Hi, Brother Johnno,
Not really my thang, but in the spirit of enlightement that provides the very blood of this forum:

from: http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/fcod/fcod11.htm

"It would seem that orientation is not primely of Christian origin, but a relic of the rites of the early sun-worshippers. We shall see the same practice in the orientation of Christian churches that governed the erection also of their pagan temples, the altar in each case arranged in relation to the rising sun. We may connect the matter even more closely than this, for many of our churches are built, not only in the eastward direction, but towards that point in the east from which the sun would rise on the feast day of the Saint to which the particutar church is dedicated. In the sense that "Christ came not to destroy, but to fulfil the law of the Prophets" we shall find this and many other pagan beliefs carried forward as a Christian practice which probably contained the germ of some far-reaching truth. "Infinitely older than the Church everywhere," as St. Thomas a Kempis says of the Cross.

<b>To the Christian the burial of bodies with their faces to the East is the outcome of the belief not only of the resurrection of the body, but also that from the East shall come the final summons to Judgment.</b>

Peace

Pilgrim

X