The Living Tradition An Orthodox Archive of the Church Fathers and Early Church

The First Council of Nicaea

Canon XX

On Sundays and through the season of Pentecost, prayer is to be made standing, not kneeling.

  • Canonical normEstablished by a received canon of a council, or of a Father whose canons the Church has received. Canons are applied within the Church's pastoral and conciliar life; a canon is not a rule a reader applies to themselves or to anyone else.
  • Liturgical witnessAttested in the Church's worship — in a hymn, a prayer, a rite or a commemoration. Liturgical language is theological rather than casual, but a hymn is not a canon.
  • Jurisdiction-specific practicePractice varies legitimately between canonical Orthodox jurisdictions. Variation in practice is not variation in faith.

Primary evidence verified Content last reviewed 2026-08-29

What still needs checking (2)
  • Confirm the pastoral note against an official Orthodox canonical source or a qualified Orthodox canonist.
  • Add a second independent modern translation of the canon for comparison.

Report an accuracy issue on this page

Read aloud. Your browser speaks the page using the voices installed on this device. Nothing is uploaded — the text never leaves your computer. Voice quality varies by browser and device.

Canon XX — conciliar text

Forasmuch as there are certain persons who kneel on the Lord’s Day and in the days of Pentecost, therefore, to the intent that all things may be uniformly observed everywhere (in every parish), it seems good to the holy Synod that prayer be made to God standing.

Henry R. Percival (ed.), The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. XIV (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1900). Public domain.

Ancient Epitome, as printed in the same edition

On Lord’s days and at Pentecost all must pray standing and not kneeling.

A Byzantine-era summary carried in the canonical collections. It is a witness to how the canon was read, not the canon itself.

Plain-language summary — this project's words, not the canon's

Because some people kneel on the Lord's Day and in the days of Pentecost, and so that everything may be observed uniformly everywhere, the holy Synod directs that prayer be made to God standing.

The fourth-century problem

Standing to pray on Sundays and through the fifty days after Pascha was already an old custom — Tertullian refers to it around the turn of the third century — but it was not being kept everywhere.

The canon's stated concern is uniformity. The council wanted the Church to be visibly doing the same thing.

Canonical principle

Posture is theological. Kneeling belongs to penitence; standing belongs to resurrection. On the day of the resurrection and in the season of the resurrection, the Church stands.

That the council thought this worth a canon is itself informative about how it understood worship: not as a matter of preference but as something the faith is expressed in.

What kind of canon this is

  • liturgical

Percival's edition groups the Nicene canons without formal classification. The kinds named above are this project's analysis, offered so that a reader can see which parts of a canon are principle and which are the arrangement of a particular century.

Later interpretation and reception

Percival prints Hammond's note that although kneeling was the common posture for prayer in the early Church, standing on the Lord's day and through the fifty days had prevailed from the earliest times, and cites Tertullian's De Corona Militis.

The canon is confirmed in later collections and is the basis of the Orthodox practice of not kneeling on Sundays or between Pascha and Pentecost.

  • Canon XC of Trullo, on the same subject.

  • The First Council of Nicaea

    The council that confessed the Son to be of one substance with the Father, addressed the date of Pascha, and issued twenty disciplinary canons. It did not decide which books belong to the Bible.

    Council

  • Orthodox worship

    Vespers, Matins, the Divine Liturgy, and the year that shapes them.

    Theme

  • The liturgical year

    Pascha at the centre, the fasts and feasts around it, and why Orthodox Pascha is often on a different Sunday.

    Lesson

  • The daily cycle of prayer

    Vespers, Compline, Midnight Office, Matins and the Hours, and why the Church's day begins in the evening.

    Lesson

Your notes

Stored in this browser only. Never uploaded, never visible to anyone else, and marked as your own words if you add this page to a study packet.

Sources for this page

  1. Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Henry R. Percival (ed.); Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (series eds.) Canon XX of Nicaea annotated edition of conciliar texts The conciliar text as archived here. Source record
  2. Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Henry R. Percival (ed.); Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (series eds.) Ancient Epitome of Canon XX, with Percival's notes annotated edition of conciliar texts Nineteenth-century editorial apparatus and Byzantine canonists. Source record

Tiers are explained in the methodology. No page on this site has been reviewed or approved by any bishop, priest, synod or seminary.