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Paul Ladouceur, Public Orthodoxy
Orthodox opponents to ecumenism are highly critical of Orthodox
participation in prayer and other services in common with non-Orthodox
Christians.
This opposition is usually based on ancient canons
forbidding prayer with “heretics and schismatics.” Among frequently
cited canons are Apostolic Canons 10, 11, 45, 65 and 71. Apostolic Canon
10, for example, reads: “If one who is not in communion prays together,
even at home, let him be excommunicated;” and Canon 45: “Let any
bishop, or presbyter, or deacon that merely joins in prayer with
heretics be suspended, but if he had permitted them to perform any
service as clergymen, let him be deposed.” (See, for example, here and here.)
Referring to ancient canons is relevant to Orthodox involvement in
ecumenical prayer services, but several major qualifications are in
order. Most importantly, the invocation of
such canons in isolation from both their historical context and the
actual practice of the Orthodox Church over the last century is
insufficient to guide Orthodox conduct now and in the future. Orthodox
canon law is not a consolidated and regularly updated code of ecclesial
law such as exists in the Catholic Church, but is a rather unsystematic
collection of rules or canons adopted by local, regional and ecumenical
councils over a period of nearly two millennia. Taken as whole, these
canons contain certain inconsistencies and many have long since ceased
to be relevant to the situation of the Orthodox Church and the needs of
the faithful. The Orthodox canon law tradition emphasizes a dynamic
interpretation of canons rather than merely an invocation of the letter
of ancient canons. The latter is canonism, not the living canonical
tradition of the Orthodox Church.
A classic case of a senior Orthodox hierarch praying with
non-Orthodox occurred in 1930. In 1921, Saint Tikhon (Belavin)
(1865-1925), Patriarch of Moscow, appointed Metropolitan Evlogy
(Georgievsky) (1868-1946) to head the Provisional Administration of
Russian Parishes in Western Europe and to represent the Patriarchate of
Moscow in Western Europe. In 1929, the Catholic Church, the Anglican
Church, the French Protestant Churches and the Orthodox Churches in
Western Europe initiated a week of common prayer for the victims of
religious persecution in the Soviet Union. In February 1930,
Metropolitan Evlogy participated in ecumenical prayer services at Saint
Paul’s Cathedral in London and L’Oratoire in Paris. At that time,
Evlogy’s archdiocese was still affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate,
which declared in response to the ecumenical initiative that there was
freedom of religion in the Soviet Union. Metropolitan Sergius
(Stragorodsky) (1867-1944), then de facto head of the Moscow
Patriarchate, attempted to remove Evlogy from office, not for
participating in ecumenical prayer services, but for being disloyal to
the Soviet regime. In 1931, as a result of Moscow’s attempted
disciplinary measures against Evlogy, Evlogy, with the support of most
of the clergy, parishes and faithful of his administration, placed
himself and his diocese under the omophorion of the Ecumenical
Patriarch.
The example of Metropolitan Evlogy’s participation in ecumenical
prayers for the suffering Russian Church, and that of numerous other
Orthodox hierarchs in prayer services in many ecumenical contexts over
the past century, must be weighed into any assessment of the current
relevance of the ancient canons against praying with “heretics and
schismatics.” In contrast with a reductionist and modernist view which
restricts the Orthodox canon law tradition by insisting solely on the
letter of these canons, must be posited a dynamic notion of tradition as
the gradual building of a wide consensus within the Church, articulated
by canonical hierarchs, concerning the achievement of the Church’s
mission and pastoral responsibilities in the present age. In this case,
we now have almost a century of canonical hierarchs having decided that
in certain circumstances, and mostly by those specially authorized to do
so (notably official Orthodox representatives at ecumenical
gatherings), some forms of prayer with non-Orthodox are permitted. This
relaxation of the ancient canons is an aspect of a long tradition of the
Orthodox Church keeping contacts open with non-Orthodox Christians. The
Orthodox Church acts under the ecclesiological imperative that she must
always seek to bring others back into unity with it, and the assessment
of hierarchs over the past century has been that this can best be
achieved by participating in the ecumenical movement and in common
prayer services, including the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity,
rather than boycotting them. In the tradition of Orthodox canon law,
those advocating boycott would be required to demonstrate that their
approach would better promote unity and indeed better exercise Orthodox
pastoral concern for non-Orthodox, than participation in the ecumenical
movement and common prayers.
This relaxation of ancient canons is conditioned by the existence of
clear limits to common prayer and services in ecumenical gatherings.
Prayers at ecumenical fora typically focus around elements which all
accept, with the Our Father, the Nicene Creed (without the filioque)
and readings from the Bible (notably psalms and extracts from the
Gospels and the Epistles) usually featuring as major components. There
is no question of intercommunion or the partaking of other sacraments.
Often religious services at ecumenical meetings are those of one
denomination, with members of other denominations participating
especially in prayers and hymns normally recited by the members of the
Christian community in question. Orthodox are frequently asked to
celebrate vespers or other services, thereby providing invaluable
opportunities to bear witness to the richness of the Orthodox liturgical
tradition. Orthodox are steadfast in maintaining that must be no
“eucharistic hospitality.”
A rigorous, rigid, literal and rationalist interpretation of Orthodox
canon law is a modern novelty which does not correspond with Orthodox
tradition. Ancient canons forbidding common prayer, and indeed many
other types of contacts with “heretics and schismatics,” are important
historical testimonies of how the Church assessed that she could best
achieve its missions of witness, pastoral responsibility and the
achievement of unity at the time of their adoption, especially in the
context of the official status of Orthodox Christianity in the Byzantine
Empire. The judgment of leading Orthodox hierarchs over the last
century has been and continues to be that the application of these
canons is no longer the best means for the Orthodox Church to carry out
her mission in the contemporary world. The simple invocation of ancient
canons is insufficient to outweigh the judgment and practice of the
Church over the past century. Jesus says unequivocally “Where two or
three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”
(Mt 18:20).
Paul Ladouceur is Adjunct Professor, Orthodox School of Theology
at Trinity College (University of Toronto) and Professeur associé,
Faculté de théologie et de sciences religieuses, Université Laval
(Québec).The Orthodox Christian Studies Center’s signature event, the Annual Orthodoxy in America Lecture, will be presented Tuesday, September 27 by Vera Shevzov of Smith College. Find more information and register here
