ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH
OF SAINT EDWARD THE MARTYR
AND SAINT PARASKEVI OF ROME
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of the British Isles and Ireland

His Beatitude Patriarch John X
And the Holy Synod of the Church of Antioch
Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East
Patriarchal Residence
Balamand
Koura
Lebanon

18 July 2026

Your Beatitude the Patriarch,

And Your Eminences, the Metropolitans, Members of the Holy Synod,

We humbly write to Your Beatitude and Your Eminences with reference to our previous emails concerning His Eminence, Metropolitan of the British Isles and Ireland, Silouan. We wrote to You on 17 October 2025 regarding His public common prayer with the heterodox in Rome,¹ and again on 26 June 2026 regarding the same at Canterbury,² neither of which has yet received a response.

It deeply troubles our Orthodox conscience to continue witnessing Metropolitan Silouan pray openly and publicly with the heterodox, at services led by the Pope of Rome (on 14 September 2025)³ and the Archbishop of Canterbury (on 25 March 2026),⁴ inside their own places of worship in Rome and at Canterbury Cathedral. These were not private or incidental encounters but public acts of common prayer which scandalise the Orthodox faithful and continue to deeply wound us.

As stated in our previous emails, Metropolitan Silouan’s actions are contrary to the following Holy Canons:

45th Apostolic Canon: “A bishop, or presbyter, or deacon who prays together with heretics shall be excommunicated; but if he has permitted them to perform any clerical act, let him be defrocked.”⁵

65th Apostolic Canon: “If anyone, either of the clergy or laity, enters into a synagogue of the Jews or of heretics to pray, let the former be defrocked and let the latter be excommunicated.”⁶

Canon 32 of the Council of Laodicea: “One must not accept blessings of heretics, for they are rather absurdities, than blessings.”⁷

Canon 33 of the Council of Laodicea: “No one shall pray in common with heretics or schismatics.”⁸

Furthermore, in 1978, the Church of Antioch took part in the Commission for Anglican – Orthodox Joint Doctrinal Discussions in Athens, together with ten other Local Orthodox Churches.⁹ There the Orthodox delegation unanimously rejected the ordination of women as an “innovation” without foundation in Holy Tradition, concluding that it constituted “a violation of the apostolic faith and order of the Church.”^,10 This position was reaffirmed by Orthodox participants at the 2006 Anglican – Orthodox Commission in Cyprus.¹¹ Therefore, public common prayer by Metropolitan Silouan with Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury, at her own cathedral, is contrary not only with the abovementioned Holy Canons but also to the Church of Antioch’s last official position.

We humbly write to You not out of any sense that we are “saviours” of the Church, but out of the pain in our hearts and our deepest desire to remain Orthodox. Anyone with an Orthodox conscience could not bear to see any member of the Church pray publicly with the heterodox, let alone see the Holy Canons left unapplied to such actions.

Remaining faithful to the Orthodox Church of Antioch,

With all our love in Christ,

Protopresbyter Matthew (Ion-Valentin) Vulcanescu

Parish of Saint Edward the Martyr and Saint Paraskevi of Rome

Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of the British Isles and Ireland

The letter continues with the signatures of the parish members and endnotes.

Endnotes

1.  Protopresbyter Matthew Vulcanescu and Parish of Saint Edward the Martyr and Saint Paraskevi of Rome in Liverpool, Metropolitan Silouan Oner in Common Prayer with Heretics, 17 October 2025

2.  Protopresbyter Matthew Vulcanescu and Parish of Saint Edward the Martyr and Saint Paraskevi of Rome in Liverpool, Metropolitan Silouan of the Antiochian Patriarchate Praying with Heretics, 26 June 2026

3.  Vatican News – English, Commemoration of the New Martyrs and Witnesses to the Faith of the 21st Century – Pope Leo XIV, 14 September 2025, accessed 10 July 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGR0IoFoe30 

4.  The Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Watch the Installation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, LIVE at Canterbury Cathedral, 25 March 2026, accessed 10 July 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjLK48OWDRc 

5.  Apostolic Canon 45: Agapios, Hieromonk and Nicodemus, Monk, The Rudder (Pedalion) of the Metaphorical Ship of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Orthodox Christians (The Orthodox Christian Educational Society, 2005), p. 174

6.  Apostolic Canon 65: Agapios and Nicodemus, The Rudder, pp. 204-205

7.  Canon 32 of the Council of Laodicea: Agapios and Nicodemus, The Rudder, p. 1131

8.  Canon 33 of the Council of Laodicea: Agapios and Nicodemus, The Rudder, p. 1131

9.  The Local Orthodox Churches present at the 1978 The Commission for Anglican – Orthodox Joint Doctrinal Discussions were the Churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Poland, and Finland; cf. Vasyl Mozhevelnyi, Why are Orthodox hierarchs getting us used to “archbishopesses”?, 6 July 2026, accessed 10 July 2026, https://spzh.eu/en/zashhita-very/94227-why-are-orthodox-hierarchs-accustoming-us-to-archbishopesses

10.  The Commission for Anglican – Orthodox Joint Doctrinal Discussions, The Athens Statement – 1978, 18 July 1978, accessed 10 July 2026,  https://www.prounione.it/dia/a-o/dia-A-O-02-athens-1978-eng.pdf 

11.  International Commission for Anglican – Orthodox Theological Dialogue 2006, The Cyprus Statement, December 2006, accessed 10 July 2026, https://anglicancommunion.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/The-Church-of-the-Triune-God.pdf