Which direction to Maronite/Syro-Malabar Churches face?

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DL82

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In the Western and Byzantine rites, churches face East, towards Jerusalem and towards the sunrise. Since St Thomas headed East from Jerusalem to found the church in India, do the Indian rite churches face West towards Jerusalem?
 
The maronites face ad populum in the USA at least. I am unsure of the situation in the middle east. I had heard from internet rumors that the Patriarch was going to re look into making the clergy face eastward.

Edit*

Sorry I thought you ment what direction the priests face when saying Divine Liturgy 😊 .
 
DL82 said:
In the Western and Byzantine rites, churches face East, towards Jerusalem and towards the sunrise. Since St Thomas headed East from Jerusalem to found the church in India, do the Indian rite churches face West towards Jerusalem?
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Ideally, a Maronite church will be physically facing Jerusalem. In the diaspora, however, many Maronite churches are the former churches of Latin Catholics or Protestants. For example, I recently visited a Maronite church that was formerly a Latin Church and it is facing West to the sunset.

(They covered the East facing sign saying the name of the church with a Byzantine icon of Christ)

Peace and God Bless!
 
Formosus said:
The maronites face ad populum in the USA at least. I am unsure of the situation in the middle east. I had heard from internet rumors that the Patriarch was going to re look into making the clergy face eastward.
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After Vatican II, ad populum became a predominant practice. When the Patriarch finally was able to address the issue he left the decision up to his Bishops. Hopefully, that temporarily solution will be reviewed and priests will return to the proper direction.

Peace and God Bless!
 
According to the current book for the rite of Baptizm for the Maronite church in the rubrics it states that the priest and all the people must first face the entrance of the church to the west and renounce Satan and then turn and face the Altar of God in the east and profes faith in God.

But try and see how confused my priest get at each Baptizm when the entrance to the church is in the east. lol he trys to explain it to them but they all seem to have a look on thier face saying “just tell us where to face”
 
Yasouna said:
According to the current book for the rite of Baptizm for the Maronite church in the rubrics it states that the priest and all the people must first face the entrance of the church to the west and renounce Satan and then turn and face the Altar of God in the east and profes faith in God.

But try and see how confused my priest get at each Baptizm when the entrance to the church is in the east. lol he trys to explain it to them but they all seem to have a look on thier face saying “just tell us where to face”
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The rule is really simple: once inside the building, east is the altar, west the entry doors. Doesn’t matter if they match the directions outside… ;)👍
 
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