Our Mission Statement

Maundy Thursday, 2005
Maundy is derived from the latin mandatum.

On the Thursday of the Last Supper, Christ the Savior "mandated" to us
a share in His eucharistic sacrifice of the Cross and His entire Paschal Journey.

This mandate is the Lord's Memorial Command given to the 12 Apostles on Holy Thursday:  
"Do this in memory of Me."

The Church's Holy Thursday Divine Liturgy is thereby the anniversary liturgy (1) of the eucharistic sacrifice, (2) of the eucharistic priesthood that offers the One Sacrifice of the One High Priest, and (3) of the sacrificial service that Christ imparts to us in the footwashing of the disciples;
all these because
(4) the Thursday Supper is the sacrament of the Lord's qurban on the Cross of Friday

This is the mandatum of St. Ephrem Harp of the Spirit Mission for "Maundy Thursday."

 

 

 

 

 

 Icon of the Mandylion  

We recall the mission of the Church itself, and so offer this reflection and renewal:

3 Missions for St. Ephrem Harp of the Spirit Oriental Orthodox Mission:

Mission 1, with 5 parts ABCDE

A-- The Great Commands
Dt 6.4; Ex 20.1-17; Lv 19.2, 18, 34; 20.26
Mt 22.34-40, 19.21; Jn 13.34-35; 15.12-14
B-- The Great Commission Mt 28.16-20
C-- The Eucharistic Memorial Command
1Cor 11.23-6 and Jn 3.5; 6.47-58; 14.12-17,21
D-- The Witness of the Early Church in Acts 2.42ff:
They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.
E-- Thus the witness of the Early Church Fathers:
“Eucharist makes the Church.”


Mission 2
By offering the liturgy in its english-speaking setting, St. Ephrem Harp of the Spirit Mission witnesses the as an outreach of the St. Gregorios Mission Society, while at the same time safeguarding the paradosis and patrimony of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Tradition.

Mission 3
Revelation in Scripture and Tradition re. Iconography:
Through the Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church,
the Church's  liturgical prayer with the Holy Icons continues the living Gospel witness of
Peter, James, and John who encounter the Lord of Glory on the Mount of the Transfiguration.
(Mt 16.28-17.9)

 In parallel to our looking into the Bible and reading its words,
we liturgically look upon the Holy Icons in prayer to witness the visible image of Glory,
ie., of the Communion of the Saints who are networking their "commuio in sacris"
 through the living Spirit in the Church's Divine Liturgy, "on earth as it is in Heaven."

The Syriac Divine Liturgy of St. James,
with its many anaphoras born of the Mother Church of Jerusalem and her Near East missions,
provides us with a liturgy that embodies the spirituality and sacramental life of the Holy Icons.  

Likewise, the icons reveal the witness and goal of the liturgy: metanoia and theosis.

Liturgically we are sharing the Mystery on Mt. Tabor. Read more:

"The Transfiguration Feast, the Icon and the Liturgy"    

John's Gospel is a vision of one who has never ceased witnessing the Light of Tabor 

"in Spirit and truth."

N.B.
This iconic spirituality is typified by the Oriental Churches' longstanding veneration of the Holy Napkin
(The Mandylion, also called “the Face Not Made by Human Hands”).

This hagiographic embrace is a typos  
of the Holy Icons per se.

That this Icon is of Edessene origins “doubles the inheritance” belonging to the faithful of the Oriental Churches.

Certainly all eucharistic liturgy is iconographic,
yet the Syriac liturgy offers us a perspective both powerful
and persuasive -- directly and most eloquently --
through its beauty.  The Malankara Syriac rite is a lyrical love-song, indeed a Song of Songs of the universal Church’s Eucharist.

We encounter that lyricism as a theological font for revealing the mystagogy of iconography and theosis in the Oriental Orthodox liturgy, and particularly through the Malankara Syriac liturgy.