Rite

A rite (tele, from teleo, to complete, to perform) is both a specific liturgical ceremony (the rite of baptism, the rite of ordination) and the comprehensive liturgical tradition of a church (the Byzantine rite, the Alexandrian rite). The Orthodox Church uses the Byzantine rite universally (with minor local variations) — in contrast to the pre-Chalcedonian churches, which preserve the Alexandrian, Antiochian, and other ancient rites. A rite is not merely a form but an embodied theology: the way in which a rite is performed encodes its theological content.