Cloths for the altar table and lectern

Some religious objects such as the Holy Vessels and the Communion Table or other auxiliary objects such as the lectern, for instance, are covered with special cloths made of fabrics and embroideries of distinct dimensions, decorations and significances, which are detemined by the corresponding characteristics of the objects for which they are destined. From the significances of the Communion Table derive in their turn the significances of the various cloths destined as its cover. Thus, a wide piece of cloth called catasarchion in Greek or camasa (shirt) in Romanian placed directly on the holy table evokes the shroud in which Jesus was clad and buried.

Another cover which is placed on the first, known as the trapezofor or inditia (the cover for the communion table), is made of "the most expensive, finest, lightest and brightest material”, as "it symbolises the godly glory and the bright light that enveloped Jesus’ body at His Resurrection from the dead and which made the guardian soldiers fall to the ground hiding their eyes, because they couldn’t behold it anymore.” Also destined to cover the communion table in some moments of the religious service or on some holy days are the epitaph and the antimis, both decorated with the same iconographic scene - The lamentation over Jesus - while the latter is also used to substitute the holy communion table when the religious service is not held in church. When the gospel is read on the lectern, it symbolises "the heights on which God uttered his words” and when it is placed at the icons it signifies "the resting place of saints where we should go on pilgrimage”.