The Shepherd, June 2008
POINTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE
“I am receiving a great deal of pressure concerning going into communion with ROCOR [i.e. ROCA-MP - ed.]. The arguments being used are several in number. The strongest is that the church canons require confession and communion four times a year, and that if you do not, you cease to be a member of the Church. (I have gone to neither since two weeks before the rapprochement.) I pointed out that Saint Mary of Egypt did not go to communion for over forty years, and no one would argue that she was not a member of the Church as a result. I was chastised for comparing myself to Mary of Egypt. My point was ignored. I have looked several places for a copy of The Rudder, and cannot find one to check for myself, which I think is very suspicious in and of itself.” - a correspondent from the U.S.A.
Many thanks for your message. I will try and help you with this problem, although not knowing your exact circumstances and not being spiritually wise, I cannot give you an authoritative answer just some guidelines. May I just list them?
A) You speak of being pressured, this is ominous, because people who truly seek your spiritual wellbeing do not pressure you. This is not a work of Christ, Who said, Whosoever would come after Me...... He does not pressure us, He calls us.
B) Who is doing this? Is it someone in the ministry or just people at church? Very often other lay people, often with good but mistaken intentions, try to push us one way or another. The Fathers advise us not to be too ready to give advice and only when it is sought, and so if this is the case, and the person trying to influence you has no ministerial responsibility for your soul, I would be very leery of accepting that advice.
C) Which canon states that we have to take Communion four times a year? People often quote “canons” that do not exist, and even if they did, they are not there for all and sundry to impose on others. If we are physically sick we ask doctors to prescribe medicines if we are sensible; we do not take things recommended by friends or people on the street. The same applies in church life.
D) If there exists such a canon as you mention, then very many of the earlier generations of lay people in ROCOR would not be Orthodox - large numbers considered receiving the Holy Mysteries once a year sufficient - presumably then they died outside the Church? But I think not! God is not seeking to condemn us, but to save us.
E) Do not bother to try and find such a canon in the Ladder because the canons are not there for our private interpretation, but for the Church to employ as She sees fit in ordering our life here on earth to salvation.
F) Even if this canon does exist, and I am no expert on canons, it would not apply, because you are not refraining from communing because you are lazy or simply disinclined to receive, but because you have a conscientious objection to the path that the Bishop commemorated in those Liturgies has taken. You would not be able to receive with one heart and one mind, - you would be in danger of receiving unto condemnation in such circumstances.
G) Of course you cannot compare yourself with St Mary of Egypt in virtue (I suspect!) and perhaps her life was not the best example for you to choose; but St John the Merciful, a father full of love, instructed his people that it was better never to receive the Holy Mysteries than to receive them in those churches which had taken a wrong course and which we now call Coptic. Many Fathers teach us to wall ourselves off from error. We are nowhere near them in stature but we can and we must follow their teachings.
Having said all that, of course it is important to receive the Holy Mysteries as often as possible, and I would not pressure you, but simply advise you, to try and find a place where you can be received as a communicant and where you can join the Liturgy being of one mind and one heart with the people there and their Bishop.
Please forgive the deficiencies of this letter - it has been a very busy time and I am rushing to get things dealt with before Holy Week.
(Slight corrections made to typing errors in original!)
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