Introduction
What is Apoteichisis?
A plain language orientation to a precise ecclesiastical term, and to what it does and does not permit.
Before the canon and its conditions, the reason. Communion means two things that God joined: union with Him, and union with His Church. When a shepherd openly preaches a teaching the Church has already condemned, men force those two apart, and the Christian faces a choice that would cost him one or the other. Walling off is the narrow way the saints found between: it keeps the faith and keeps the Church. It is not a departure from communion but the guarding of it, which is why this library treats it as heavenly communion.
Apoteichisis (ἀποτείχισις, “walling off”) is a term from Orthodox canon law. It describes a specific, limited act: an Orthodox clergyman or layperson ceasing to commemorate, to name liturgically, and so remain in communion with, his own bishop, because that bishop is publicly preaching a heresy that the Church has already condemned.
What makes the term precise is a single provision: Canon 15 of the First and Second Council, held in Constantinople in 861 under St Photios. Its earlier clauses forbid separating from one’s bishop for personal or trivial reasons. Its final clause makes an exception for the case of publicly preached, already condemned heresy, and says that those who withdraw in that case are not schismatics but are “worthy of honour.”
What it is not
Apoteichisis, in its canonical form, is not the founding of a rival church, the consecration of parallel bishops, or a general licence for private individuals to depose hierarchs. Whether a given modern separation stays within the canon or crosses into schism is exactly the contested question this library exists to examine, from the sources, not from slogans.
Where to go next
- Begin Here, a short, sequential course from first principles.
- Canon 15, the charter text, in Greek and English, with the disputed points labelled.
- Questions & Objections, the strongest opposing arguments, answered with evidence.
- Why apoteichisis is heavenly communion, the thesis of this library in brief.
- One, holy, catholic, apostolic, the four marks of the Church from the Creed, the Scriptures and the Fathers.
- The book, the whole teaching at length: five parts and sixteen chapters, each closing in plain words.