Portland Bars Laity From Orans at the Our Father
Citing the GIRM and canon law, the archdiocese’s worship office says hand-raising during the Our Father belongs to the priest alone, not the assembly.
The Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon has directed the faithful not to adopt the Orans posture—extending or raising the hands—during the Lord’s Prayer at Mass.
In Chapter 4 of its Divine Worship Newsletter (Issue 51), dated November 6, 2026, and prepared as a parish bulletin insert, the Office of Divine Worship addressed decades of confusion among the laity about gestures during the Our Father, including raising hands and holding hands.
The newsletter states that the General Instruction of the Roman Missal “gives many specific directives with respect to the proper postures at various points of the Mass for both the clergy and the laity.” It defines the Orans as “the posture whereby the priest extends his hands during Mass when he is praying.” The GIRM, it notes, refers specifically to the priest for this extension of hands—for example at GIRM 152 during the Our Father. Deacons and the laity receive no such instruction.
What the Church Documents Require
The office anchors its guidance in Sacrosanctum Concilium 22.3, which forbids anyone, even a priest, from adding, removing, or changing anything in the liturgy on his own authority; in Canon 907 of the Code of Canon Law; and in the 1997 instruction Ecclesiae de Mysterio. From these texts it concludes that the Orans posture is proper to the celebrating priest and that the laity should refrain from it.
The newsletter also cites GIRM 94 and 43: the deacon’s role includes guiding the faithful so that the liturgical assembly may take its full, conscious, and active part with the proper interior and exterior dispositions. The newsletter further recalls that the pre-1970 tradition reserved the gesture to the priest and that neither the 1970 Missal nor the Second Vatican Council indicated any change for the assembly.
Clarity Over Custom
The guidance does not invent a new rule; it restores the distinction already present in the liturgical books. When the priest alone extends his hands in the Orans while leading the prayer that Christ taught, the assembly’s proper response is interior participation and the spoken words of the Our Father, not a parallel clerical gesture. Local practices that have grown up over decades, however well intentioned, do not override the GIRM or the Church’s explicit warning against unauthorized additions.
By placing the reminder in a bulletin insert for parishes, Portland’s worship office seeks uniform observance across the archdiocese and offers pastors a ready text with which to catechize the faithful. The result is a clearer sign of the distinct roles of ordained minister and baptized assembly at the heart of the Mass.