The Lord’s Supper In The Eastern Churches

Although the Eastern churches divided in the fifth century between those that accepted the Christological formula of Chalcedon (Eastern Orthodox churches) and those that rejected it (non-Chalcedonian Eastern churches, particularly the Nestorians and Monophysites), the regional liturgies that had developed before Chalcedon continued to be used by Christians on both sides of this ecclesial divide. The following paragraphs classify and interrelate the Syrian, Byzantine, Armenian, and Alexandrian traditions. Eastern Liturgies after Constantine In the post-Constantinian period, the eucharistic liturgy in the East underwent a process of standardization, the result of a complex dynamic of cultural, theological, and political factors. With the consolidation of ecclesiastical power under the major urban centers of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Constantinople came the consolidation and further assimilation of local liturgical uses to those of the urban centers. As the various local uses…