The meaning of church prayer for the union of churches

St. Filaret of Moscow (Drozdov), in his work “The Meaning of Church Prayer for the Union of Churches,” explores the theological and liturgical content of the petition pronounced during the Divine Liturgy: “For the peace of the whole world, the welfare of God’s holy churches and the unification of all, let us pray to the Lord.” The author identifies two semantically independent parts of the prayer - “for the welfare of God’s holy churches,” which relates to the preservation and strengthening of the existing unity of the Orthodox Churches, and “for the unity of all,” which emphasizes the inclusiveness of the appeal to all Christian communities, including those outside the family of Orthodox Churches. By comparing Slavic and Greek texts, Saint Philaret shows that the word “all” applies not only to Orthodox Christians, but to all Christians. Thus, the prayer simultaneously supports the desire to preserve Orthodox unity and expresses comprehensive Christian love, praying for the reunification of separated churches. Prayer for the unification of all churches is included in every liturgical cycle, regardless of historical differences. This indicates the prayer goal of the Church - the desire for complete unity. The lack of mention of “non-Orthodox” in the diptychs is explained by their exclusion from the sacrament of the Eucharist, and not by a denial of their spiritual salvation. The liturgical prayer “for the unification of all” is addressed to their return. The case of the Antiochian Patriarchate going into schism after the Third Ecumenical Council illustrates that the prayer “Soothe the discord of the churches” (St. Basil the Great) also implies reunification with those who have deviated from the teaching. The priority is the “well-being” of the Orthodox Churches, but at the same time, Christian love requires prayer for the “union of all” - for reunification with the separated churches, fulfilling Christ’s promise of “one flock”. At the beginning of the Divine Liturgy, between the first prayer requests to the Lord God, the Orthodox Church says the following: “For the peace of the whole world, the welfare of God’s holy churches and the unity of all, let us pray to the Lord.” Hearing this, some, expanding their hearts with love, peace and tolerance, pray not only for “welfare and unity,” that is, for the preservation in the unity of the “holy churches of God,” the Orthodox, private, constituting the Universal Church, for example, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Russia, but also the reunification of churches that have deviated from Orthodoxy, for example, Rome, Armenian. And some, protected by strict zeal for Orthodoxy, pray only “for the unification of God’s holy churches” of the Orthodox. Who does not respect zeal for Orthodoxy? Who does not recognize the dignity of all-encompassing love? Which, however, of the two above-mentioned meanings of prayer should one preferentially adhere to when connecting his prayer with the prayer of the Orthodox Church? Or, better to say, which of the two meanings is primarily instilled in us by the Orthodox Church itself with the words of its ordination? Is it true that the Orthodox Church prays only for Orthodox churches? By teaching us in this very prayer to extend our love to the limits of “the whole world,” does she limit the limits of her love for the churches? Doesn't she want the salvation of heterodox churches through their return to union with the Orthodox Church? How does the Orthodox Church express its prayer for the unification of churches? - “For the peace of the whole world, and the prosperity of God’s holy churches, and the unity of all, let us pray to the Lord.” If the prayer were to have a limited meaning about Orthodox churches only, then the words should be put like this: “For the welfare and unification of all God’s holy churches, let us pray to the Lord.” But this was not done, but the prayer was divided into two parts: 1) “for the well-being of God’s holy churches,” 2) “and the unity of all.” This prayer is always offered, both in peaceful and non-peaceful times for churches. Consequently, the first part of the prayer has the following meaning: “about well-being,” that is, about the state of peace and unity of the “holy churches of God” of the Orthodox, so that the “well-being” already given to them would be preserved, and if somewhere, in any way, it was violated, it would be granted again by the grace of God. According to this, the second part of the prayer should mean “about the unification of churches,” so that it is preserved, since it exists, and restored, since it was violated somewhere. In this second part of the prayer the word “all” is inserted, which is not in the first, and this makes it clear that the meaning of the second part is broader than the first. From the fact that the second part is not connected to the first, but is separated, it must be concluded that not everything contained in the first should be attributed to the second, and therefore there is no need to supplement the second like this: “about the union of all the holy churches of God,” but should be supplemented like this: “about the union of all churches.” Therefore, the Orthodox Church prays for the unification of churches so that the existing union of Orthodox churches will be preserved by the grace of God, and so that by the grace of God the union with the Orthodox Church and those churches that have been separated from it by some wrong teaching will be restored. To this explanation of the prayer, will they not present as an objection the fact that in the diptychs, at the proskomedia, non-Orthodox people are not remembered? – We answer, this is a different matter. It is another thing to pray for the union of non-Orthodox churches with the Orthodox Church in a vast composition of prayers that embrace the whole world, and another thing to remember non-Orthodox ones in diptychs at the sacrament of the Eucharist. Non-Orthodox people, by their very non-Orthodoxy, have excommunicated themselves from the communion of the sacraments of the Orthodox Church, which corresponds to their non-remembrance at the sacrament of the Eucharist and their exclusion from the diptychs. And that in the Liturgy of the Faithful one can pray for the reunification of churches that have separated from the Orthodox, see the prayer in the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great: “Soothe the discord of the churches.” The discord of the churches is due to the fact that another church does not submit in some parts to the Orthodox teaching and, therefore, falls into a state of schism: Saint Basil does not exclude such a church from his prayer: “Quench the discord of the churches.” When the Patriarch of Antioch John with his bishops did not submit to the Orthodox definition of the Council of Ephesus and condemned its chairman, Saint Cyril of Alexandria, and, consequently, fell into a state of schism with his church, can one think that Saint Proclus and the Church of Constantinople, praying for the unification of all churches, did not pray with this very prayer for the reunification of the Antiochian Church? So, let pious zeal pray primarily “for the well-being of the Holy Churches of God” of the Orthodox and for the preservation in them by the grace of God of “unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.” But let all-embracing Christian love pray both “for the unification of all” churches, and for the reunification in the Orthodox Church of those who have deviated from it through wrong teachings, so that, according to the promise of our Lord Jesus Christ, there may be “one flock”, as He already is “One Shepherd” (John 10:16) and the Lord of His Church on earth and in heaven, in time and in eternity. Addition. This study was written based on the reading of the Slavic text of the liturgy, in which the word “all” could only be explained through the addition of “all churches” from the previous part of the text. Already after writing this, we happened to have in mind the Greek text of the liturgy, which reads not τῶν πασῶν, but τῶν πάντων, that is, “all” Christians. But this does not contradict our interpretation, because if it were necessary to give the text a limited meaning, then it would be necessary to say: ἐνοσεως, “about the union of all” Orthodox Christians with each other, and about the union with them and with the Orthodox Church of other Christians who do not belong to the unity of the Orthodox Church. You might be interested in: