Washing the Holy Table

In former times on Great Thursday, during the time of the Hours, before
Vespers, the Office of the Washing of the Holy Altar Table took place. The most
ancient witness for this custom goes back to the 7th century and belongs to the
western writer, [Saint] Isidore of Seville. Witnesses for the existence of the same custom
in the East go back to the 10th - 12th centuries, but they refer back to a more
ancient period.

In the Russian Church in the 12th century there already was a Slavonic
translation of the Office of the Washing of the Holy Altar Table. In the 14th
century this office is already frequently found in our hand-written Book of Needs.
According to the ancient printed Book of Needs of the 17th century, the full
Office of the Washing of the Holy Altar Table consisted mainly of two prayers,
one of which was read before the unvesting of the Holy Altar Table during the
time of its initial censing, and the other after the washing and the revestment. The
Book of Needs presents two rules covering the actions occurring between these
two prayers and then their ending. After the first of them, except for the appointed
two prayers, the celebrant says nothing. After the second, observed "nowhere in
the great cathedral temples" except for saying the two prayers, during the time of
unvesting the holy altar table the 50th, 25th and 83rd psalms were appointed to be
sung, but during the time of pouring the basin with wine and oil on the altar the
hierarch should say: "the Holy Altar Table in the church, name, is washed with the
oil of gladness in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit".
The reading of the second prayer is followed by the Litany: "Have mercy on us, O
God", "More honorable" and the dismissal.

So the office of the washing of the table is in the anciently printed Book of
Needs of the year 1625 and the year 1639 and others. In the same Book of Needs,
besides this, the instruction of how to perform this office "if there is no cathedral
church there" was printed. "Canons, it is said in this instruction, do not require the
holy altar table be revested, unless the priest removes the covering, and powder
falls from the altar table, and wetting his lips with warm water he also wipes the
holy table cross wisely, and then says the first prayer... And the three psalms... and
gathers the holy oil and spreads it on the corners of the holy table cross wisely,
and the entire sanctuary, and the entire church, and puts a covering over the holy
table and sprinkles it with water and says the second prayer... and he censes the
holy altar table, and the Litanies..., Also "More honorable than the Cherubim" and
the dismissal. This will be done even if there is only a priest".

The office of washing the table complies with this instruction and according
to this in the detailed view in the 17th century it was possible for every parish
priest to do this office in each parish church, only without unvesting the holy altar
table.

This office was especially solemnly performed in Moscow where the
patriarch presided over the services. At the beginning of the 18th century the
Office of Washing the Table was also done. But it is not printed any more in the
contemporary Book of Needs. Undoubtedly, at first this rite had the meaning of a
simple cleaning, usual before great feasts and in private homes. The cleaning of
churches and the divine service accessories before Pascha, the greatest Christian
feast, administered by ancient Christians at the beginning of the year, is rather
natural and was the custom from of old. The Ustav (Typikon) required it for
monasteries. Walls, floors and those accessories of the temple which the lowest
church servers could touch were cleaned without special solemnity, but the holy
altar table is the most sacred accessory of the temple consecrated by the bishop
and is why the unvesting and its new vestments should naturally be done by the
bishop and with special solemnity.

- from Bulgakov's Handbook for Church Servers, translated by Archpriest Eugene Tarris