Mourners, hearers, catechumens, prostrators, co-standers and communicants

[Mourad Mankarios]

Hi all,

Just wondering where I might be able to find information about the division of worshippers in the ancient church into Mourners, Hearers, Catechumens, Prostrators, Co-standers and Communicants. What did each of these divisions constitute and when, how and why this division developed and how widespread it was and when, how and why it was phased out.

Thanks

[Owen Jones]

According to my limited understanding, these were part of the "Apostolic Canons" and were the result of the political/military problems of the day in which Christians were captured by "Barbarians" and forced to engage in unholy acts. The intent was to prepare them for proper re-entry, so to speak, into the Holy Mysteries of the Church.

The reason why these and many other more "severe" canons of the Church are no longer enforced is due, initially, to the popularity of Christianity among the populace once it became the sponsored Church of the Emperor. And so this led to a relaxing of the enforcement of many canons.

If the Church were actually to enforce all of its canons today, you would have to weed out about 95% of the people currently in the pews. For example, one canon states that if you miss three Sundays in a row, you are excommunicated. This is never, never enforced anywhere to my knowledge.

My parish publishes a short list of requirements for receiving communion in its Sunday bulletin, and I can assure you that very few of us actually pass this test. But nobody says anything.

One of the primary causes of the monastic movement was this parish church laxity as the Church became popular. Pre-Nicene Christianity was probably more disciplined and severe in its requirements than are most monasteries today. For some interesting insight into this you can look at the writings of Evagrius Ponticus.