Post-Temple Judaism: Recalling the order of worship in the Temple, in the solemn prayers in the synagogue the faithful, together with the different ministers and led by them, worship all together facing East, turned to the "Ark" where the Word of God is held.
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Islam: In thousands of mosques around the world, the most solemn prayers take place on Friday, as, in the noon prayers, and following the major and minor sermons, the faithful and congregation leaders bow down and pray all together in the same direction facing the mihrab wall that indicates the qibla, the direction of what they consider the holiest of places on earth: the Kaaba, in Mecca.
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Post-1970 Catholicism: "Without shedding of blood there is no remission," says the Epistle to the Hebrews, and millions of Catholics assemble in their churches to witness the unbloody re-presentation of the central event in the history of the Universe, the redemptive sacrifice of the King of Time and Space, really and actually present - Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity - in the Eucharistic species. In the religion that is incarnational in every sense, where each spatial detail makes every difference, the faithful pray all together in the same direction facing the holiest thing on earth:
Father and the band.
