The Diptychs

This is the portion of the Divine Liturgy where the communion of the Church in heaven and on earth is expressed in prayer, shortly prior to the great offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice in the Anaphora.
Unlike the Litany, in which we fulfil our Christian duty to bring to God the needs and concerns of all people who are in need of our prayers, the Diptychs is an expression of the strongest bonds of communion within the Holy Nation, the Royal Priesthood that is the baptised people of God, who are one in faith and way of life in Jesus Christ. The barriers that separate the living, the departed, and the saints in heaven are broken down as we express our unity and communion with each other in the one life in Christ.
Perhaps most importantly we commemorate our bishop in the diptychs, for it is through him that we are recipients of the Apostolic Faith and Tradition, and it is through our union with him that we are united with the Orthodox Church - the Body of Christ - around the world and throughout the ages.
This portion of the Divine Liturgy takes its name from the custom in ancient times of using a stylus to carve the names of those to be commemorated in solidified wax, which was contained within actual diptychs, held by the deacons. It would be very easy to scratch out names no longer to be commemorated, and the wax could be heated and reused when necessary. To this day, when the sad event occurs of bishops severing communion with each other over matters of faith, the offending bishop's name is said to be "struck from the diptychs". Although physical diptychs are no longer in common use, the gravity of this expression is very well understood.
The video here depicts the Diptychs at our parish on Christmas Night, 2022. Although it is customary at this point for the faithful to present their gifts (bread, wine, candles, oil, and money) along with the lists of the names of those dear to them to be commemorated, our young parish, which until recently was priestless, is yet to adopt this practice as we gradually seek to embrace the full ceremonial of the Divine Liturgy according to Saint Germanus.