Introduction To The Eastern Orthodox Churches

The liturgical traditions of the East derive ultimately from the forms of worship used in Antioch and Alexandria. As with all ancient Christian liturgies, the Service of the Word led into the sacramental offering of the Eucharist. The Eastern traditions comprise the East and West Syrian, the Byzantine (including the Greek and Russian Orthodox), the Armenian, and the Coptic/Ethiopian.

The distinction within the ecumenical church between the churches of the East and the churches of the West is rooted in patterns of evangelization and evolution in the first six centuries of the Christian era. As Christianity spread beyond Jerusalem to the whole Mediterranean world, four regions, in addition to Jerusalem, became major centers of Christian life: North Africa (Carthage), Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, each developing its own distinctive forms of faith and prayer. These initial centers had varying destinies. Jerusalem was destroyed in a.d. 70. The church of North Africa, where Latin Christianity was born and developed (Tertullian, d. c. a.d. 240); Cyprian, d. c. a.d. 258), was destroyed by the Moors in the seventh century, but not before exerting a major influence on the church of Rome. This latter (Rome) evolved in three stages: a primitive apostolic stage (Clement of Rome (fl. c. a.d. 80); a developed Greek stage (Hippolytus of Rome, d. a.d. 235), and, in the fourth century, Latin Rome (usually taken to be the Roman tradition) which adopted as its own, and further evolved, the Latin Christianity of North Africa. The church of Alexandria developed for a time as the major intellectual center (Clement, d. a.d. 215; Origen, d. a.d. 253/254; Athanasius, d. a.d. 373; and Cyril (d. a.d. 444)] until the Council of Chalcedon (a.d. 451), which Alexandria rejected. Alexandria is also known for its monastic movement, which likewise had an effect on its evolving liturgical forms. The Antiochene influence was felt throughout Asia Minor with the churches of Cappadocia (Basil of Caesarea, d. a.d. 379; Gregory of Nazianzus, d. a.d. 389; and Gregory of Nyssa, d. a.d. 394) helping further to shape both theological and liturgical evolution. Finally, from the later fourth century onward, the new imperial capital at Constantinople began to emerge as yet another major Christian center, under whose influence the later Byzantine church, still Antiochene in root, would develop its own distinctive liturgical forms. The term liturgical tradition, as it is employed here, refers to these five centers (Jerusalem, Rome, Carthage, Antioch, and Alexandria), the forms of faith and prayer characteristic of each, and the forward evolution of these forms in the many churches that constitute the one church of Jesus Christ. Though there are countless instances of mutual influence, one tradition on another, it can generally be said that the Latin tradition (Carthage and especially Latin Rome) is the root tradition of the churches of the West, while the Syriac and Greek traditions (Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria) form the root traditions of the churches of the East. Because of the early disappearance of the Jerusalem church, the extant liturgical traditions of the East are derived from either Antioch or Alexandria. The Jerusalem tradition was absorbed into certain strains of Antiochene Christianity and no longer exists as an independent living liturgical tradition. Antioch gave rise to an East Syrian strain manifest in the Nestorian and Chaldean churches of Iran and Iraq and in the Malabar church in India, and a West Syrian strain which appears in several layers of evolution. In its most primitive form it shows itself in the Syrian (monophysite [holding that Christ's nature was divine only, not divine and human] and Catholic) and Maronite churches of the Middle East, and in the Orthodox and Malankara churches of India. In more complex and developed form it appears in the Byzantine churches and also in the Armenian church, which has been significantly influenced by other traditions (e.g., Cappadocia and Rome) as well. The two primary manifestations of the Alexandrian tradition are the Coptic church in Egypt and, though again with a variety of secondary influences (especially West Syrian), the national church of Ethiopia. The primary focus here will be on these [eucharistic] traditions as they exist in living churches today. The aim is to examine each of these ritual forms and uncover the distinctive theology and spirituality which they contain. All of the churches follow the standard ritual pattern where proclamation of the Word precedes and leads into the sacramental offering. It is the general Eastern custom to prepare the bread and wine for offering at the beginning of the liturgy, and it is a common understanding in the East that these gifts somehow already represent Christ even before the consecratory anaphora or eucharistic prayer. In many of the churches the ancient custom of conducting the first part of the liturgy from the bema (raised platform for the celebration of the Word) and away from the altar is being restored. Except in cases where Western influence imposed other practice, these churches generally use leavened bread and distribute the eucharistic wine by intinction [dipping the bread into the wine], by spoon, or directly from the chalice. Some of the liturgies, notably the Byzantine and the Armenian, and to some extent the Coptic, are space-dependent [i.e., the celebration of the liturgy depends upon certain architectural features of the place of worship]; others less so, or not at all.