Consecration
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Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service, usually religious.
The word "consecration" literally means "setting apart."
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[edit] Catholic Church
In regard to the Eucharist, the term consecration refers to those words/actions/intentions by which bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
The understanding in the Catholic Church is that the gifts (bread and wine) are consecrated during the Words of Institution amid the Canon of the Mass. In the western or Latin Church, the consecration is emphasized as being the Divine action in and through the Words of Institution, by which verba a priest is said to act "in persona Christi" (in the person of Christ) as the physical and personal instrument through which Christ is present and acting.
Consecration in a Catholic context also refers to the vowed religious life, also called the Consecrated Life.
[edit] Eastern Orthodoxy
The Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Eastern Catholic Churches, emphasize the consecration as the Divine response to the Epiclesis in which the priest invokes the Holy Spirit.
[edit] Various Christian Churches
Church buildings, a chapels and altars are consecrated to the purpose of religious worship, and vessels are consecrated for the purpose of containing the Eucharistic elements, the bread and wine/the body and blood of Christ.
Among Lutherans, the consecration is held to be effected by the recitation of the Words of Institution (sometimes sung) over the bread and wine, resulting in the sacramental union whereby the bread is the communion of Christ's true body and the wine is the communion of Christ's true blood. This is the teaching of the Lutheran Formula of Concord contained in the Book of Concord. This teaching of the sacramental union is sometime erroneously termed "consubstantiation."
In the Eucharist, among Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and others closely related to these communions which accept some form of Real Presence Theology, the elements are consecrated when the presiding/celebrating minister calls upon the Holy Spirit to "make them be for us the body and blood of Christ." The elements are set apart for Holy Use as Means of Grace.
A person may be consecrated for a specific role within a religious hierarchy, or a person may consecrate his or her life in an act of devotion. In particular, the ordination of a bishop is often called a consecration. In churches which follow the doctrine of Apostolic Succession (the historic episcopate) the bishops who consecrate a new bishop are known as the consecrators and form an unbroken line of succession back to the Apostles. Also, those who take the vows of religious life are said to be living a consecrated life.
[edit] Mormons
In the nineteenth-century Latter Day Saint tradition, consecration involved the giving of member's worldly possessions to the church in a type of voluntary religious communism, which was practiced off and on during the 19th century, but is now extremely rare among Latter Day Saint denominations. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints still covenant to live the Law of Consecration by consecrating themselves, and everything with which the Lord has blessed them, or will bless them to the building up of the kingdom of God and the establishment of Zion. See Law of Consecration.
[edit] Other religions
Hinduism, Buddhism, Wicca, Reform Judaism and Thelema all use the term.
