The Urbaan is a round piece of bread baked at church. must be baked by a deacon and the whole book of Psalms must be read when baking Orban as it has many prophesies about Lord Jesus.
The Gospel of St.John quotes Jesus as saying: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you [13]… he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him" (6:53-56), and as then not toning down these sayings, even when many of his disciples thereupon abandoned him (6:66),
St.Paul reminded the Corinthian Christians of Jesus' words at the Last Supper and concluded from that: "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:27).
At St. Marks church, preparation and baking of this bread is done in a room with a huge oven built underneath the Church. Traditionally it is called a Beit Lahm (Bethlehem), which means in Hebrew "house of bread".
The bread (Urbaan) is a round loaf of bread (approx 20cm dia) stamped with the trisagion in the centre (written in coptic) and with 12 crosses.
* The eucharistic bread is one of the two visible elements constituting the Eucharistic sacrament, the other element being the Eucharistic wine (which is mixed with water by the Priest at the begining of the Divine Liturgy).
* The bread is leavened (referring to our sins) and baked (referring to the salvation we received by the pains that Lord Jesus had suffered for us). It is also unsalted and made of the finest wheat flour. There are only three ingredients in Urbaan, they are white flour, water, and yeast.
The major characteristics of a quality Urbaan are;
* A perfectly round loaf of bread for it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, who has no begining and no end. "I am the alpha and the omega"
* The central part is called "Despatikon" meaning "Lordly." Around the Despatikon there is twelve crosses referring to the twelve disciples.
* It has five holes referring to the spear, crown of thorns and nails.
* The word "Agios" or "Holy" is written on it three times (referring to the Holy Trinity).
Thanks to Ashraf for the information and Zac for the inspiration.
Anyone interested in learning how to make Urbaan please contact Peter on 0403192735
