Archbishop
Elpidophoros, the primate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, caused a stir yesterday at the
opening of the 29th annual Leadership 100 Conference at the Breakers
Resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
As multiple participants in the conference are reporting, in front of
dozens of participants, Abp. Elpidophoros declared that anyone who was
married in the Orthodox Church can receive Communion in the Orthodox
Church, regardless of whether they are Orthodox or not.
His statement came during the question and answer portion of his talk.
As the Orthodox Church firmly teaches that only baptized and
chrismated members of the Church can commune, the Archbishop’s
statement upset many people.
He previously addressed the issue of mixed marriages at the
Archdiocesan Council meeting
in October, hinting at what he openly declared yesterday.
After noting that nearly 50% of all Orthodox Christians in America
are converts, including 25% in the Greek Archdiocese, the
Archbishop stated:
With this in mind, I would make this suggestion: instead of calling
marriages with non-Orthodox spouses “mixed marriages,” might we not
better refer to them as “miracle marriages?” For these marriages are
the main road that ushers converts to the Faith. As the Apostle Paul
says: How do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife? (I Cor. 7:16).
While speaking above about marriage leading to spouses converting to holy Orthodoxy, Abp. Elpidophoros went on say:
Every faithful marriage is a miracle marriage—a miracle of God’s
love and a Mystery to be celebrated with joy and embraced with
thanksgiving. Whether or not the spouse joins the Church in a formal
way through Chrismation, they are still 100% part of our community,
and should be embraced as such. If we are to be a Church that truly
serves and embraces our young people who live in a technologically
advanced and pluralistic world, we must embrace the strangers in our
midst—make them strangers no more, and embrace all the members of our
community and our Country.
The Patriarchate of Constantinople previously made waves when it
announced that it would allow priests whose wives died or abandoned
them to enter into second marriages, thereby contradicting the
long-standing canonical Tradition of the Church.
In October,
the Holy Eparchial Synod of the Greek Archdiocese in America
announced that it was petitioning Constantinople to allow three
clergymen to remarry.