Lent is a good time for contemporary Christians to contemplate their solidarity with the Church as the Body of Christ, which extends around the world and back through time.
Here are the remains of the oldest church building that has been found. It’s called the Dura-Europas, from a town by that name, in Syria. It has been dated from 235 A.D.
It’s a house church,in that it’s an ordinary house to which was attached a separate long hall that was used for worship. Remains of a baptistry were found, as well as fragments of parchment that have been identified as scraps of a Communion liturgy. Also, around the baptistry are frescoes of scenes from the Bible. Here is Christ healing the paralytic:
For more of these paintings, which must be some of the very earliest examples of Christian art, go to the Wikipedia article linked below. I love their extreme simplicity, but also the intense piety that they express.
Think of the people who made these and who worshiped here. In 235 A.D., the books of the Bible would have been available for about a century. Christians were being killed for their faith and would be for another hundred years. Based on mentions of the pre-Easter fasts in texts that date even earlier, these folks probably observed Lent.
The 10 Oldest Churches in the World | Weird Pictures, Wonderful Things.
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