Mary

Worship in the Alexandrian Churches: Coptic and Ethiopian

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The Coptic and Ethiopian liturgies are textually similar but quite different in style and setting. The Coptic liturgy is sober and restrained, while the Ethiopian liturgy is full of life and exuberance.

Legend has it that Christianity spread to Egypt at the hands of St. Mark, and to Ethiopia via the eunuch of Candace (Acts 8:26–40). The legends concerning Mark attribute to him the complete shaping of the church in Alexandria: he was bishop and first patriarch, ordained deacons, presbyters, and other bishops, and in general was responsible for establishing the church order that was in fact a much later development (see Aziz S. Atiya, A History of Eastern Christianity [London: Methuen, 1968]). With regard to Egypt it is more likely that, because of the commerce between Jerusalem and Alexandria, the path of Christianity’s spread was much less precise. As for Ethiopia, it is not until the fourth century, under Frumentius and Aedesius of Tyre, that any authentic evangelization is recorded (Donald Attwater, The Christian Churches of the East, rev. ed. [Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1947] vol. 1, 138), with more serious evangelization coming still later at the hands of Monophysite monks from Syria.

In the sixth century, however, the Coptic church was given missionary responsibility for Ethiopia, and the church there came under the jurisdiction of the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria, a dependency, and although the Ethiopian church had other influences as well, and indeed does have its own particular liturgical “flavor,” the two can be taken to constitute a single liturgical tradition. This tradition is Alexandrian in its theological outlook, dominantly Monophysite in its Christology, and in many ways it is the polar opposite of the traditions rooted in Antioch.

The Coptic liturgy is austere, and quite evidently the product of monastic origins. Among the Ethiopians the liturgy is far more colorful, with dance, elaborate costume, and a far more vibrant musical setting. Textually, however, the two liturgies are similar. The Coptic text cited here is from The Coptic Morning Service for the Lord’s Day, translated by John Patrick Crichton Stuart (London, 1980); the Ethiopian text, which has been modified and somewhat simplified, is taken from The Ordinary and the Anaphora of the Apostles, edited by T. Baraki (Washington, D.C., 1984).

The Coptic Liturgy

The Coptic liturgy employs three readings before the gospel itself: from the letters of Paul, from the catholic epistles, and from the Acts of the Apostles. Attached to each is a lengthy prayer. Between these readings and the gospel, there are a series of petitions, accompanied by additional reverences to (processions around) the altar, an offering of incense on behalf of the people, and the trisagion. After the gospel, which is greeted in a solemn and elaborate procession, the priest prays the gospel prayer (“ … may we be made worthy to hear Thine holy gospels, and may we keep thy precepts and commandments … ”). Catechumens may have been dismissed at this point.

Pre-anaphora. A prayer is prayed privately by the priest as he approaches the altar (prayer of the veil). The priest then introduces the intercessions which are each led by the deacon (response of the people: “Lord, have mercy”) and augmented by the priest. The ministers, the people, and the altar are incensed and all proclaim the Nicene Creed.

Anaphora. As in the other Eastern liturgies, the greeting of peace precedes the eucharistic prayer. The eucharistic prayer of Basil is West Syrian in its structure: thanksgiving narrative, which includes the “Holy, Holy, Holy” and the Supper narrative, anamnēsis, epiklēsis, intercessions, and doxology. The institution narrative is interspersed with frequent acclamations of the people (“Amen”), as is the epiklēsis (“Amen” and “I believe”). The intercessions, which include a reading of the diptychs of the dead, are quite lengthy.

Post-anaphora. The prayer of fraction, which precedes the Lord’s Prayer, includes acclamations of faith in the presence of Christ and acts of adoration. The Lord’s prayer is followed by several prayers of remembrance and one of absolution (addressed to the Father). The gifts are presented (“The holy to the holy”), and after a further series of preparation prayers, including an additional proclamation of faith (“I believe, I believe, I believe and confess till the last breath that this is the life-giving flesh which thine only begotten Son, our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ took from our lady, the lady of us all, the holy mother of God, the holy Mary … ”), Communion is distributed. The liturgy concludes with prayer, blessing, and dismissal.

The Ethiopian Liturgy

The Ethiopian tradition knows of at least 22 eucharistic prayers, unique among which is one addressed in part to the Virgin Mary. The most commonly used, however, is the anaphora “of the Apostles,” which is in fact an Alexandrian derivation from the prayer of Hippolytus (third-century Rome), and a variant on the Coptic anaphora of St. Cyril. The liturgical language is Ge’ez, though it is usually celebrated in the contemporary vernacular, Amharic.

Introductory Rites. After the opening sign of the cross (a remnant of the Coptic office of incense), the priest announces: “How wondrous this day and how marvelous this hour in which the Holy Spirit will come down from the high heaven and overshadow this offering and sanctify it.” This same text is employed in the West Syrian liturgy as a diaconal announcement prior to the epiklēsis.

Attention is then turned to the offerings with the same lengthy ritual form as in the Coptic liturgy. The bread is blessed (“Christ, our true God, sign with your right hand [sign of the cross] and bless this bread [sign of the cross], hallow it with your power and strengthen it with your Spirit”). The offering is made (again, a West Syrian text), the chalice is blessed, and then the bread and wine both are given the Trinitarian blessing. A doxology introduces a prayer of thanksgiving and another of absolution, and the first anaphora (addressed to Christ) is begun. Reminiscent of Theodore of Mopsuestia, whose theology is evident in both the East Syrian and West Syrian traditions, the prayer of the veil, as the celebrant covers the bread and wine, recalls: “What we have placed upon this blessed paten is in the likeness of the sepulcher in which you stayed three days and three nights … ” Long prayers of general intercession conclude the introductory rites.

Liturgy of the Word. The liturgy of the Word begins with an invitation to stand, a greeting of peace, and invitation to adore “the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit, three persons, one God,” and the prayer to Mary, recited by all (“You are the golden censer, that bore the glowing charcoal … ”). The traditional four readings are reduced to two though the “readings prayers” have been retained. Between the Epistle and the Gospel praises of Mary and the trisagion are prayed and the blessing of the four “cardinal points” is given.

Pre-anaphora. The rites before the eucharistic prayer include a prayer of blessing and intercession, the creed, a prayer of purification (washing of hands), a doxology (“Glory to God in the heavens, and peace on earth to men of goodwill”), and a kiss of peace.

Anaphora. The anaphora of the apostles is essentially the Hippolytus text, with the “Holy, Holy, Holy” and other acclamations of the people included. There are, as in the original, no intercessions within the eucharistic prayer proper.

Post-anaphora. A complex fraction rite follows the eucharistic prayer, and, together with a prayer of thanksgiving, introduces the Lord’s Prayer. This is followed by a series of prayers (of blessing, for forgiveness, of remembrance—including the commemoration of the dead). When the gifts are presented to the people (“Holy things to the holy”), a prayer over penitents and a profession of faith in the Eucharist is made (“I believe, I believe, I believe and profess … ”). Final prayers of preparation for Communion follow.

After Communion, there are prayers of thanksgiving, an imposition of hands in blessing of the people, a final blessing and dismissal.

Theology and Spirit

The Alexandrian theological tradition stands in contrast to the Antiochene on several counts. Its emphasis on the majesty and otherness of God is stronger, its ability to deal with the fullness of the incarnation weaker. In Trinitarian theology, it tends towards subordinationism, of Son to Father, of Spirit to both. In Christology, it tends to emphasize the divine over the human. In liturgical theology, it tends to stress the spiritual meaning of the symbols and the eternal realm in which that meaning resides. The sanctuary screen in the Coptic churches separates heaven from earth rather than uniting the two and bridging the gap.

Probably the most notable piece in both the Coptic and Ethiopian liturgies is the attention given to the bread and wine in the introductory rites and the seemingly consecratory “first anaphora” to Christ. There is a parallel in the Coptic baptismal liturgy which may illuminate this prayer. Before the baptism, ordinary water is solemnly “consecrated” for the baptism; afterward, with a prayer equally as solemn, it is “returned to ordinary use.” It is as though materials of the earth, in this case, the bread and wine, require a preliminary “consecration” to render them fit for the subsequent consecratory actions of God.

Equally of note, at least in the Coptic version of this liturgical tradition, is the attention paid to the altar. The altar is the altar of sacrifice which the priest approaches unworthily. Many of the processions around the altar, including kissing the altar’s four corners, accompany prayers of intercession offered in worship to God. The altar is likewise a symbol of the one who is offered (“We adore thee, O Christ, and thy good Father, and the Holy Ghost. Behold, thou hast come, thou hast saved us”—said while incensing the altar). Placing the gifts upon the altar places them as well on the altar above (“Receive them upon thine holy reasonable altar in heaven for a sweet savor of incense”—said while incensing the gifts placed upon the altar).

Finally, the place of Mary is unique. She is called the “censer of gold” whose “sweet cloud is our Savior” (Coptic) and the “golden censer that bore the glowing charcoal whom the blessed One … accepted from the sanctuary” (Ethiopian). She is also the one who makes strong supplication for us before God.

Women in Worship Leadership in Biblical Times

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Women appear at critical times in the life of their worship communities. Acting as prayer leaders, prophetesses, sages, or apostles, they perform deeds that embody the spirit and life of their community. To read their stories is to discover how this people experienced God and lived in fidelity to that relationship. Their communities remembered them and retold their stories, giving them honored place in the community’s oral and written memory. Their leadership continues to be handed on to renew life and spirit in communities faithful to their tradition. The importance of women in the worship life of biblical times may be seen in the stories of Miriam, Huldah, and the woman who anointed Jesus, as well as in the biblical personification of wisdom as a woman.

Miriam, Leader of Thanksgiving and Worship

In Exodus 20:15–21, at a sanctuary in the wilderness, Miriam leads the people of Israel in a celebration of the miraculous act that formed them. They had been slaves in Egypt and no people at all. Now, at Yahweh’s hand, they had come through the deathly waters of the sea to life as a united people.

Miriam takes up the timbrel, a tambourine-like percussion instrument, and begins a dance and song of thanksgiving and victory. The women follow her, dancing and chanting, “Sing to Yahweh, gloriously triumphant! Horse and rider are cast into the sea!” Her shout becomes their refrain. Her movements and instrument imitate the actions and sounds of Yahweh in the winds and the sea, parting the waters and swallowing the Egyptians. She plays the part of the victorious divine warrior, Yahweh, the One who has saved Israel, the One who is alone among the gods, “magnificent in holiness,” making known his presence in Israel’s midst.

Such dramatic thanksgiving feasts became the very hallmark of Israel’s covenant life with Yahweh. Miriam’s song was like the psalms families later sang at Passover in homes and villages, like those that priests and all the people sang when they gathered for great pilgrimage feasts in the courts of the temple. In the ritual sharing of song, food, and life, young Israel, weary of what seemed to be an endless journey in harsh lands and battling unwelcoming peoples, remembered and renewed the covenant with Yahweh and their bonds as a people.

In a speech indicting the people for their faithlessness Micah the prophet remembers Miriam, with Moses and Aaron, as a leader of the wilderness community, and associates her leadership with divine commissioning (Mic. 6:2–5). Like Moses and Aaron before the days of the temple and priesthood in Israel, Miriam served as leader of the community at prayer, expressing their faith that Yahweh had saved them and continued to be with them. In thanksgiving, they renewed the covenant and committed themselves as a people.

Huldah, Prophet and Interpreter of Yahweh’s Word

Later in Israel, kings came to rule and represent Yahweh’s leadership among them. They became the leaders of worship, calling all Israel together to renew the covenant by reciting, singing, and dancing Yahweh’s deeds. In establishing their rule, Israel’s kings made alliances with neighboring rulers, sometimes through marriage and sometimes by taking in foreign “gods” and customs. Solomon and the kings following him established heavy taxes and large armies to support cities and temples. Gradually they rendered the rural villagers poor, subject to the international economy of the great city Jerusalem. It was then that prophets emerged, in court and village, to recall covenant relationships among the people and with Yahweh and to call those in power, even kings, to reform and fidelity.

When Josiah was king of Judah, his ministers found a book that told of the covenant in the temple. Was this book true to Yahweh? What did it mean for Josiah and the people? Josiah sent his ministers to Huldah, who, by her credentials, was probably a prophet active in his court and well known among the people.

Huldah spoke with authority. The book was true for Judah that very day. The people had turned to other gods and forsaken Yahweh. Yahweh’s anger would blaze against them. And it did, as Josiah burned the sanctuaries of Judah and tried to purify the Jerusalem temple and center Israel’s worship there among a reunited people.

Josiah heard Yahweh’s word through Huldah and, in heartfelt repentance, acted to restore relationships among people and with Yahweh. The word of Yahweh was alive; Huldah had proclaimed Yahweh’s deeds and called king and people to reform, renewing the covenant in their relationships. Yahweh honored Josiah’s courageous leadership, and although the king died in battle at the hand of an Egyptian king, his eyes did not witness the sad march to Babylon, as Huldah had also foretold.

Woman Wisdom, Rebuilding the House of Israel

Wisdom had always been a part of Israel’s experience of Yahweh. The wise were regarded as Yahweh’s messengers, showing by their lives and teaching the Yahweh-fearing way to live as members of the family, clan, and covenant people. In “winged word,” (proverbial sayings that were easy to remember) sages captured the experience of Israel’s faith in action. These proverbs provided models, or morals and cues for action, rooted in the past to renew and shape life in the present.

As Israel returned from exile without the strong national leadership of king and temple, wisdom in daily work—making families and rebuilding homes and villages—was needed more than ever. Israel had lost land and people. Women assumed a larger share in generating family life and managing households and fields. Their wisdom in refashioning home life, households, and communities came to be recognized as the word and work of Yahweh among them. Perhaps in recognition of women’s importance and increased contribution to Israel’s life, this wisdom was even embodied and personified in the female figure of woman Wisdom.

Wisdom was she who, begotten and “given birth” from Yahweh, played before him in the creation of the world and took special delight in human deeds and relationships (Prov. 8:22–31). She spoke with the voice of Yahweh, calling from the gates of the city into the home. She called to all who would listen. Her word was to forsake foolish, foreign, and unfaithful alliances, to come to her table and feast on her food and wine, and there to be filled with her wisdom and knowledge, the fear of the Lord, which characterized the covenant way of old.

Inviting people to find Yahweh in daily experience; in faithful human relationships between husband and wife, children and parents; in family life and public service, she was rebuilding the house of Israel. Wisdom again became the pattern of life, recognized among the people as the “order” in creation itself. Later wisdom writings identified her with Torah (Sirach 190 b.c.). In the earlier poems of Proverbs 1–9 and Proverbs 31:10–31, Wisdom and her counterpart of the faithful wife, speaks in the very “I am” voice of Yahweh and is hymned by husband, family, and people for bearing the very life-giving qualities of Yahweh, the qualities women and men needed to reclaim their lives as family and people. In this way, woman Wisdom embodied the very life of Israel and came to prominence in the rebuilding of Israel as a godly people.

Mary, the Anointing Woman

The community for which Mark wrote understood themselves as Jews who were called to become a new community, bearing “good news” intended to include Gentiles and to reach the whole world as well. The gospel proclamation of Mark’s community is a narrative of the great trial of Jesus and the disciples. Their story is one of struggle to accept a suffering Messiah and to accept their own suffering as the way of discipleship and life in the new community of Jesus, the Christ.

After Rome destroyed the temple and Jerusalem, these Christians were no longer welcome in the synagogues as the Jews struggled to unite and survive. Following Jesus meant leaving family members and official Judaism, the family of their faith. It meant enduring betrayal as Jesus had, welcoming strangers and Gentiles as Jesus did, and finding in this struggling community of believers new family and kin.

During Jesus’ trial, the Jewish high priest had asked, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” Jesus had acknowledged his identity with God and had confessed, “I am” (Mark 14:61–62). In the same way, disciples faced questioning by members of their own community and betrayal and suffering as they followed Jesus.

The story of this trial begins with a scene in which Jesus was at the table among friends (Mark 14:3–10). An unidentified woman came carrying an alabaster jar of expensive aromatic perfume. She broke the jar and began to pour the perfume on his head. In Israel of old, such an outpouring of oil on the head was an act of anointing, the deed by which a prophet recognized and proclaimed a new king for Israel. It was the act by which the Spirit was outpoured, filling God’s servant, the king. When the woman’s action was criticized by some at the table, Jesus defended her, identified her deed with preparation for his burial, and solemnly announced that wherever the Good News was proclaimed throughout the world, what she had done would be told in her memory (Mark 14:9).

The anointing woman’s deed was questioned by some who were at the table, members of her own community. Those at the table were divided. As the author tells it, Jesus himself interpreted her deed. Her anointing embodies both recognition and proclamation. She is the disciple, the one who recognizes this suffering servant-king, the One sent by God, and bears this as good news to others. Jesus continues to be present in the community in its telling of the gospel and in the kinship of his suffering. By her deed, the woman shows who an apostle is and what an apostle does.

In John’s Gospel and for John’s community, Jesus is the one in whom God dwells fully in human flesh and who makes life, the life of self-giving love that is God’s, known. In John’s Gospel, as Jesus’ public ministry is ending and the “hour” of his glory begins, a woman anoints Jesus at the table (John 12:1–11). The woman is identified as Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, a family “loved” by Jesus (John 11:5). Jesus has raised Lazarus in “the village of Mary and her sister Martha,” and as his “hour” is beginning, Jesus is the honored guest at their table again. Martha is serving the meal, and Lazarus is among those at the table. Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with a pound of perfume of genuine aromatic nard, then dries his feet with her hair. The whole house is filled with the ointment’s fragrance, the perfume of her deed.

The extravagance, faithfulness, and hospitality of her deed are contrasted with the response of Judas, who questions her action and suggests that the ointment ought rather to be sold and the profit given to the poor. He is keeper of the common purse, and we are told that he used to help himself to what was deposited there (John 12:6). Jesus himself answers Judas and defends Mary’s action, relating it to the death to which he is about to give himself.

Mary’s deed is cast in eucharistic overtones. The anointing and then drying calls attention to her act. Jesus himself is soon to perform a similar act. In the Gospel of John, the account of the Eucharist is supplanted by Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet (John 13:1–20). He tells them this is an example for them of the love they are to have for one another. It is the act of one laying down his life for his friends, as he does in his death and resurrection. This is the service of love by which others will recognize them as his disciples.

This action by Jesus helps to interpret further Mary’s service to him and puts it in even greater contrast with Judas’s self-serving attitude. Jesus concludes his discussion of washing the feet of the disciples with the solemn assurance that what he has done they must do: “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13:17).

Beatitude, blessing, and discipleship are bound with doing as Jesus does. The anointing woman, Mary, gives herself bodily in a simple act of love that foreshadows Jesus’ own self-giving. That the fragrance of the ointment filled the whole house suggests that her deed carries the possibility of bringing others to “come and see” and to recognize Jesus for themselves. Her deed of loving service speaks louder than words. She embodies the meaning of discipleship and, in so doing, bears life for her community.

Conclusion

Examining the deeds of these women in the context of their community’s life and ministry shows them to be leaders of faith in groups that struggled to live their faith. Miriam, Huldah, woman Wisdom, and Mary, by their deeds even more than by their words, manifest God’s life and love and what relationship with God means. Thankful prayer, prophetic proclamation, home-building wisdom, and public service in the face of criticism are the daily ways these women lived their faith and led others to it. While their acts were in some cases questioned, the written record of their deeds tells us that in their communities their service was beloved, public, and indeed divinely commissioned and inspired if not officially recognized or appreciated. Their faith continues to invite men and women to communities that bear the good news of God’s love to the world.

BEING WITH JESUS

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Reading in Luke chapter 10 I was reminded of the joy and refreshing that comes by simply being with Jesus. Verses 38-42 have to do with His dear friends Mary and Martha:

“As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.’

“But the Lord said to her, ‘My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.’”

John 11 reveals Jesus loved both Martha and Mary (v.5), but that Mary had a special place in Christ’s heart and was able to minister to her deepest needs because of what Luke shows us: she was an undistracted worshiper.

Notice that Martha got a great theological response from Jesus (see verses 25-26) whereas Mary broke His heart and moved Him to tears (vv. 32-35). Then He proceeded to the tomb and raised her brother from the dead (vv. 38-44). Mary’s passion for Jesus gave her access to His power.

Sometimes we’re like Martha: We are so uptight and distracted by all the cares in our life we are not able to really be with Jesus; we’re there in body but not in spirit. When that’s the case we can’t receive from the Lord because we’re not in a place to receive from Him. Mary knew her real need was God. Everything else took a back seat.