secret ceremonies was re mormon temples shellgate llo uu psi com larry l overacker writes in article may athos rutgers edu mserv mozart cc iup edu mail server writes i don t necessarily object to the secrecy but i do question it since i see no biblical reason why any aspect of christian worship should involve secrecy early in church history the catechumens were dismissed prior to the celebration of the eucharist it was secret giving rise to the rumors that christians were cannibals and all sorts of perverse claims the actions were considered too holy to be observed by non christians as well as potentially dangerous for the individual christian who might be identified larry overacker llo shell com sig deleted for brevity larry thanks for the reply but this isn t quite the same thing like i said before i can understand why non christians would be denied access to holy ceremonies but the ceremony itself communion was not secret in fact all four gospels record the first breaking of the bread in some detail communion was a fellowship meal and it was and still should be in my opinion inappropriate to invite those who did not share in the fellowship of the body of christ the fact that unbelievers denied access to these communal meals began to imagine all sorts of secret and debased rituals during communion does not by any means imply that the early christians were in fact hiding shameful things from the general public in fact i think if you read some of the early church fathers you will find that they were not at all bashful about describing what went on during communion that s why it seems funny to me when mormons who claim to be the only true restoration of st century christianity insist on hiding certain rituals on the grounds that they are too sacred mark actually that s not quite the case john omits the central elements of the last supper his gospel is full of symbolism of bread and wine but the actual story isn t there some people think he has omitted some of the details because they were not talked about in public in his community there is also evidence that some aspects of baptismal practice were kept secret see morton smith s secret gospel i don t agree with his lurid speculations on what the secret practices actually were but there does seem to be some evidence that mark omitted certain details because they were inappropriate for publication clh
