The Orthodox Oriental Church1, de facto teaches that seven mysteries2 are one of the marks by which we may distinguish the Church of Christ, or a branch of it (if the one visible organism can be divided into branches?). Eminent saints in early ages called prayer a mystery. Some said the blessing of water was a mystery. There are Christian women to-day who consider the rite of purification or churching as necessary and binding as any one of the sacraments generally necessary for salvation. There were holy Fathers who referred to the solemn taking of vows and the tonsure of monks (in connection with public Divine service) as to a mystery; and some declared it was a second baptism.
The Protestant Episcopal Church precisely and emphatically declares that there are only two Sacraments generally necessary for salvation. The Orthodox Church of the East, recognizing the pious opinion of many and allowing due freedom to individual research and religious practice, declares that there are seven mysteries (as binding Sacraments) and only seven, no more nor less, which are necessary to the essential being of the Church and the complete development of her life in the members. The Church does not define which of the seven Mysteries is or are generally necessary for salvation. She teaches that each and all are for our salvation. This word generally is a product of the Reformation in the West, and while it gives precedence to two before the remaining five Sacraments, it savors of Protestantism. Is Confirmation a Sacrament in a lesser degree than Baptism? If it is, then Bishops in the West should baptize and priests should administer Confirmation. To forgive sins in Penitence and to absolve, demands a power no less honorable and forcible than the power or right of initiating new members in Baptism, and thus on.
Were we to introduce the word generally in regard to the “so-called Gospel Sacraments” it would be usurpation and condemned as tyranny, for each one of the Sacraments in the Eastern Church is considered as generally necessary for salvation in their several spheres, for instance: Matrimony is a Sacrament generally necessary for the temporal and eternal salvation, as only the insignificant minority of Church members are virgins who remain celibates. Let us suppose, as the Anglican Church claims, that two of the Sacraments are greater than the others. But we question: on what grounds? I think that all the Mysteries have their origin in the four Gospels and may be traced there; but should this not be so, what of it? The Gospels are not the whole and entire New Testament. The four books of the Gospels simply were not written by one man, for the purpose of giving someone a model for organizing in the future a new society! The whole of the New Testament, i.e., all the books of the New Dispensation, were produced in the Church already well nigh developed, not after a model gone beyond in the shadow, but upon the Light ever present in the Living Church.
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Publisher’s Note: This article was originally published in The Living Church, vol. xxvi, no. 23, April 5, 1902, pp. 807-8.
Or sacraments