Early Christian Worship and Life
Lacking official religious recognition and protection, Christianity could not be a public religion in the Roman Empire. There were no buildings dedicated to public Christian worship. It is easy to see why the secrecy surrounding Christian gatherings and worship roused suspicions. Rumors rapidly developed that Christians indulged in orgies and cannibalism. It is easy to understand how this took place. There is much evidence that early Christian gatherings included a “love-feast” (Greek: agapē), which could easily be misunderstood in sexual terms. Equally, it is not difficult to see how the practice of con- suming bread and wine as symbols of the body and blood of Christ could be misinterpreted by outsiders as some kind of cannibalism.
We possess several important witnesses to early Christian worship. One is a manual of church order and Christian living, dating from the late first or early second century, known as the Didache (a Greek word meaning “Teaching”). This work describes how Christians gathered together on the Lord’s Day – in other words, Sunday – “to break bread and give thanks.” The service is clearly understood to take place in a private home, not a public place.
