dzheremi
Coptic Orthodox non-Egyptian
- Aug 27, 2014
- 13,551
- 13,708
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Oriental Orthodox
- Marital Status
- Private
Oh...I also missed "why or why not?" Guess I'm not as awake yet as I thought I was.
I believe that the earliest examples that we have of Christian worship were communal in nature, whether we are talking about the gathering of Christians in the synagogues before being thrown out by the non-believers c. AD 50, or how St. Paul's epistles are often addressed to gathered communities in specific places. In the immediate aftermath of the writing of the NT, we also have the ante-Nicene fathers like St. Ignatius of Antioch and other writers like Tertullian who testify to the fact that this was how things were carried forward into their own day, as well. By AD 150 or so we have the establishment of the world's first catechetical school (at Alexandria, Egypt; and that's just according to the earliest list we have...according to the tradition of the Church in Egypt itself, the school was founded by St. Mark himself), which helped to systematize Christian education and the passing down of the faith from one generation to the next.
But since the passing down of the apostolic faith is not merely or even primarily a matter of intellectual learning (which is not to say that this is not involved, only that you don't need to be an 'intellectual' to be a Christian; "out of the mouths of babes", remember?), the way we have done so throughout the centuries is by this very gathering together for the liturgy and the other ancient worship services which have been passed down to us by our fathers. Just for example, it wasn't until the 19th century or so that Coptic hymns/church music was first written down, and when it was this was by Western academics and explorers (who generally had a very low view of it), not by the Copts themselves. The Coptic hymns are still primarily passed down orally. That's how I learned them, for instance, since that's how our priests learned them, etc. This is part of the reason why the Coptic Orthodox Church has preserved several regional melodic variations corresponding to different parts of Egypt and Nubia.
Anyway, the point is that we have preserved a particular way of being Christian as taught to us by our fathers and hence it is not ours to monkey with to begin with. We didn't invent it; we inherited it, so we have only to defend it and pass it down. And the way that we do that is in communities, as Christ told us that wherever two or more are gathered in His name, He is there among them.
I believe that the earliest examples that we have of Christian worship were communal in nature, whether we are talking about the gathering of Christians in the synagogues before being thrown out by the non-believers c. AD 50, or how St. Paul's epistles are often addressed to gathered communities in specific places. In the immediate aftermath of the writing of the NT, we also have the ante-Nicene fathers like St. Ignatius of Antioch and other writers like Tertullian who testify to the fact that this was how things were carried forward into their own day, as well. By AD 150 or so we have the establishment of the world's first catechetical school (at Alexandria, Egypt; and that's just according to the earliest list we have...according to the tradition of the Church in Egypt itself, the school was founded by St. Mark himself), which helped to systematize Christian education and the passing down of the faith from one generation to the next.
But since the passing down of the apostolic faith is not merely or even primarily a matter of intellectual learning (which is not to say that this is not involved, only that you don't need to be an 'intellectual' to be a Christian; "out of the mouths of babes", remember?), the way we have done so throughout the centuries is by this very gathering together for the liturgy and the other ancient worship services which have been passed down to us by our fathers. Just for example, it wasn't until the 19th century or so that Coptic hymns/church music was first written down, and when it was this was by Western academics and explorers (who generally had a very low view of it), not by the Copts themselves. The Coptic hymns are still primarily passed down orally. That's how I learned them, for instance, since that's how our priests learned them, etc. This is part of the reason why the Coptic Orthodox Church has preserved several regional melodic variations corresponding to different parts of Egypt and Nubia.
Anyway, the point is that we have preserved a particular way of being Christian as taught to us by our fathers and hence it is not ours to monkey with to begin with. We didn't invent it; we inherited it, so we have only to defend it and pass it down. And the way that we do that is in communities, as Christ told us that wherever two or more are gathered in His name, He is there among them.
Upvote
0