§ 132. The Spread of Christian Teaching

The Christian faith is intended for the people of all times, and the Church must therefore take care that this faith be spread everywhere and that everyone be enlightened by Christian teaching. The first means serving the Church for this is preaching. Since preaching constitutes one of the most important duties of the Church’s power of teaching, church legislation, besides the basic prescriptions of Holy Scripture on the subject,[1] has always given it its greatest attention. Among the oldest canons of the Orthodox Church we read: “A bishop or presbyter who neglects the clergy and the people and does not instruct them in piety, let him be excommunicated; and if he persists in this negligence and carelessness, let him be deposed.”[2] These same canons have been confirmed by the Church at its councils, which enjoin the heads of the churches “to instruct all the clergy and the people in the words of piety every day, and especially on Sundays, choosing from Holy Scripture thoughts and judgments concerning the truth”; and, so that no error might creep into their preaching, it is recommended to them “in no way to interpret Holy Scripture otherwise than as it has been set forth in their writings by the lights and teachers of the Church, and to content themselves rather with those writings than with the composing of their own discourses, lest, through some accidental inexpertness in this, they should turn aside from the true teaching.”[3] To the bishops alone belongs, in the Church, the full authority to preach, and the canons therefore forbid the appointment as bishops of men who are not well tested in the faith and concerning whom there is no full assurance that they are firm and well-trained in it.[4] By authorization from the bishop, priests too have the right to preach in the Church;[5] but the bishop may withdraw this right from those priests of whose necessary capacity he is not fully convinced, or whose purity of belief he doubts.[6] Without the bishop’s authorization no one may preach.[7]

A second means for confirming and spreading the pure Christian teaching is Catechesis. In the early times of the Church, instruction in the foundations of the faith preceded baptism, and this instruction lasted a good while, until the persons concerned had, by their knowledge of Christian truths, fully attested that they were worthy to become members of the Church.[8] When later infant baptism began to be practiced, the Church entrusted this catechesis first to the godparents and parents of the children, and afterward carried it out herself through those who performed pastoral service in the places concerned. This catechesis is carried out today either by priests gathering the children in their parishes at fixed times and instructing them in the foundations of the faith,[9] or by the same priests teaching the Law of God (religious instruction) in the local elementary schools,[10] or, lastly, by the competent church authority—in particular the eparchial bishop—appointing special priests to perform the office of catechist in the respective schools.[11]

For the spread of Christian teaching in the strict sense, the Church employs mission-work, namely, by sending forth her preachers among peoples not yet enlightened by Christianity, in order to convert them to Christianity. Mission-work is a divine institution, and the Church, in employing it, fulfils one of the prescriptions of divine law.[12] Given the importance of mission-work, church legislation has always given it, as it still does today, its greatest attention, so that it might correspond to its holy task and at the same time be fruitful. Condemning most decisively every proselytism among peoples who believe in Christ, the Orthodox Church does not permit hasty and ill-considered conversions, nor does it tolerate forced conversion; it endeavors to keep away from mission-work everything that might have the appearance of any temporal and earthly advantage whatsoever, and it urges the missionaries to work upon the mind and heart of the people who are to be enlightened by the Gospel. Accordingly, the rules which church authority prescribes for missionaries require: 1) a clear and exact exposition of the truths of the Christian faith, for which purpose the founding of schools among those of another faith is to serve as the principal means; 2) working upon the heart by gentle persuasion and love, together with forbearance toward the religious and moral deficiencies of those of another faith; and lastly 3) the strengthening of the bond between the converted and the Church, not by any other kind of bond, but purely by bonds of faith and morals—namely, by the founding of churches among them, by the appointment of local clergy, by spiritual influence upon their conscience and customs, and especially by the exemplary conduct of life of those pastors who are appointed to guide them. These are the general rules which the Church prescribes for the conversion to Christianity of the peoples in question who do not yet believe in Christ, and on the basis of these rules, particular rules for the conduct of missionaries in their work have subsequently been issued by church authority.[13] Missionaries are wholly dependent on their eparchial bishop, and are obliged to submit to him, at fixed times, detailed reports on their activity.[14]