Ad orientem, meaning "to the east" inEcclesiastical Latin, is a phrase used to describe the eastward orientation ofChristian prayer andChristian worship,[1][2] comprising the prepositionad (toward) andoriens (rising, sunrise, east), participle oforior (to rise).[3][4]
Ad orientem has been used to describe the eastwarddirection of prayer that theearly Christians faced when praying,[2][1][5] a practice that continues in theEastern Orthodox Church,Oriental Orthodox churches,Mar Thoma Syrian Church,Assyrian Church of the East, as well as theEastern Catholic andEastern Lutheran churches.[6][7] It was normative in theRoman Catholic Church until the 1960s,[dubious –discuss] and remains so in theTridentine Mass; some Lutheran and Anglican churches continue to offer their respective liturgiesad orientem.[8] Although theSecond Vatican Council never ordered any change fromad orientem toversus populum, a posture facing the people, in the aftermath of the council the change was nevertheless widespread and became the norm.Ad orientem was never forbidden, however: the Pauline Missal, indeed, presumes that Mass is saidad orientem in its rubrics, indicating that in the celebration of theMass the priestly celebrant faces thealtar with his back to the congregants, so that they all face in the same direction.[9]
Since the time of theEarly Church, the eastward direction of Christian prayer has carried a strong significance, attested by the writings of theChurch Fathers.[1] In the 2nd century, Syrian Christians hung aChristian cross on the eastern wall of their house, symbolizing "their souls facing God, talking with him, and sharing their spirituality with the Lord".[10] Two centuries later,Saint Basil the Great declared that "facing the east to pray was among the oldest unwritten laws of the Church".[11] Nearly allChristian apologetic tracts published in the 7th century in the Syriac and Arabic languages explained that Christians prayed facing the east because "the Garden of Eden was planted in the east (Genesis 2:8) and ... at the end of time, at thesecond coming, the Messiah would approach Jerusalem from the east."[12]
Parishes of theCoptic Church, a church ofOriental Orthodox Christianity, are designed to face east and efforts are made to remodel churches obtained from otherChristian denominations that are not built in this fashion.[10]
In the time of theearly Church, the eastward direction of Christian prayer was the standard and carried a strong significance, attested by the writings of theChurch Fathers.[1][15][16]
Theeastward direction of prayer among early Christians is a custom inherited from the Jews.[17][18] At the time of the formation of Christianity, Jews commonly prayed not only towards theTemple of Solomon, where the presence of the transcendent God (shekinah) [resided] in theHoly of Holies of the Temple, but also toward the east, although to what extent this practice was widespread is disputed.[19][20] After the Temple was destroyed, synagogical liturgy continued the practice of praying in that direction, "inseparably bound up with the messianic expectation of Israel."[21] Some rabbinic traditions encouraged Jews to construct synagogues with their entrances facing east, in imitation of the Temple of Jerusalem following its destruction, although this guideline was only sporadically implemented in practice.[22] It was the practice, Paul F. Bradshaw says, of the Jewish sects of theEssenes and theTherapeutae, for whom "the eastward prayer had acquired aneschatological dimension, the 'fine bright day' for which the Therapeutae prayed being apparently themessianic age and the Essene prayer towards the sun 'as though beseeching him to rise' being a petition for the coming of the priestly Messiah."[23] Eventually, a "process of mutual stimulus and disaffection" between Jews and early Christians seems to have brought about the end of Jewish prayer towards the east, and Christian prayer towards Jerusalem.[24] TheIslamic practice of praying initially towards Jerusalem, as well as the concept ofpraying in a certain direction, is derived from the Jewish practice, which was ubiquitous among the Jewish communities of Syria, Palestine,Yathrib and Yemen.[25]
Additionally, the Christian custom of praying towards the east may have roots in the practice of the earliest Christians in Jerusalem of praying towards theMount of Olives, to the east of the city, which they saw as the locus of key eschatological events and especially of the awaitedSecond Coming of Christ. Although the localization of the Second Coming on the Mount of Olives was abandoned after thedestruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the eastward direction of Christian prayer was retained and became general throughoutChristendom.[26]
Early Christians, who were largelypersecuted, usually worshipped inhouse churches,[1] and theEucharist was never exposed to non-Christians. The church-hall, according to the evidence found atDura-Europos, was oblong, with the people facing the eastern wall, where there was a platform where the table-altar of the Eucharist was offered by the presbyter/priest, who also apparently faced east.[27] Images of biblical scenes and figures, including that of Christ, adorned the walls, including the eastern wall. In the 2nd century, Syrian Christians indicated the direction in which to pray by placing across on the eastern wall of their house or church, a direction that symbolized "their souls facing God, talking with him, and sharing their spirituality with the Lord."[10] Believers turned towards it to pray atfixed prayer times, such as in the morning, evening and other parts of the day;[14] this practice continues among some Christians today, along with the related custom of Christian families erecting theirhome altar oricon corner on the east wall of their dwellings.[13][28][29][30][31][32][14]
Among the early Church Fathers,Tertullian used the equivalent phrasead orientis regionem (to the region of the east) in hisApologeticus (A.D. 197).[33][34]Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 215) says: "Since the dawn is an image of the day of birth, and from that point the light which has shone forth at first from the darkness increases, there has also dawned on those involved in darkness a day of the knowledge of truth. In correspondence with the manner of the sun's rising, prayers are made looking towards the sunrise in the east."[35]Origen (c. 185–253) says: "The fact that [...] of all the quarters of the heavens, the east is the only direction we turn to when we pour out prayer, the reasons for this, I think, are not easily discovered by anyone." Origen "firmly rejects the argument that if a house has a fine view in a different direction, one should face that way rather than towards the east."[27][36]
In the fourth century,Saint Basil the Great declared that one of the many beliefs and practices that Christians derived not from written teaching but by the tradition of the apostles was to turn to the East when praying.[37][11] Using the phrasead orientem,Augustine of Hippo mentioned the practice at the end of the fourth century.[2]
Syriac and ArabicChristian apologetics of the 7th century explained that Christians prayed facing east because "the Garden of Eden was planted in the east (Genesis 2:8) and that at the end of time, at thesecond coming, the Messiah would approach Jerusalem from the east."[12]Saint John of Damascus taught that believers pray facing east because it "reminds Christians of their need to long for and strive for the paradise that God intended for them" and because "Christians affirm their faith in Christ as theLight of the world" by praying in the direction of sunrise.[1][38]
In the eighth century,Saint John of Damascus, aDoctor of the Church, wrote:[38]
It is not without reason or by chance that we worship towards the East. But seeing that we are composed of a visible and an invisible nature, that is to say, of a nature partly of spirit and partly of sense, we render also a twofold worship to the Creator; just as we sing both with our spirit and our bodily lips, and are baptized with both water and Spirit, and are united with the Lord in a twofold manner, being sharers in the Mysteries and in the grace of the Spirit. Since, therefore, God is spiritual light, and Christ is called in the Scriptures Sun of Righteousness and Dayspring, the East is the direction that must be assigned to His worship. For everything good must be assigned to Him from Whom every good thing arises. Indeed the divine David also says, Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth: O sing praises unto the Lord: to Him that rideth upon the Heavens of heavens towards the East. Moreover the Scripture also says, And God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed: and when he had transgressed His command He expelled him and made him to dwell over against the delights of Paradise, which clearly is the West. So, then, we worship God seeking and striving after our old fatherland. Moreover the tent of Moses had its veil and mercy seat towards the East. Also the tribe of Judah as the most precious pitched their camp on the East. Also in the celebrated temple of Solomon, the Gate of the Lord was placed eastward. Moreover Christ, when He hung on the Cross, had His face turned towards the West, and so we worship, striving after Him. And when He was received again into Heaven He was borne towards the East, and thus His apostles worship Him, and thus He will come again in the way in which they beheld Him going towards Heaven; as the Lord Himself said, As the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West, so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be. So, then, in expectation of His coming we worship towards the East. But this tradition of the apostles is unwritten. For much that has been handed down to us by tradition is unwritten.[38]
Timothy I, an eighth-century patriarch of theChurch of the East declared:[39]
He [Christ] has taught us all the economy of the Christian religion: baptism, laws, ordinances, prayers, worship in the direction of the east, and the sacrifice that we offer. All these things He practiced in His person and taught us to practise ourselves.[39]
Moses Bar-Kepha, a ninth-century bishop of theSyriac Orthodox Church called praying towards the east one of the mysteries of the Church.[39]
CardinalJoseph Ratzinger, who later becamePope Benedict XVI, described the eastward orientation as linked with the "cosmic sign of the rising sun which symbolizes the universality of God."[40] He also states in the same book (The Spirit of the Liturgy) that:
Despite all the variations in practice that have taken place far into the second millennium, one thing has remained clear for the whole of Christendom: praying toward the east is a tradition that goes back to the beginning. Moreover, it is a fundamental expression of the Christian synthesis of cosmos and history, of being rooted in the once-for-all events again.
Members ofOriental Orthodox Churches, such as those belonging to theIndian Orthodox Church,Syriac Orthodox Church,Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church andCoptic Orthodox Church, as well asOriental Protestant Churches such as theMar Thoma Syrian Church, pray privately in their homes in theeastward direction of prayer atseven fixed prayer times; when a priest visits a home, he asks the family where the east is before leading them in prayer.[6][7][10][42][43] Indian Christians and Coptic Christians in these traditions, for example, pray daily in private thecanonical hours contained in theShehimo andAgpeya, respectively (a practice done atfixed prayer times seven instances a day) facing the eastward direction.[6][7][44][45]
Eastern Orthodox Christians, as well as members of theChurch of the East, also face east when praying.[46][47]
Members of the PentecostalApostolic Faith Mission continue to pray facing east, believing that it "is the direction from which Jesus Christ will come when he returns".[48]
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TheEcclesiastical Latin phrasead orientem is commonly used today to describe a particular posture of a priest inChristian liturgy: facing away from the people towards theapse orreredos or wall behind the altar, with priest and people looking in the same direction, as opposed to theversus populum orientation in which the priest faces the congregation. In this use, the phrase is not necessarily related to the geographical direction in which the priest is looking and is employed even if he is not facing to the east or even has his back to the east.
In theTridentineRoman Missal published in 1570, however,ad orientem andversus populum are not mutually exclusive. The altar may indeed beversus populum (facing the people), but even in this case it is assumed to bead orientem (towards the East): "Si altare sitad orientem, versus populum, celebrans versa facie ad populum, non vertit humeros ad altare, cum dicturus estDóminus vobiscum, Oráte, fratres, Ite, missa est, vel daturus benedictionem ..." (If the altar isad orientem, towards the people, the celebrant, facing the people, does not turn his back to the altar when about to sayDominus vobiscum ["The Lord be with you"],Orate, fratres [the introduction to the prayer over the offerings of bread and wine], andIte, missa est [the dismissal at the conclusion of the Mass], or about to give the blessing ...).[49] The wording remained unchanged in all later editions of the Tridentine Missal, even the last,[50] which is still in use today.
The earliest churches in Rome had a façade to the east and an apse with the altar to the west; the priest celebrating Mass stood behind the altar, facing east and so towards the people.[51][52] According toLouis Bouyer, not only the priest but also the congregation faced east at prayer. Michel Remery critiques Bouyer's view on the grounds of the unlikelihood that, in churches where the altar was to the west, Christians would turn their backs on the altar (and the priest) at the celebration of the Eucharist. According to Remery, the view prevails that the priest, facing east, would celebratead populum in some churches, in others not, in accordance with the churches' architecture.[53] The official journal of theCongregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the SacramentsNotitiae also commented in its May 1993 issue on the unlikelihood that the people would turn their backs on the altar so as to face east; and it recalled the reproaches ofPope Leo I against those who on enteringSaint Peter's Basilica would turn round to face the rising sun and bow their heads to it.[54][55]
Lang and Gamber argue that in churches with a westward apse, the people did not face either towards or away from the altar, but rather stood in the side aisles facing the opposite side aisle, which allowed them to see both the altar and the East. The central aisle would have been left empty for processions. This thesis is supported by indications that early Christians conventionally prayed both eastward and towards open doors or windows, and churches were segregated with women on one side and men on the other.[56]
Outside of Rome, it was an ancient custom for most churches to be built with the entrance at the west end and for priest and people to face eastward to the place of the rising sun.[57] Among the exceptions was the originalConstantinianChurch of the Holy Sepulchre inJerusalem, which had the altar in the west end.[58][59]
After theEdict of Milan legitimized the building of Christian churches, the practice of praying towards the east did not result in uniformity in theirorientation.
In the 8th or 9th century, the position whereby the priest faced the apse, not the people, when celebrating Mass was adopted in some basilicas of Rome.[60] The Ordo Romanus I, dating to the early 700s, mentions the Pope turning to face the people to intone the Gloria and then immediately turning back to face east, implying that the rubric was written for a church with an eastward apse.[61] This usage was introduced from theFrankish Empire and later became almost universal in the West.[62] Some new churches in Francia such as St. Gall, influenced by Roman basilicas, also adopted the westward-facing apse, although this tendency was shortlived.[61] However, theTridentineRoman Missal continued to recognize the possibility of celebrating Mass "versus populum" (facing the people),[63] and in several churches in Rome, it was physically impossible, even before the twentieth-century liturgical reforms, for the priest to celebrate Mass facing away from the people because of the presence, immediately in front of the altar, of the "confession" (Latin:confessio), an area sunk below floor level to enable people to come close to the tomb of the saint buried beneath the altar.
Anglican BishopColin Buchanan argues that there "is reason to think that in the first millennium of the church in Western Europe, the president of the eucharist regularly faced across the eucharistic table toward the ecclesiastical west. Somewhere between the 10th and 12th centuries, a change occurred in which the table itself was moved to be fixed against the east wall, and the president stood before it, facing east, with his back to the people."[64] This change, according to Buchanan, "was possibly precipitated by the coming of tabernacles for reservation, which were ideally both to occupy a central position and also to be fixed to the east wall without the president turning his back to them."[64]
In 7th centuryEngland, it is said, Latin Catholic churches were built so that on the very feast day of the saint in whose honor they were named, Mass could be offered on an altar while directly facing the rising sun.[65] However, various surveys of old English churches found no evidence of any such general practice.[66][67][68]
The present Roman Missal of the Catholic Church (revised in 1969 following theSecond Vatican Council) does not forbid thead orientem position of the priest saying Mass: itsGeneral Instruction only requires that in new or renovated churches the facing-the-people orientation be made possible: "The altar should be built separate from the wall, in such a way that it is possible to walk around it easily and that Mass can be celebrated at it facing the people, which is desirable wherever possible."[69] As in some ancient churches thead orientem position was physically impossible, so today there are churches and chapels in which it is physically impossible for the priest to face the people throughout the Mass.
A letter of 25 September 2000 from theCongregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church treats the phrase "which is desirable wherever possible" as referring to the requirement that altars be built separate from the wall, not to the celebration of Mass facing the people, while "it reaffirms that the position toward the assembly seems more convenient inasmuch as it makes communication easier ... without excluding, however, the other possibility."[70] This is also what is stated in the original text (in Latin) of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (2002), which reads, "Altare maius exstruatur a pariete seiunctum, ut facile circumiri et in eo celebratio versus populum peragi possit, quod expedit ubicumque possibile sit."[71] Asquod is a neuter pronoun, it cannot refer back to the femininecelebratio [versus populum] and mean that celebration facing the peopleexpedit ubicumque possible sit ("is desirable wherever possible"), but must refer to the entirety of the preceding phrase about building the altar separate from the wall so to facilitate walking around it and celebrating Mass at it while facing the people.
On 13 January 2008, PopeBenedict XVI of the Catholic Church publicly celebrated Mass in theSistine Chapel at its altar, which is attached to thewest wall.[72] He later celebrated Mass at the same altar in the Sistine Chapel annually for the Feast of theBaptism of the Lord. His celebration of Mass in thePauline Chapel in the Apostolic Palace on 1 December 2009 was reported to be the first time he publicly celebrated Massad orientem on a freestanding altar.[73] In reality, earlier that year the chapel had been remodeled, with "the previous altar back in its place, although still a short distance from the tabernacle, restoring the celebration of all 'facing the Lord'."[74] On 15 April 2010 he again celebrated Mass in the same way in the same chapel and with the same group.[75] The practice of saying Mass at the altar attached to the west wall of the Sistine Chapel on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord was continued byPope Francis, when he celebrated the feast for the first time as Supreme Pontiff on 12 January 2014. Although neither before nor after the 20th-century revision of theRoman Rite did liturgical norms impose either orientation, the distinction became so linked with traditionalist discussion that it was considered journalistically worthy of remark that Pope Francis celebrated Massad orientem[76] at an altar at which only this orientation was possible.[77]
In a conference in London on 5 July 2016,CardinalRobert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in the Catholic Church, encouraged priests to adopt thead orientem position from the first Sunday inAdvent at the end of that year. However, theVatican soon clarified that this was a personal view of the cardinal and that no official directives would be issued to change the prevailing practice of celebratingversus populum.[78]
InOriental Orthodox Christianity, the liturgy of the Coptic and Ethiopian rites exhort believers with the words "Look towards the East!"[1] Allchurches of theCoptic Orthodox Church are designed to face east and efforts are made to remodel churches obtained from otherChristian denominations that are not built in this fashion.[10]
TheEastern Orthodox Church normally celebrates the Divine Liturgy facing eastward. Only in very exceptional circumstances does it do soversus populum.[79]
Traditionally, in theLutheran Churches, theDivine Service "is oriented to the East from which the Sun of Righteousness will return".[80] Though some parishes now celebrate theMass versus populum, the traditional liturgical posture of ad orientem is retained by many Lutheran churches.[8]
AmongEastern Lutheran churches that celebrate theByzantine Rite, the eastward position is universally practiced.[81]
The English expression "eastward position", which reflects the continuance in England of the traditional orientation abandoned elsewhere in the West, normally means not only "east-facing" but also unambiguously "the position of the celebrant of the Eucharist standing on the same side of the altar as the people, with his back to them".[82] The opposite arrangement is likewise unambiguously called the "westward position". Those who use the phrase "ad orientem" refrain from using the correspondingly ambiguous "ad occidentem" phrase and speak of that arrangement instead as "versus populum".
With theEnglish Reformation, theChurch of England directed that the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist be celebrated at a communion table placed lengthwise in the chancel or in the body of the church, with the priest standing on the north side of the holy table, facing south. Turning to the east continued to be observed at certain points of the Anglican liturgy, including the saying of theGloria Patri,Gloria in excelsis Deo andecumenical creeds in that direction.[83]Archbishop Laud, under direction fromCharles I of England, encouraged a return to the use of the altar at the east end, but in obedience to therubric in theBook of Common Prayer the priest stood at the north end of the altar. In the middle of the 19th century, theOxford Movement gave rise to a return to the eastward-facing position, and use of theversus populum position appeared in the second half of the 20th century.[84]
In the time whenArchibald Campbell Tait wasArchbishop of Canterbury (1868–1882), the eastward position, introduced by theOxford Movement, was the object of violent controversy, leading to its outlawing by theParliament of the United Kingdom in thePublic Worship Regulation Act 1874. In their pastoral letter of 1 March 1875, the Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England lamented "the growing tendency to associate doctrinal significance with rites and ceremonies which do not necessarily involve it. For example, the position to be occupied by the minister during the prayer of consecration in the Holy Communion' [...] We, the clergy, are bound by every consideration to obey the law when thus clearly interpreted [...]".[85]
In spite of the legal prohibition, adoption of the eastward position became normal in the succeeding decades in most provinces of the Anglican Church with the exception of theChurch of Ireland. Then, from the 1960s onward, thewestward position largely replaced both eastward position and north side and, in the view of Colin Buchanan, "has proved a reconciling force within Anglican usage".[86]
"Over the course of the last forty years or so, a great many of those altars have either been removed and pulled out away from the wall or replaced by the kind of freestanding table-like altar", in "response to the popular sentiment that the priest ought not turn his back to the people during the service; the perception was that this represented an insult to the laity and their centrality in worship. Thus developed today's widespread practice in which the clergy stand behind the altar facing the people."[87]
Thepost-1992 United Methodist rubrics stated:[88]
In our churches, the Communion table is to be placed in such a way that the presider is able to stand behind it, facing the people, and the people can visually if not physically gather around it. The table should be high enough so that the presider does not need to stoop to handle the bread and cup. Adaptations may be necessary to facilitate gracious leadership. While architectural integrity should be respected, it is important for churches to carefully adapt or renovate their worship spaces more fully to invite the people to participate in the Holy Meal. If altars are for all practical purposes immovable, then congregations should make provisions for creating a table suitable to the space so that the presiding minister may face the people and be closer to them.[88]
From the earliest days of Church, Christians also faced east when at prayer. In fact, Tertullian (160–220 AD) actually had to defend Christians against the pagans who accused them of facing east to worship the sun. Many Church Fathers, such as St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Basil and St. Augustine, also speak of the practice of facing east. In the 3rd century, the Didascalia, a treatise on church order from northern Syria, set down the rule of facing east during the Eucharist. ... Before Christianity was legal in the Roman Empire, Christians worshipped in their homes. One of the oldest known house churches has been discovered on the far eastern edge of the Roman Empire, in present day Syria, at Dura-Europos. This house church dates from 233 A.D. Archaeologists have uncovered an assembly room in the house where as many as 60 people would gather for prayer. The room was designed with an altar against the east wall. In this way, the priest and all the faithful would together be facing east when celebrating the Eucharist. Writing in the 7th century, St. John of Damascus gives three explanations for the eastward stance of Christians at prayer. First, Christ is "the Sun of Righteousness" (Mal 4:2) and "the Dayspring from on high" (Lk 1:78). Facing the light dawning from the east, Christians affirm their faith in Christ as the Light of the world. Second, God planted the Garden of Eden in the east (cf. Gn 2:8). But, when our first parents sinned, they were exiled from the garden and moved westward. Facing east, therefore, reminds Christians of their need to long for and strive for the paradise that God intended for them. And, third, when speaking of his Second Coming at the end of history, Jesus said, "For just as lightning comes from the east and is seen as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be" (Mt. 24:27). Thus, facing the east at prayer visibly expresses the hope for the coming of Jesus (cf. St. John Damascene, An Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book IV, Chapter 12). Holding fast to this ancient tradition of facing eastward at prayer, the 12th century builders of the first St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna oriented this church to be in line with sunrise on the feast of St. Stephen. ... In celebration of the ancient Coptic Rite of Egypt, a deacon exhorts the faithful with the words "Look towards the East!" His age-old exhortation, found also in Greek and Ethiopian liturgies, stands as a strong reminder of the spiritual direction of our prayer.
In the West, the tradition is first witnessed by Augustine: 'When we stand at prayer, we turn to the east (ad orientem), whence the heaven rises.'
The seven hours of prayer create a cycle that provides us with a foretaste of the eternal life we will spend in the presence of God worshipping Him. ... We pray standing upright while facing East as we collect our thoughts on God.
We are commanded to pray standing, with faces towards the East, for at the last Messiah is manifested in the East. 2. All Christians, on rising from sleep early in the morning, should wash the face and pray. 3. We are commanded to pray seven times, thus...
The Christians faced east to pray for several reasons. Jesus was expected to come again to judge the world "as lightning flashes from the east to the west" (Matthew 24:27). Jesus was the Dawn that enlightened the world. Basil the Great wrote that facing the east to pray was among the oldest unwritten laws of the Church (On the Holy Spirit 27).
Prominent among them was what in the context of life in the world of Islam one might call the Christianqiblah, the direction the Christians faced when they prayed, and the Jews, who faced Jerusalem, Christians customarily faced east to pray. This distinctive, Christian behavior came up for discussion in virtually every apologetic tract in Syriac or Arabic written by a Christian in the early Islamic period. In their answers to the queries of the Muslims on the subject, Christian writers never failed to mention that the reason they prayed facing east was due to the fact that the Garden of Eden was planted in the east (Genesis 2:8) and that at the end of time, at the second coming, the Messiah would approach Jerusalem from the east. Consequently, they insisted all Christians face this direction when they pray.
Inside their homes, a cross is placed on the eastern wall of the first room. If one sees a cross in a house and do not find a crucifix or pictures, it is almost certain that the particular family belongs to the Church of the East.
Long before Christians built churches for public prayer, they worshipped daily in their homes. In order to orient their prayer (toorient means literally "to turn toward the east"), they painted or hung a cross on the east wall of their main room. This practice was in keeping with ancient Jewish tradition ("Look toward the east, O Jerusalem," Baruch 4:36); Christians turned in that direction when they prayed morning and evening and at other times. This expression of their undying belief in the coming again of Jesus was united to their conviction that the cross, "the sign of the Son of Man," would appear in the eastern heavens on his return (see Matthew 24:30). Building on that ancient custom, devout Catholics often have a home altar, shrine, or prayer corner containing a crucifix, religious pictures (icons), a Bible, holy water, lights, and flowers as a part of the essential furniture of a Christian home.
For 2,000 years Christians have prayed facing towards the Orient, the East. East is the direction of the sunrise and was naturally associated with various Christian imagery. East was first seen as a symbol of Christ, the "light of the world," and the direction of his Second Coming. The sunrise was also associated with the Resurrection, as it is written in the Gospels that Christ rose from the dead at dawn. Christians for many centuries prayed facing east (ad orientem), both for the Eucharistic liturgy of the Mass and at daily prayers. Today, only Holy Orthodoxy perpetuates the practice of the Apostles in offering Mass and prayers "ad orientem".
Jews, wherever they were, always said their prayers turning toward Jerusalem, but Christians, from very early on, prayed toward the east, the direction of the rising sun, which for them was the symbol of the Second Coming of Christ.
At first, the prayers were said facing Jerusalem, as the Jews did--Christians faced toward the East--but later the direction of prayer, the qibla, was changed toward the Kaaba at Mecca.
Facing a specific geographic location while praying was also an important part of prayer practice. At first, early Muslims prayed toward Jerusalem, as the Jewish communities in Syria-Palestine, Yemen and Yathrib did. A shift occurred when Muhammad was in Yathrib, as shown in the Qur'an. The reason for this shift is not relevant to the present argument. Rather, Muhammad's salāt incorporates facing a geographic location, clearly an influence from the Jewish communities discussed above.
Peterson quotes a passage from theActs of Hipparchus and Philotheus: "In Hipparchus's house there was a specially decorated room and a cross was painted on the east wall of it. There before the image of the cross, they used to pray seven times a day ... with their faces turned to the east." It is easy to see the importance of this passage when you compare it with what Origen says. The custom of turning towards the rising sun when praying had been replaced by the habit of turning towards the east wall. This we find in Origen. From the other passage we see that a cross had been painted on the wall to show which was the east. Hence the origin of the practice of hanging crucifixes on the walls of the private rooms in Christian houses. We know too that signs were put up in the Jewish synagogues to show the direction of Jerusalem, because the Jews turned that way when they said their prayers. The question of the proper way to face for prayer has always been of great importance in the East. It is worth remembering that Mohammedans pray with their faces turned towards Mecca and that one reason for the condemnation of Al Hallaj, the Mohammedan martyr, was that he refused to conform to this practice.
In Chamula, ancient Mayan beliefs mingle with Roman Catholicism—the "syncretism" we've been observing in various forms since we arrived in Mexico—to form the costumbres of these descendants of the Maya. A cross is placed on the eastern wall of every Mayan home to commemorate the risen Christ and the rising sun; on the patio another cross faces west to salute the sun's passage below the earth.
In Orthodox homes, the eastern corner of a centrally located room is always dedicated to the display of icons.
Identify a wall or corner in a main living area of your house. Preferably, your icons will be on an east wall so your family can be facing east–just like at Divine Liturgy–whenever you say your prayers together.
A Prayer Corner can be as simple as a Crucifix hung where it is visible, or an image of the Blessed Mother with our Rosary near by. It can be an elaborate arrangement of icons or sacred images on an eastern wall of our home (the direction of the Sun's rising), or even a room set aside, almost as a chapel, really anywhere where we feel comfortable, calm, collected, and free of distraction from household duties - free to offer our heart to God, and speak with him.
Why is it that we stand in prayer facing east? The holy Basil tells us in his book on the Holy Spirit: 'So this is the reason why our gaze is directed eastwards when we stand in prayer: it is so that our eyes may gaze in the direction of Paradise, in this way we may seek for our original...
That had been my understanding for many years, and for that matter I had never prayed a small portion of the prayers in most of my entire life as a student at my Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. As it had been a common practice in my church, I had prayed every morning the whole prayers I bentioned afore from cover to cover and always concluded my prayer with the Lord's Prayer followed with the Hallow Thee Mary. Usually I did not sit down until I had said all my prayers, my face always facing toward the east because I had been told that east symbolizes Mary, and the light that comes out from the east symbolizes Jesus. Also, I was told that when Jesus comes for the second time, he would appear in his glory from the east.
On the other hand, the general practices of prayer that have been formalized in the Coptic Church are included in the personal prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours, which is called the Agpeya, and the communal liturgical prayers in the church. ...Standing facing the East is the most frequent prayer position. ... This is further emphasized in the fact that Copts pray facing the East, waiting for the return of Jesus in glory; his return as the enthroned Pantocrator is portrayed in the iconography that is placed before the worshippers.
Prayers 7 times a day are enjoined, and the most strict among the Copts recite one of more of the Psalms of David each time they pray. They always wash their hands and faces before devotions, and turn to the East.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)When at prayer, Christians should put on a belt and face east, where the lost paradise lay.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) ofLetter of protocol number 2036/00/L and date 25 September 2000.In subsequent centuries the practice was clearly understood as rooted in Scripture and tradition and survived the Reformation in the Church of England. According to Dearmer: The ancient custom of turning to the East, or rather to the altar, for the Gloria Patri and the Gloria in Excelsis survived through the slovenly times, and is now common amongst us. (The choir also turned to the altar for the intonation of the Te Deum, and again for its last verse.)
Many Episcopalians remember a time when the altars in most Episcopal churches were attached to the wall beyond the altar rail. The Celebrant at the Eucharist would turn to the altar and have his back – his back, never hers in those days – to the congregation during the Eucharistic Prayer and the consecration of the bread and wine. Over the course of the last forty years or so, a great many of those altars have either been removed and pulled out away from the wall or replaced by the kind of freestanding table-like altar we now use at St. Paul's, Ivy. This was a response to the popular sentiment that the priest ought not turn his back to the people during the service; the perception was that this represented an insult to the laity and their centrality in worship. Thus developed today's widespread practice in which the clergy stand behind the altar facing the people.
