Recently I had the joy and privilege of spending an evening with one of the newly received parishes of the Western Rite Deanery of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America. It was an evening arranged to reflect upon the theme of Liturgy and Worship. Designed mostly to examine the Theology of Worship from a personal and parochial perspective, I, as the presenter and moderator of the event, also entertained questions and comments on various practical and historical aspects of Liturgy. One of the questions posed concerned the use of “tabernacles” in the Church. Although the question was primarily concerned with the placing of the tabernacle in the sanctuary, it certainly opened up the possibility of further study on the topic, one which would be of considerable interest, not only to the faithful interested in liturgical appointments of the church, but also to those people entering the Orthodox tradition especially from ecclesial communities of the Western Liturgical traditions. With this in mind I thought it best to do some further reflection and study on the issue and to record the following thoughts for this blog.
To begin the effort it might be best to pose a few questions, with the hope of guiding the course of reflection. How did this tradition develop? How long has this practice been a part of the tradition of the Church? Is it a tradition which is present in the whole Catholic Church, East and West? And what place does this practice have in the development of Orthodox Catholic sacramental teaching and liturgical practice? Answering these questions might then pose the ultimate question for discussion: is this practice Orthodox?
Let’s begin with an historical overview of the practice of reserving the Holy Mysteries – known in the Western Church as the Blessed Sacrament. First, it must be said that the Mysteries (Sacrament) were always the object of profound veneration, certainly during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy (the Mass) as well as outside of it, especially when it was carried to the sick. And the practice of genuflecting or prostrating oneself during the Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified Gifts, an ancient tradition and one which is still very much a part of Eastern Orthodox (Byzantine) tradition during Great Lent, is still evident today in Orthodox practice during the procession of the Holy Mysteries to the altar. Therefore from the earliest time the Mysteries were “reserved” and honored for the liturgical use of the assembly. And of course at the same time it was reserved also for the practice of bringing Communion to the sick, and to those who for “good reason” could not participate at the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. I might also add that there was a practice in the early centuries of bringing the Mysteries home to be given to the sick or to be received during the week when the family prayed together at the evening hour. Consequently, reservation of the Sacrament is a practice which began close to the end of the Apostolic period.
Very early on it became customary to reserve the Holy Gifts in a special place, usually under the care of the deacons, detached from the main area where the faithful assembled. Among other names, these places were known as pastophorion or sacrarium. They were areas detached from the main flow of the assembly and were hidden from the sight of the faithful. Remembering that in the early centuries the Christian temple was a place for the gathering of the faithful for the Liturgy, eventually it became a “house of prayer” wherein people came to pray privately. But even then there was no “tabernacle” present in the main part of the building; therefore, the center of their prayer and meditation was not the Sacrament. In fact the point of attention was the “table of sacrifice.” This for them was the symbol of the Lord’s presence.
During the second half of the first millennium of Christianity the aforementioned practices began to develop further and the position of importance which the Reserved Sacrament began to have had a considerable affect on the thinking, practice and positioning of tabernacles in the church building. Briefly stated this influence was far greater in the West than in the Orthodox Churches of the East. In the Latin Church the need for visible contact with the Sacrament not only became a major factor in the development of church architecture, but also to an inestimable degree, it affected the whole theology of the Sacrament, an influence that affected spirituality, sacramental theology, and yes, even, Church unity, throughout the Middle Ages and to this day. We’ll return to this later. For the present we might say that the spiritual need and assistance provided the Eastern Christian through the use of liturgical action and movement, church architecture, and most of all through iconography, was substituted in the West by the veneration of the reserved Sacrament, especially after the 12th century. This certainly was a result of the increased practice of not receiving the Holy Gifts regularly, a practice which developed in both the East and West.
Because of these developments and influences, Christians, especially in the West, were no longer satisfied to reserve the Sacrament in the “sacrarium” but had a strong desire place the Sacrament in a location where it would be visible and accessible for private prayer and devotion. In some places, as early as the 9th century it was placed on an altar – not necessarily the main altar. This of course led to a more specific development of construction and style, since the Sacrament should be housed in a manner that is most worthy of this “great mystery.” The “tower,” which in the Gallican Rite was the object which was used to bring the gifts to the Altar during the Offertory of the Liturgy, or the “dove,’ which hung in the Baptistry to store the Holy Chrism, served as models for the development of “repositories” for the Blessed Sacrament.
Eventually there was a need to make the reservation of the Sacrament more secure, for as the Sacrament became more and more an object of worship it also became subject to increased acts of profanation. In 1215 AD the Council of the Lateran ordered the Sacrament to be reserved under lock and key, in some cases a highly ornamented portable box or chest; in others a wall tabernacle – again separate from the High Altar, and also, especially in the Northern Europe, monumental tabernacles in the shape of a tower or steeple, placed in the choirs of churches or in the North Transept. These usually allowed the Sacrament to be enclosed in a glass-windowed container so that it was visible through a wire-mesh door. Examples of this beautifully ornate “tabernacle” still are present especially throughout Germany, Belgium, and Holland. After the Council of Trent, for the most part in response to the need for liturgical reform, it became the practice to place the Reserved Sacrament at the center of an altar, again, not necessarily the main altar of the church. This innovation quickly spread. In large churches it was usually the main altar which was chosen as the position for the tabernacle. However, in smaller churches it would be located in a chapel in the apse or a side altar. It was during the Baroque period that the positioning of the tabernacle at the center of the main altar became a fixed tradition. This was done to facilitate the prolonged periods of adoration that was very characteristic of this period. This practice did not become widespread throughout the Latin (Western) Church until the 19th century.
Most of the practice in the Roman Catholic Church until the liturgical reforms of Vatican II, and even today to some degree in the Anglican Communion and the Old Catholic Movement and the Churches of “National Catholic” tradition, are the inheritors of this 19th century Eucharistic piety in which the tabernacle plays a major role in church appointments. The positioning of the tabernacle on the “high Altar” or on a pedestal behind the “free standing” altar in the Novus Ordo tradition is the legacy of the development of tabernacles in Western Church usage.
What about the tradition of the Eastern Churches – more specifically Eastern Orthodoxy? In the early centuries of the Church the practice was very similar to that of the West. In one sense it was the Western Church, through teaching and practice that developed the use of reserving the sacrament and the devotional practices which ensued in a manner quite different from that of the East. And although the practice of reserving the Holy Gifts for the Communion of the sick in the Eastern Orthodox Churches eventually placed the “reservation” on the Holy Table, this did not bring with it the cult of Eucharistic Adoration which was so specific to the Latin (Western) Church. The whole theology and liturgical practice of the East assisted in keeping a more pastoral and liturgical basis for the reserved Sacrament. The development of Eucharistic Adoration apart from the Liturgy as experienced in the West especially after the 13th century did not have a counterpart in Orthodox piety. This practice in the Western Church inevitably affected the theology of the Sacrament in Latin Christianity as well as the place and importance of the tabernacle in Western tradition. One only has to consider these Eucharistic piety movements of the 13th century onward in the Roman Church as an affirmation of this difference. Carrying the Sacrament in procession outside of the Liturgy, Eucharistic adoration, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament (outside of the Liturgy) are all practices that never developed in the East, with the exception of some movements that were influenced by “western scholastic Sacramental Theology” introduced in the 16th century in Eastern Europe. Certainly practices which developed in regions influenced by the theological statements of Peter Moghila and the Unia movement could be considered in this respect.
So the question arises, is the use of a tabernacle in Orthodox practice, either Eastern or Western, in keeping with Orthodox Eucharistic Theology and the ancient tradition of the Church? Certainly the above mentioned practice of reserving the Mysteries on the Holy Table has not had an extremely detrimental affect on Orthodox praxis or theology. But this statement must be qualified with the recent development of “Western Rite” usage, especially in the United States.
This movement, which has been quite beneficial in bringing many Christians from the Latin tradition Churches (Roman Catholic, Anglican, Episcopalian, Lutheran, and recently faithful from Protestant Evangelical and Charismatic communities), has allowed the continuation of the use of liturgical practices which have been approved by Eastern Orthodox hierarchs, especially the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America and the Synod of Bishops Outside of Russia (ROCOR). These practices include the positioning of the tabernacle on the Holy Altar as well as other locations in the sanctuary. Their approval also fosters the use of pietistic devotions which developed after the Great Schism, such as Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and Eucharistic Processions, and which reflect a theology quite different from that of Orthodox tradition. This seems to be very much present especially in parishes that have entered this movement from Anglo-Catholic Anglicanism. It must be noted that these practices are not present in the Western Orthodox movement in France which has been blessed at different times by Orthodox hierarchs; namely St. John of Shanghai & San Francisco (ROCOR) and the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church. This Church, Eglise Catholique Orthodoxe de France, wisely discerned the spirit and practice of traditional Orthodoxy in not including Eucharistic piety devotions of this type in its practice.
Therefore, it might be proper to say that tabernacles for the reservation of the Holy Mysteries (Sacrament) have a valid place in the liturgical practice of Orthodox Christianity when used for the purpose of reserving the Mysteries to be available to the sick, or even for those who can not for good reason be present at the celebration of the Holy Liturgy. Whether this use is limited only to the placement of the tabernacle on the Holy Table is a topic for further thought and discussion. It might be a very valid consideration to consider a return to the early Church practice of reserving the Sacrament in a pastophorion or sacrarium. However, careful consideration has to be given to the use of devotional practices of the Latin Church which have developed principally due to the development of Sacramental Theology in the Latin Church during the late Middle Ages, a theology which brought about the positioning and use of tabernacles in its tradition. I humbly question the practice in “Western Rite” Orthodox parishes which have continued the use of these Eucharistic devotions; practices which developed in the Western Church after the Great Schism and which do not reflect the teaching and spirit of universal Orthodoxy.