There is an intrinsic relationship between integral liberation and eucharistic liturgy. The integral liberation of the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized (henceforth ‘the poor’) can be conceived as a deep sacramental act that Christians are called to realize and experience in history. The eucharistic liturgy is a salvific encounter that aims to transform the person and the community and shape their imagination toward their historical responsibility in realizing God’s Kingdom. Liturgy is also a socio-cultural activity that takes place within a specific economic and political reality. For a liturgy to become (or retrieve) its liberating potential, its elements and inner dynamics must remain situationally liberating. The Coptic liturgy, in particular, is valuable in terms of liberationist analysis for having been developed by a poor, oppressed, and marginalized community in a context that has experienced various forms of injustice and has acquired to a certain degree the ability to express the pain and joy of other communities in similar conditions.
In light of that, this paper, using a liberationist lens, analyzes ritualistic elements of the Coptic eucharistic liturgy from the side of the poor. It aims to examine, from an insider position, whether and to what extent elements of Coptic liturgy, independently or collectively, provide a historicized salvific experience. This analysis is concerned with the actualization of liberation achieved by the liturgy and the liberation of the liturgy into this task. So, it is a two-way analysis: it assesses how the liturgy addresses the surrounding social and cultural oppression, and how its liturgical elements and inner dynamics are in themselves liberating given the people’s social condition and cultural heritage. The aim is to explore the Coptic liturgical journey and detect its major threads that can be woven together to form a liberationist liturgy and inspire liberating and transformative praxes. The lens used in this paper has been developed through a mutually informative dialogue between Coptic Orthodox Theology and Latin American Liberation Theology. In this dialogue, a common understanding of poverty, oppression, marginalization, and consequently integral liberation has been established denoting their sacramental aspects.
This analysis focuses on the effect of the eucharistic liturgy on the contemporary participants in churches whose congregations consist mostly of poor families, marginalized farmers, or oppressed refugees (in Egypt and outside Egypt). While acknowledging the generational interconnectedness in the Coptic community, the analysis does not focus on past congregations. It does not deal with the Coptic liturgical history; it treats its current version. It appeals to history only when it searches for explanations such as the origin of practices or sociocultural factors that may have influenced certain developments.
The analysis begins with an overview of the liturgical structure, sections, and elements. It then follows the sequence of the liturgical order, so it does not lose the bigger picture and the accumulative aspect of the liturgy. Having in mind the image of a liberating liturgy, it assesses the liturgical elements as liberating or in danger of being oppressive. The oppressive elements are to be critiqued and silenced, and the liberating ones are to be emphasized and enhanced. Other elements are to be empowered by their liberating potential. The paper stresses that if the eucharistic liturgy is to become or regain its position as the heart and vehicle of liberation for the downtrodden in society, it must continually address potentially oppressive elements, so as not to import social oppression from outside society into the liturgy.
Based on this analysis, this paper will argue that Coptic liturgy can offer a deep integral liberating experience that goes beyond the liturgical setting. Through various symbols and rituals, it can heal moral wounds, install evangelical conceptions, inspire ethical behavior, and plant living conceptions of the Kingdom of God that lead to a radical transformation in all areas of the liturgists’ lives.
This paper is an exploration of the Coptic Orthodox Eucharistic liturgy, framed through the lens of Liberation Theology. It emphasizes the role of the liturgy as a means for spiritual and social liberation, focusing particularly on its relevance for the poor, oppressed, and marginalized and its transformative potential for both individuals and the broader world. The analysis explores how the liturgy reflects and responds to issues of injustice, and how it becomes a transformative tool for liberation in a social and theological context. This analysis explores both the liberation realized through the liturgy and the liturgy’s capacity to embody this liberation. It is a dual examination: assessing how the liturgy addresses social and cultural oppression, while also examining how its elements and internal dynamics are themselves liberating, in light of the people’s social context and cultural heritage.