Many Orthodox Blogs have been covering the Toronto communion situation. Recently, the focus seems to have been on the fact that Greek Orthodox laity “snitched” by reporting the communion practices of the Greek Archdiocese to the Toronto City authorities. This is horrible, of course. But “Bad Orthodox Christians Exist” is hardly a surprising headline for anyone who has been in the Church for more than a minute. The Church is, after all, a hospital for sick souls. Their actions, while worthy of all condemnation, are not the real crisis here.
The crisis are the actions and non-actions of the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Canada, His Eminence Sotirios. As covered elsewhere, the Archbishop suddenly mandated the use of multiple communion spoons, supposedly as a compromise worked out with “government authorities.” Recent reporting has cast serious doubt on that, as Ontario public health officials are denying their involvement.
Regardless, let us assume that some level of government is Canada has decreed that Orthodox Communion must be given a single spoon per communicant. That brings us to the real problem here – why would a Greek Archbishop allow secular authorities to dictate how a Mystery of the Church is performed?
Snitching to the government is bad. An Archbishop of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church surrendering to the government is infinitely worse.
Why didn’t the Archbishop immediately assert the right to freedom of religion and launch a legal challenge? Why did he refuse to fight for his flock to receive communion in the same method as their fathers and mothers in the faith received?
While many Protestant and some Catholic pastors have sued governments over infringing religious liberty, why have our own Orthodox Bishops not joined them? This is not just an academic question as California prepares to lock down churches, Chicago threatens to bulldoze churches, and everywhere it seems that churches are facing increasingly severe restrictions.
Will our Orthodox Bishops fight for us, or will they surrender as it appears that His Eminence Sotirios has done?
There is another, equally concerning, aspect to the situation in Toronto. It is clear that political and social factions across North America are pushing change agendas with the virus as cover. One example, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) union is demanding that politicians provide a federal bailout of at least $500 billion for the schools, Medicare for All, a wealth tax, a millionaire tax, defunding of the police, and ending charter schools. What does any of that have to do with safely restarting schools? Nothing at all, but it is clear that some people don’t want to let a good crisis go to waste.
Is it mere coincidence that the only two Greek Archbishops on the North American continent have both come out in favor of multiple communion spoons? Do both of these bishops really support this change, and is the virus a convenient pretext to introduce it? What other changes might they also support going forward?
The Greek Orthodox faithful in Toronto are launching a Q&A tour on 7/19 to get to the bottom of what is happening there. That is something we should all support, and attend if possible.
But the concerns here are bigger than Toronto. They are also much bigger than just the Greek Archdioceses in either Canada or the United States. Despite the enormous risks to our religious liberty, all but a handful of our Orthodox bishops have been remarkably silent.
A Greek Orthodox man wrote, “Are there no Orthodox Lawyers, Judges left in Canada, willing to challenge a government that is overstepping its authority and is likely blatantly violating the international human rights agreements it has signed? I find this hard to believe.”
We could expand that and ask, “Are there no Orthodox Lawyers, Judges left in North America?”
The hour is late and the enemy is upon us. Negotiating with or bowing before anti-Christian governments has led us nowhere. The walls of our parishes are decorated with martyrs who shed their blood willingly for an Orthodox Faith we now throw in the gutter to pacify civilian authorities and those terrified of a virus with a 99.7% survival rate.
We need the Orthodox Bishops in North America to use the legal and social weapons at their disposal to defend the Faith Once Delivered to the Apostles. Right now, the courts are functioning and we have legal recourse to protect our faith. Should we fail to take advantage of this opportunity, then the demands could get higher and more onerous than we can even imagine. Fight now with the advantage on our side, or fight later when your back is truly against a wall. There is nothing to gain by continuing to be smothered by illogical and unscientific hysteria.
There is no reason to tolerate any change to the practices of the Orthodox Faith. Bishops that insist on kowtowing to secular authorities are not being forced to do so at gun point. They are choosing that route. May all the Orthodox hierarchs, priest, and clergy of North America note that not only the Faithful are watching. So is God, and before that dread judgment seat we will all stand. Do not keep silent now only to be judged for that silence when your own immortal soul hangs in the balance.
I would like to add that ignorance is not an excuse but an indication of indifference and even worse, contempt. We are all responsible, clergy, and laity, but most of all, before anyone else, it is the duty of the bishop to hold precious and guard the eschatological altar, and eschatological experience of the Holy Eucharist of the Local Church entrusted to him by the Lord. No bishop should be slothful in his obligation to study the Holy Scriptures but be a man of prayer (to know the Psalter by heart), and to study exhaustively the Holy Canons and the decisions of all the recognized Local and Ecumenical Councils and understand and adhere to them intimately.
CANON II (VII ECU)
Since as a matter of fact, we are binding ourselves to God by chanting: “I will meditate in thy rights; I will not forget they words” (Ps. 119:16), it behooves all Christians to keep this for their own salvation, but more eminently so those invested with a sacerdotal dignity. Hence we decree that anyone who is about to be promoted to the rank of the bishop shall, by all means, know the psalter, in order that he may be able to admonish all the clergy about him to become initiated; and that he be scrupulously examined by the metropolitan as to whether he is cheerfully willing to read searchingly and not cursorily the sacred Canons and the holy Gospel, the book of the divine Apostle, and all the divine Scripture, and in accordance with the divine commandments to hold intercourse with and teach the laity about him. For the essentiality of our prelacy in the words taught by God, or, at any rate, the true science of the divine Scriptures, just as great Dionysius declared. But if he should be in doubt, and not care to do and teach thus, he must not be ordained. For God has said prophetically: “Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee from acting as my priest” (Hos. 4:6)
Perhaps had this been the case, and our bishops today were strictly adhering to this requirement, “snitches” here and wherever would have been immediately excommunicated. Betraying to the authorities one’s own Church, especially to betray the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist poses an existential threat to one’s own salvation and to his or her local Church. It is not merely, “just another bad Christian”. We are all more or less bad or doing our best as Christians, but one who turns against the priest and the Eucharist has betrayed Christ Himself and His very Bride, the Church.
O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusts in him. Psalm 33:8
l an a Greek Orthodox Christian and l want to receive Holly Communion the way my grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren and everyone in the history of the Orthodox Church has received it…with one spoon.