea, wrapped in a linen shroud, and taken to the altar in the sanctuary.
Near the end of the service an epitaphios or " winding sheet " ( a cloth embroidered with the image of Christ prepared for burial ) is carried in procession to a low table in the nave which represents the Tomb of Christ ; it is often decorated with an abundance of flowers.
The epitaphios itself represents the body of Jesus wrapped in a burial shroud, and is a roughly full-size cloth icon of the body of Christ.
In the Slavic practice, at the end of Vespers, Compline is immediately served, featuring a special Canon of the Crucifixion of our Lord and the Lamentation of the Most Holy Theotokos by Symeon the Logothete.
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