Author: Gus George Christo
Publisher: Edwin Mellen Press
Published: 2005
Total Pages: 170
ISBN-13:
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The consecration of the worship space and the people who gather there for worship is a time honored custom. It has its roots in Old Testament scripture and its fruition in the New. The foundation is the Person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and His perfect and complete Resurrection from the dead and enthronement at the right hand of God the Father. God became accessible to the Israelites through the temple ritual. The Temple, especially the Holy of Holies, became the site where God concretely interacted with His people. The people of God found it necessary to dedicate such space through an elaborate ritual which set apart this space for worship and ultimate communion with God. Likewise, the Christians, as Israel fulfilled, consecrate their entire beings to the glory of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They see themselves as liturgical creatures who commune in the very life of the Holy Trinity via the Flesh and Blood of the Son of God. For this to take place, they congregate on hallowed ground, where heaven and earth unite, and they participate in the Mysteries of the everlasting Kingdom, which were inaugurated and consummated by the Son in His risen and glorified Humanity. martyrdom of Christ, and its cosmic saving effects, and the death of the holy martyrs mandates that holy relics of martyrs be interred in the altar table, which is the focal point of the local Church. The subsequent baptism and chrismation of the altar table solidify the identification of the heavenly realm upon the hallowed ground. The spiritual wedding of the Christians as brides of Christ the Bridegroom becomes accessible through the Sacraments that emanate from the celestial altar. The local Church is the revelation of the eschaton in time and space. An appendix containing the rite of consecration as celebrated in the Greek Orthodox Church follows the study. Also included is an index listing the citations of consecration, dedicating and anointing in the holy scriptures.
