The Shepherd, May 2008
POINTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE
REPLY to a correspondent asking about attending the services of other denominations:-
“You have to be a little careful - in everyday life we have of course to mix with non-Orthodox Christians and people of other faiths. In fact this gives us a mission field - not that we should preach at them, but that we should strive by our Christian manner of life to call them to Orthodoxy - something we all fail miserably to do.
It is in the sphere of worship that we must stay separate from them; we can, of course, attend things like funerals of beloved ones, or weddings - but this is not to join them in worship but to show them love. But we should never attend their services just as an act of worship.
“Whether Protestants believe in the same God as us or not is something that can be argued both ways. Some would say that they worship the Trinity and believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and so that is the same God. Others would say that their belief in the Trinity is distorted by the filioque, and that their belief in Jesus Christ is lacking (most Protestants are, it seems, essentially Arians), and therefore we cannot say that they worship the same God. Both approaches contain something of the truth, which is, as always, delicately nuanced.
However, you do not need to get into this rather deep water to counter XXX’s rather naive argument. The Saviour Himself instructs [us] that God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Protestant worship is not worship in truth. This is why we avoid joining other denominations in worship - it breaks a precept given us by the Saviour Himself.
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