What you'll notice
Near the end of the Liturgy a line forms at the front. Babies go first in a lot of parishes, then children, then everyone else, arms crossed over their chests. Two servers hold a red cloth under each chin, and the priest gives Communion from a spoon. If you're one of the people who stayed put, you may be wondering whether you were supposed to go.
What it's called
Communion (receiving the Body and Blood of Christ) is what happens in that line; the whole service around it is the Eucharist (from the Greek for "thanksgiving"). At the end, everyone lines up again for the antidoron (the blessed bread): bread cut from the same loaves as the Communion bread but not consecrated.
What's actually happening
The Orthodox who receive have prepared. They fast from food and drink before Communion, usually from midnight, with allowances for health; they say the prayers before Communion; they keep up with confession; and at the chalice they give their baptismal name. How often differs: in many Greek, Antiochian, and OCA parishes people receive most Sundays, while in many Russian and Serbian parishes the custom has been to confess before each Communion and receive less often. The Communion Fast has the details.
Visitors don't receive. When the line forms, stay where you are and pray; that's what most visitors do, and nobody notices. In many parishes you may also come forward with your arms at your sides and the priest will give you a blessing instead of the spoon. If you're not sure what your parish does, staying in your place is always right.
Why it matters
The line isn't about you. The Orthodox believe the bread and wine in the chalice are the Body and Blood of Christ, and that receiving them unites you to Christ and to everyone else at that chalice in the deepest way there is. Saint Paul put the second half in a sentence: "we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread" (1 Corinthians 10:17). So Communion isn't a private moment between you and God that happens to take place in a crowd. It's the sign of belonging to one Body that already shares one faith and one life. An OCA answer puts it in a line: "The Eucharist is the result of unity, not the means by which unity is achieved."1 To offer the cup before that unity is real would be a false sign. Paul's warning about receiving "in an unworthy manner" (1 Corinthians 11:27–29) is why the Orthodox approach the chalice carefully even among themselves.
So the line is a boundary of faith, not a verdict on your sincerity, your baptism, or your love of God. Father John Breck doesn't pretend it's easy: he grants that many Protestants and Anglicans believe they truly share in Christ's Body and Blood, and calls the refusal "painful." The line holds anyway, because of what the Orthodox believe the cup is.2
Where it came from
The Church has said this for a long time, and plainly. The Didache, an early Christian manual of church order, says: "let no one eat or drink of your Thanksgiving (Eucharist), but they who have been baptized into the name of the Lord."3 Around 150, Saint Justin wrote that the Eucharist is given only to those who believe what the Church teaches and have been baptized.4
What you do
If you're Orthodox: prepare by the rule you've been given, come forward with arms crossed, right over left, and say your baptismal name.
If you're visiting: stay in your place and pray, or come forward for a blessing where the parish offers it. At the end, go up to kiss the cross and take the antidoron, which isn't Communion and is offered to visitors in most parishes; the Greek Archdiocese's suggested welcome says "all others may receive the Blessed Bread."5 The Cross and the Bread has the rest. Then come to coffee hour.
If you're Catholic, you'll recognize almost everything, and the line will sting a little precisely because your Church also believes this is the Body and Blood of Christ; that's exactly why the Orthodox take the question seriously. If you're Protestant, you may come from a table open to all believers, and the closed cup can feel like a door shut in your face; it's meant as a door honestly labeled, and the people inside want you to come through it. If you have no church background at all, you've walked into the one part of the morning that's reserved, and you're welcome at every other part. Most of the people in that line were once standing where you are.
Field Note: the cross on your chest. The Orthodox cross their arms over the chest in the Communion line, right over left, and uncross them after receiving. If you come forward for a blessing, keep your arms at your sides; that tells the priest, without a word, what you're there for. The whole exchange takes four seconds, and nobody behind you will know the difference.
Go deeper
- 1 Corinthians 10:16–17 and 11:23–29.
- The Didache, chapters 9–10, with its prayers over the cup and the bread.
- Communion, the full Liturgy entry: the spoon, the cloth, the line.
- How Converts Are Received, if you're wondering what the way in looks like.