invitation to present themselves the next Sunday to receive the Paraclesis, or Consolamentum that they sought.
At sunrise exactly the services commenced next morning. The church edifice represented in its arrangement the three degrees of Perfect or real Catharoi, the pure, the Believers, in a circle surrounding the inner one, and the Hearers or ordinary inquirers not yet advanced to the full membership of Believers. Ordinary prayers and hymns being ended, the officiating minister announced that in lieu of exhortation, the sacred communion of bread and wine, and the holy Paraclesis would be administered. “In these hours of threatened woe,” explained Sergius, “Christian wisdom and charity prescribe tenderness of our differences. Only the ceremonies we all deem essential can to-day occupy our devotion. The bread, the wine, that is the body, the blood of the Lord, as we severally revere them, are now freely bestowed on all according to their several faiths. We relinquish for the moment the discrepancies that divide us; and all our brethren and sisters are to-day indeed brethren and sisters in the Lord.”
Flat cakes of unleavened bread were then broken in presence of all, wine in silver chalices all of Greek workmanship was set out, and both were presented on aclean linen cloth in the inner circle where sat Markos, Sergius and Prokop, all clad in black robes. To each believer a portion of the bread was first presented. Many partook of only a portion of this, retaining the rest; of the wine all partook in moderation.
