Why is it not permitted to have joint prayer?
- The Orthodox Ethos Team
- Dec 23, 2025
- 1 min read
"My dear ones, there are Canon of our Church that forbid joint prayer with heretics. Of course, those who support joint prayer talk about love. Yes, but love, as the New Testament points out must be in Truth... and Truth means Orthodoxy... Why is it not permitted to have joint prayer? Because this prayer is not in Truth... I will remind you of what I have told you countless times: ecumenism is deceitful and it progresses in stages. Its first step is to achieve the [false] union of Christians, and then to achieve the union of Christians with Muslims and afterwards with the idol-worshipers. They are deceitful, they proceed progressively, step by step."
-- Fr. Athanasios Mitilinaios
Additionally, from Saint Ephraim of Katounakia: "Ecumenism does not have the Holy Spirit, but the unclean spirit."
See the reel here:
In Belgium GOC openly teaches that all paths lead to Christ. Still have to look for another parish. In Poland a friend who had the photo of John Paul II on the wall and was praying to him couldn't understand why the determinant 'god' is maliable....
Do the canons permit joint prayers with those who have relinquished the traditional patristic calendar in favor of the papal calendar (so-called Revised Julian Calendar) since those latter, tampering with the calendar, sometime skip the Apostles Fast entirely when the Feast of the Apostle (June 29 according to church calendar) falls before the Fast actually begins (example the year 2002) ?
I see nothing definitive in this article that supports an answer to the question that was headlined.
I understand that we should not even consider praying with the ecumenism movement. Being a convert to Orthodoxy I still have Protestant friends. How do we occasionally escape from even a funeral when they pray? These folks are not interested in ecumenism at all. (99% that I know of).
So very true. Unfortunately some of the GOA hierarchy and hierarchy abroad are pushing this deceit publicly, mocking those who hold to the Truth of the Orthodox Christian Church.