Prayer With the Non-Orthodox
The Church forbids us to pray with non-Orthodox. When invited to a
meal in a Protestant household, what do we do when they say "grace," e.g., the
"Our Father" before a meal? (K.L., IL)
In this age of ecumenism, one is hard-pressed to argue with the
"givens" of the religious world: "We all have the same God," or
"All religions are good and are equal." If we apply these notions to science, it
is immediately apparent that they are absurd: "All observations are valid and
equal," or "Alchemy and chemistry are both sciences and are equal." Quite
obviously, even within a given religious tradition, there are those who understand
its precepts well and those who hardly grasp them. And so, a simple Orthodox believer
would not claim to understand God with the same insight and perception that, say, a great
Saint or Teacher of the Church understood Him; in a sense, in terms of their understanding
of Him, these individuals have different experiences of God. How, then, since we consider
Orthodoxy to be a correct statement about the nature of God, man, and the universe, can we
actually have the same God as those whom we consider erroneous in their beliefs? Nor can
any rational individual argue that all religions are equal. Even among modern religious
traditions, some teach the ascendency of peace and love, while others advocate violence
and even elevate it to the level of a "holy pursuit." The problem is, of course,
that ecumenism is based on simple-minded or trendy notions of religion and the Truth. It
thus forces us to confront complex philosophical and theological questions at a very low
level, leaving little room for subtlety. In this context, praying with others takes on a
special significance. Prayer is an expression of our Orthodox understanding of, and
relationship to, God; therefore, we cannot engage in joint prayer with the non-Orthodox as
an expression of a "commonality" with them which we in fact do not have. This
fact is reinforced by Church Canons that prohibit prayer with (though assuredly not
for) the non-Orthodox.
Now, admittedly, if we refuse to pray with the non-Orthodox, we
appear—again because we are unable to address religious issues, today, with any
depth—rude, if not downright sectarian. In view of this, probably the most prudent
thing to do, when you are invited to a meal in a non-Orthodox household, is to stand (or
sit) respectfully while your hosts pray as they see fit. Afterwards, before you eat, you
can Cross yourself and silently recite the appropriate Orthodox prayer. Whatever you do,
you must keep in mind that the canonical guidelines that prohibit us from praying with the
non-Orthodox, based solely on the precepts discussed above, must never become an
occasion for showing disrespect or disdain for others or for their religious traditions.
The Holy Canons are designed to protect our Faith, as the criterion of Truth, from
any vitiation by what is foreign to that fullness of Christianity that Orthodoxy is. But
this desire to protect our traditions is not selfish; it is motivated by love for those
outside Orthodoxy, the pristine Faith—preserved among us alone—to which we hope
that they will one day turn, if they are truly searching for God. Just as a good chemist
would be remiss, were he to endorse some superstitious procedure from the false science of
alchemy, so we Orthodox must not endorse the spiritual practices of those outside the
Church. However, just as a chemist need not ridicule an alchemist, but should try to bring
him to a knowledge of the real science of chemistry, so we must not show disrespect for
the heterodox, but attempt to educate them by our good example and civility.
There are, of course, Orthodox who, zealous without knowledge, would use
the Holy Canons—which are not laws, but principles which should guide us in making
decisions regarding delicate matters of Christian comportment—to justify their
un-Christian hatred for the heterodox and for heretics. They would thus argue that we
should not sit at the same table with heretics or non-Orthodox, forgetting that this
canonical prescription is aimed at insuring that, by eating in public with unbelievers, we
do not somehow give the impression that we endorse their error and thus bring scandal on
others. In modern America, this is hardly a risk while having dinner with non-Orthodox
friends. Unthinking people might also say that by listening to the prayers of
non-Orthodox, we are technically praying with them. We must simply ignore such irrational
rubbish for what it is. An advocate of such thinking once told us that, following the agape
meal in his parish on Sundays, all left-over food was thrown away, rather than given
to the poor, since it had been blessed by an Orthodox Priest. To do otherwise, in his
view, would have meant throwing what was blessed to the dogs. One can only imagine what
Christ, Who calls us to feed the poor (St. Luke 14:13), or St. Paul, who tells us to feed
even our enemies (Romans 12:20), would have said of such a thought. Prudence and true zeal
should lead us in our relationships to the heterodox at all times. Otherwise, our wisdom
becomes foolish and anti-Christian.
+ + +
From Orthodox Tradition, vol. XIV, no. 4, pp.
24-25.
+ + +
Father Anthony Nelson once submitted these helpful words to an
Orthodox email forum: "The stricture against joint prayer with heretics is that such
prayer falsely legitimizes their prayer, it raises their heresy—which is an attack on Christ's Church—to
a level of perceived equality with Orthodox Christianity. It is not praying with
heretics to allow them to visit our services, to be gracious hosts, for them to pray with us—which instead exposes them to the Church and Her prayer, and
the noetic effects that prayer has on the soul (and there are, of course, such negative
effects on the right-believing who enter into prayerful communion with those who are not
Orthodox). This is not a phoney or contrived distinction, either...it is real, and those
who want to find ways to pray with their heterodox friends with contempt for the Canons
forbidding it are the ones who are misusing the Canons because they are making up
observances that are not there and trying to pawn them off as the teaching of
extremists" (who, they say, teach that the Canons forbid the heterodox to pray with
us, and other distortions).
|