Eucharist

The Anaphora (/əˈnæfərə/), Eucharistic Prayer, or Great Thanksgiving, is a portion of the Christian liturgy of the Eucharist in which, through a prayer of thanksgiving, the elements of bread and wine are consecrated. The prevalent historical Roman Rite form is called the "Canon of the Mass".

"Anaphora" is a Greek word (ἀναφορά) meaning a "carrying up", thus an "offering" (hence its use in reference to the offering of sacrifice to God). (This sense is distinct from the usage of "anaphora" in rhetoric and linguistics to mean a "carrying back".) In the sacrificial language of the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible known as the Septuagint, προσφέρειν (prospherein) is used of the offerer's bringing the victim to the altar, and ἀναφέρειν (anapherein) is used of the priest's offering up the selected portion upon the altar (see, for instance, Leviticus 2:14, 2:16, 3:1, 3:5).

The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is one of the three major doctrinal and jurisdictional groups of Christianity. As of 2012, it has approximately 300 million adherents and is the third largest religious community in the world after Catholics and Sunni Muslims. The Eastern Orthodox Church operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via local synods. The church has no central doctrinal or governmental authority analogous to the pope of the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is recognised by them as primus inter pares ('first among equals'), a title held by the patriarch of Rome prior to 1054. As one of the oldest surviving religious institutions in the world, the Eastern Orthodox Church has played an especially prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Since 2018, there has been an ongoing schism between Constantinople and Moscow, with the two not in full communion with each other.

Eastern Orthodox theology is based on the Scriptures and holy tradition, which incorporates the dogmatic decrees of the seven ecumenical councils, and the teaching of the Church Fathers. The church teaches that it is the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission, and that its bishops are the successors of Christ's apostles. It maintains that it practises the original Christian faith, as passed down by holy tradition. Its patriarchates, descending from the pentarchy, and other autocephalous and autonomous churches, reflect a variety of hierarchical organisation. It recognises seven major sacraments (which are called holy mysteries), of which the Eucharist is the principal one, celebrated liturgically in synaxis. The church teaches that through consecration invoked by a priest, the sacrificial bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. The Virgin Mary is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Theotokos, which means 'God-bearer', and she is honoured in devotions.

Divine Liturgy (Koine Greek: Θεία Λειτουργία, romanized: Theía Leitourgía, pronounced [ˈθi.a li.turˈʝi.a]) or Holy Liturgy is the usual name used in most Eastern Christian rites for the Eucharistic service.

The Eastern Orthodox Churches, Eastern Catholic Churches and Eastern Lutheran Churches believe the Divine Liturgy transcends both time and the world. All believers are seen as united in worship in the Kingdom of God along with the departed saints and the angels of heaven. Everything in the liturgy is seen as symbolic, but not merely so, for it makes present the unseen reality. According to Eastern tradition and belief, the liturgy's roots go back to the adaptation of Jewish liturgy by Early Christians. The first part, termed the "Liturgy of the Catechumens", includes the reading of scriptures like those in a synagogue, and in some places, also a sermon/homily. The second half, the "Liturgy of the Faithful", is based on the Last Supper and the first Eucharistic celebrations by Early Christians. Eastern Christians (and many other branches of Christianity) believe that the Eucharist is the central part of the service in which they participate, as they believe the bread and wine truly become the real Body and Blood of Christ, and that by partaking of it they jointly become the Body of Christ (that is, the Church). Each liturgy has its differences from others, but most are very similar to each other with adaptations based on tradition, purpose, culture and theology.

Blood of Christ, also known as the Most Precious Blood, in Christian theology refers to the physical blood actually shed by Jesus Christ primarily on the Cross, and the salvation which Christianity teaches was accomplished thereby, or the sacramental blood (wine) present in the Eucharist or Lord's Supper, that some Christian denominations believe to be the same blood of Christ shed on the Cross.

The Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox churches, the Assyrian and Ancient Churches of the East, and Lutherans, together with high church Anglicans, know this as the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Catholic Church uses the term transubstantiation to describe the change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. The Eastern Orthodox Churches used the same term to describe the change, as in the decrees of the 1672 Synod of Jerusalem, and the Catechism of St. Philaret (Drozdov) of Moscow.

Anamnesis is also a key concept in the liturgical theology: in worship, Christians recall God's saving deeds. This memorial aspect is not simply a passive process but one by which the Christian can actually enter into the Paschal mystery.

The Words of Institution, also called the Words of Consecration, are words echoing those of Jesus himself at his Last Supper that, when consecrating bread and wine, Christian eucharistic liturgies include in a narrative of that event. Eucharistic scholars sometimes refer to them simply as the verba (Latin for "words").

Almost all existing ancient Christian churches explicitly include the Words of Institution in their eucharistic celebrations and consider them necessary for the validity of the sacrament. This is the practice of the Catholic Church's Latin liturgical rites and Eastern Catholic liturgies, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and all the Oriental Orthodox Churches, including the Armenian, the Coptic, the Ethiopian and the Malankara, as well as the Anglican Communion, Lutheran churches, Methodist churches, and Reformed churches. The only ancient eucharistic ritual still in use that does not explicitly contain the Words of Institution is the Holy Qurbana of Addai and Mari, used for part of the year by the Church of the East denominations, namely Assyrian Church of the East, Ancient Church of the East, and the Chaldean Syrian Church, due to their tradition of using the Holy Leaven. The Chaldean Catholic Church and the Syro-Malabar Church, two of the Eastern Catholic Churches, use the same Anaphora, but insert in it the Words of Institution. However, groups authorized by the Catholic Church to review the Qurbana recognized the validity of this eucharistic celebration in its original form, without explicit mention of the Words of Institution, saying that "the words of Eucharistic Institution are indeed present in the Anaphora of Addai and Mari, not in a coherent narrative way and ad litteram, but rather in a dispersed euchological way, that is, integrated in successive prayers of thanksgiving, praise and intercession."

In Christianity, worship is the act of attributing reverent honour and homage to God. In the New Testament, various words are used to refer to the term worship. One is proskuneo ("to worship") which means to bow down to God or kings. Worship in the New Testament usually means expressions of praise or thanksgiving, as the appropriate human response to the magnificent glory of God.

Throughout most of Christianity's history, corporate Christian worship has been liturgical, characterized by prayers and hymns, with texts rooted in, or closely related to, the Bible (Scripture), particularly the Psalter, and centered on the altar (or table) and the Eucharist; this form of sacramental and ceremonial worship is still practiced by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran and Anglican churches, and Methodism to a lesser extent. In the Charismatic tradition worship is viewed as an act of adoration of God, with a more informal conception. "The holy act of singing together shapes faith, heals brokenness, transforms lives, and renews peace," according to one broad-based professional association. Among certain Christian denominations, such as those of traditional Anabaptism, the observance of various ordinances rooted in Scripture occurs during Christian worship, such as feetwashing, anointing with oil, and the wearing of headcoverings by women.

The offertory (from Medieval Latin offertorium and Late Latin offerre) is the part of a Eucharistic service when the bread and wine for use in the service are ceremonially placed on the altar.

A collection of alms (offerings) from the congregation, which may take place also at non-Eucharistic services, often coincides with this ceremony.

The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous (sui iuris) particular churches of the Catholic Church in full communion with the pope in Rome. Although they are distinct theologically, liturgically, and historically from the Latin Church, they are all in full communion with it and with each other. Eastern Catholics are a minority within the Catholic Church; of the 1.3 billion Catholics in communion with the pope, approximately 18 million are members of the Eastern churches. The largest numbers of Eastern Catholics are found in Eastern Europe, Eastern Africa, the Middle East, and India. As of 2022, the Syro-Malabar Church is the largest Eastern Catholic Church, followed by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

With the exception of the Maronite Church, the Eastern Catholic Churches are groups that, at different points in the past, used to belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox churches, or the Church of the East; these churches underwent various schisms through history. Eastern Catholic Churches that were formerly part of other communions have been points of controversy in ecumenical relations with the Eastern Orthodox and other non-Catholic churches. The five historic liturgical traditions of Eastern Christianity, namely the Alexandrian Rite, the Armenian Rite, the Byzantine Rite, the East Syriac Rite, and the West Syriac Rite, are all represented within Eastern Catholic liturgy. On occasion, this leads to a conflation of the liturgical word "rite" and the institutional word "church". Some Eastern Catholic jurisdictions admit members of churches not in communion with Rome to the Eucharist and the other sacraments.

A ciborium (plural ciboria; Medieval Latin ciborium "drinking cup", from the Ancient Greek κιβώριον kibōrion, "drinking cup") is a vessel, normally in metal. It was originally a particular shape of drinking cup in ancient Greece and Rome, but the word later came to refer to a large covered cup designed to hold hosts for, and after, the Eucharist, thus the counterpart (for the bread) of the chalice (for the wine).

The word is also used for a large canopy over the altar of a church, which was a common feature of Early Medieval church architecture, now relatively rare.