Changes

Some secular scholars have compared adelphopoiesis to blood brotherhood rituals practiced by other cultures, <ref group="note">Blood brother can refer to one of two things: two males related by birth, or two or more men not related by birth who have sworn loyalty to each other. This is usually done in a ceremony, known as a blood oath, where the blood of each man is mingled together. The process usually provides a participant with a heightened symbolic sense of attachment with another participant.</ref> including American Indians, ancient Chinese as well as Germanic and Scandinavian peoples, and it may have replaced for a time such pagan rites in earlier times in Orthodox lands when they became prohibited by the Orthodox Church and even involved political alliances.<ref>http://www.eskimo.com/~nickz/qrd-eastern_orthodox/adelphopoiia.some-responses and

However, the Blessed Martyr [[Pavel Florensky ]] argued that the rite could be understood as deeply Christian in meaning, as indicated by the texts for the ceremonies.<ref>Florensky, ''The Pillar and Ground of the Truth', translated by Boris Jakim, Princeton 1997, letter on "Friendship" and footnotes.</ref> Documented in Byzantine manuscripts from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries, prayers established participants as "'spiritual brothers' (pneumatikous adelphous)" and contained references to saints noted for their friendships, including Saints Sergius and Bacchus.<ref>Patrick_Viscuso, "Failed Attempt to Rewrite History," New Oxford Book Reviews, December 1994, www.newoxfordreview.org/reviews</ref>  In the late twentieth century, the lapsed Orthodox tradition gained some popular notoriety as the focus of controversy involving advocates and opponents of secular and religious legalization of homosexual relationships in the West.