The Eucharist

What if the path to Christian unity is not found at the end of a long doctrinal negotiation - but at the Lord's table?

In this profound and deeply personal work, Hegumen Abraam Sleman invites Christians of every tradition to rediscover the Eucharist as the very source and summit of the unity Christ prayed for on the night He was betrayed. Drawing on Scripture, the writings of the Church Fathers, and centuries of liturgical tradition, The Eucharist: Heart of the Christian Unity makes a compelling case: true oneness among Christians is not a human achievement to be engineered - it is a divine gift to be received in communion.

Spanning eleven richly developed chapters, the book traces the Eucharist from its Old Testament foreshadowings - in Melchizedek's offering of bread and wine, the Passover lamb, the manna in the wilderness, and Isaiah's vision of the messianic banquet - through its institution by Christ at the Last Supper, to its meaning for the broken and divided Church of our own day. With pastoral warmth and theological depth, the author explores how the early Church was united around one bread and one cup, why historical schisms shattered that Eucharistic communion, and why a renewed understanding of the sacrament offers a hopeful way forward.

The book does not shy away from hard truths. It confronts the tragedy of Eucharistic separation, wrestles honestly with the challenges facing ecumenical progress, and insists that the divisions among Christ's people are a wound to the Body He died to unite. Yet its tone throughout is one of hope - hope grounded not in human cleverness but in the living presence of Christ who still breaks bread with His people and reveals Himself in the breaking.

This updated second edition is offered not as an official statement of any church, but as one priest's heartfelt prayer for the unity of Christ's Church - a prayer he believes the Eucharist itself is uniquely empowered to answer.

For pastors, theologians, ecumenists, and all who hunger for a Church more visibly one in Christ.

Updated Second Edition - June 2026