Diptychs

The word Diptychs comes from Greek meaning "Folding Boards." It is two boards connected with a hinge. A Diptych is a type of icon whereby two panels are joined together with a hinge, so that they may fold together for protection when traveling, and then be unfolded for veneration when one's destination has been reached. Such diptychs are also called "Traveling Ccons". Most often, the images on the two panels will be Christ and the Theotokos but they may vary.

Alternatively Diptychs are a list of names of the living and departed that are commemorated by the parish during the Divine Liturgy. The living are inscribed on one side of the Diptych, and the departed on the other. When a living member departs, the name is crossed off on side and entered on the other. More common today, the List is on folded Booklet. The diptychs also has a list of names used by an Individual Synod or Autocephalous Church to commemorate the Primates/First Hierarchs of those Synods which have a Formal Eucharistic Communion with them. The names in the diptychs are read liturgically by the deacon (Sometimes echoed by the choir) or read by a Bishop when it is a Liturgy lead by a Bishop or another Primate/First Hierarch.