One element of the practice of the Orthodox Church that is particularly troubling to many of those who are outside, particularly in contemporary Western society, is the veneration of relics. This is true even for Christians of Protestant background. In part, the relics of the saints produce either a fascination or an aversion due to the denial of death ubiquitous in our modern cultures. Long gone are the days in which the bodies of departed family members would lie in the home for visitors to pay their respects, then to be solemnly buried with prayers on the property of the family or the church where their graves would be seen and visited continuously by the family and community. Rather, our…
Contrary to modern misperception, every element of the Torah, the law of God, is still in force and relevant to the life of the Christian faithful today. There can be no clearer or more authoritative testimony to this fact than the word of Christ himself (eg. Matt 5:17-19). Despite its contemporary caricature, the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15 represents a strict reading and application of the Torah to the situation of Gentiles entering into the assembly, the Church, of Christ. St. Paul fiercely defended himself against the charge of seeking to abolish the Torah or promote its violation throughout his missionary journeys as described in the Acts of the Apostles and in his own epistles (eg. Acts 21:20-21; Rom 3:31). …
The Eucharist has always stood at the center of the life and worship of the Christian Church. The sacrifice of the Eucharist is the preeminent act of Christian worship, the central focus of Christian life, and the constituent element of the church as community. Sacrifices are meals, meals shared together by the community with the community’s God. Several past posts have focused on the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist and its nature as a meal. There is also much to be said about the elements themselves, the food which constitutes this meal. Beginning by at least the seventh century and especially in the West, there has been considerable discussion and debate as to how the body, blood, and indeed the…
