I haven’t really thought about what elements of ancient and/or modern Near Eastern Christianity that are present in my our church and faith life until now. But when I reflect upon the question, Icons are the things that come to mind instantly. We have icons in our home, I’ve learned about the process of writing icons, I know some of the different meanings and symbolism that is held within iconography. In fact, I have been so surrounded by icons that I just think of them as normal, for lack of a better word, and not an element of ancient or Near Eastern Christianity.
Further, I have been to a Byzantine service, as well as a Greek orthodox service. Both of these had such an emphasis on art, song, and incense, to a degree that they really stood out to me. Finally, the last thing I distinctly remember from these services was that they did intinction at their communion. I do not know if this is an inherently Near East practice, but I know many Western churches do not utilize this method of distributing communion.
I would love to learn more about this topic and implement more of their practices and ways of life into my everyday.
