www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Question about tabernacle like object on the Proskomedia table

In Ukrainian churches there seems to always be a type of storage object/tabernacle like structure on the Proskomedia table. Ours is a large box with five domes on top, all brass and the doors have the Annunciation etched into them. What is this called?

maybe it's storage for the sacred vessels outside of the liturgy

just a guess

Yes, that is what it is for. What it is called is the question.

I misread the question and I have no clue I don't know eastern terminology very well sorry.

I think you're speaking of the artophorion or tabernacle. It is used to safeguard the reserved Sacrament (for Presanctified Liturgy). The design of which you speak, that of a temple, is most common to the Slav Byzantines; those of the Middle East (the Antiochians and Melkites) often use a golden dove suspended above the Holy Table for this purpose; the Greeks most commonly use a highly decorated golden box, although I've seen some that resemble a temple, although less detailed than the Slavic ones.

Many years,

Neil

Neil - I don't think that OP was talking of that


I don't know if this is just in Ukrainian Orthodox Churches - but I haven't seen it in the UGCC Churches I have been in

Sounds like OP is mixing the altar up with the proskomedia table, where nothing is stored. The 5 domed tabernacle is quite common in Ukrainian churches but it is always on the altar.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic church in the town that I grew up in had such a box on the proskomedia as well and a large tabernacle on the altar. My former Ruthenian parish had one until the 1950's when the church was redecorated. I've seen it in pictures. Why a tabernacle on both? Anyone?

I have seen a tabernacle-like thing on many proskomedia tables in the coal region: both in Byzantine-Ruthenian and Ukrainian Greek Catholic parishes. I cannot testify to Orthodox churches.

I first saw this object in the UGCC Church in McAdoo: I asked the priest and he said that one of the former pastors got a new tabernacle and placed the old one on the proskomedia table and would store extra chalices in there.

Then I saw more of these 'extra tabernacles'...

MY GUESS: Could it be a form of a Latinism?

I may be wrong with this, but isn't the drinking/consuming of the remaining Precious Body and Blood and ablution/purification of the chalices was to take place after the Liturgy, and "leaving the Holy Gifts not locked up" was a huge no-no in the Latin Church, maybe were these extra tabernacle for "locking up" the chalices still containing the Sacred Species (Latin terminology) until they can be consumed/purified after the liturgy?

Just a theory... What do you think?

No, OP isn't mixing the altar up with the proskomedia table.

Neil,
Nope. In fact we just took it off the proskomedia table and I am in the process of polishing it. It is a huge box, maybe 2 feet tall.

The box is HUGE. I'll measure it, but I'm guessing it is 2ft, and then you have the domes. The doors do not have a lock on them either. I don't think it was the original tabernacle, it is too huge. I really think it was used to store the EMPTY sacred vessels at one time.

There has been some pretty big kivots used in the past, and I am guessing it is possibly the old tabernacle. I've seen them larger than 2ft before. I saw one in a museum that was at least 2 feet square and had five domes, reaching about three feet high. Interestingly enough I have seen this in a Serbian church as well, where the old tabernacle was kept to store chalices and diskoi.

I'm quite a fan of the dove. We use it in our parish and it's something visitors often comment on.

Слава Ісусу Христу!

Before the light bulb there was no computer sights to define or unify common orthodox usage. Originally sacristies were also nonexistent. Such matters were defined by logic, practicality and by BBC (that is one baba [granny] told another baba). So yes it was probably an old tabernacle too good and holy to through away so they used it for vessel (or pre-sanctified) storage. In Southside Pittsburgh the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s old tabernacle was so big it had a front and a back door and like a typical turn of the XX century house no locks. Placed on a separate table just east of their proskomedia table it makes for a wonderful cupboard, sideways so both doors opening from either sides.