{"id":3758,"date":"2015-05-13T10:57:58","date_gmt":"2015-05-13T10:57:58","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-04-12T11:55:54","modified_gmt":"2020-04-12T09:55:54","slug":"altar-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orthodoxalbania.org\/2020\/en\/2015\/05\/13\/altar-table\/","title":{"rendered":"Altar Table"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana,geneva; color: #000000;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; We have mentioned how the entire church building is centered around the <strong>altar table<\/strong>. The altar table does not merely symbolize the table of the last supper. It is the symbolic and mystical presence of the heavenly throne and table of the Kingdom of God; the table of Christ the Word, the Lamb and the King of the ever-lasting life of God\u2019s glorified dominion over all of creation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana,geneva; color: #000000;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana,geneva; color: #000000;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The Book of the Gospels is perpetually enthroned on the altar table. It is on the altar table that we offer the \u201cbloodless sacrifice\u201d of Christ to the Father. And from the altar table we receive the Bread of Life, the Body and Blood of the Lord\u2019s Passover Supper. This table is the \u201ctable of God\u2019s Kingdom\u201d (<em>Lk 13:29<\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana,geneva; color: #000000;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In Orthodox Tradition the altar table is often carved wood or stone. It is usually vested with colorful material to show its divine and heavenly character. It should always be a simple table of proportional dimensions, often a perfect cube, and is always free-standing so that it may be encircled.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana,geneva; color: #000000;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; On the altar table one always finds the <strong>antimension<\/strong>. This is the cloth depicting Christ in the tomb which contains the signature of the bishop and is the permission for the local community to gather as the Church. \u201cAntimension\u201d means literally \u201cinstead of the table.\u201d Since the bishop is the proper pastor of the Church, the antimension is used instead of the bishop\u2019s own table which is, obviously, in his own church building, the <strong>cathedral<\/strong>\u2014the place where the bishop has his chair (<em>cathedra<\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana,geneva; color: #000000;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The antimension usually contains a <strong>relic<\/strong> (normally a part of the body) of a saint which shows that the Church is built on the blood of the martyrs and the lives of God\u2019s holy people. This custom comes from the early Church practice of gathering and celebrating the eucharist on the graves of those who have lived and died for the Christian faith. Usually, a relic of a saint is embedded in the altar table itself as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana,geneva; color: #000000;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Also on the altar table there is a <strong>tabernacle<\/strong>, often in the shape of a church building, which is a repository for the gifts of holy communion that are reserved for the sick and the dying. Behind the altar table there is usually a seven-branched candle stand which comes from the Old Testamental tradition of the Jewish temple. Generally speaking, the Jerusalem temple is highly valued in the Orthodox Christian tradition of worship and church construction as a \u201cprototype\u201d of the true worship \u201cin spirit and truth\u201d of the Kingdom of God (<em>Jn 4:23<\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; We have mentioned how the entire church building is centered around the altar table. The altar table does not merely symbolize the table of the last supper. It is the symbolic and mystical presence of the heavenly throne and table of the Kingdom of God; the table of Christ the Word, the Lamb and the King of the ever-lasting life of God\u2019s glorified dominion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","inline_featured_image":false,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1884],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-church-building-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Altar Table - Kisha Orthodh\u03bfkse Autoqefale e Shqip\u00ebris\u00eb<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orthodoxalbania.org\/2020\/en\/2015\/05\/13\/altar-table\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Altar Table - Kisha Orthodh\u03bfkse Autoqefale e Shqip\u00ebris\u00eb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; We have mentioned how the entire church building is centered around the altar table. The altar table does not merely symbolize the table of the last supper. It is the symbolic and mystical presence of the heavenly throne and table of the Kingdom of God; the table of Christ the Word, the Lamb and the King of the ever-lasting life of God\u2019s glorified dominion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/orthodoxalbania.org\/2020\/en\/2015\/05\/13\/altar-table\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kisha Orthodh\u03bfkse Autoqefale e Shqip\u00ebris\u00eb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/koash1991\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-13T10:57:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-12T09:55:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/orthodoxalbania.org\/2020\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/LogoLastALb-200.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"172\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kisha Orthodhokse\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kisha Orthodhokse\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orthodoxalbania.org\/2020\/en\/2015\/05\/13\/altar-table\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orthodoxalbania.org\/2020\/en\/2015\/05\/13\/altar-table\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kisha Orthodhokse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orthodoxalbania.org\/2020\/#\/schema\/person\/df745f942b70e045b3dc05a30211f0de\"},\"headline\":\"Altar Table\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-13T10:57:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-12T09:55:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orthodoxalbania.org\/2020\/en\/2015\/05\/13\/altar-table\/\"},\"wordCount\":456,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orthodoxalbania.org\/2020\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"The Church Building\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orthodoxalbania.org\/2020\/en\/2015\/05\/13\/altar-table\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orthodoxalbania.org\/2020\/en\/2015\/05\/13\/altar-table\/\",\"name\":\"Altar Table - 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