Canon law is the Church’s collection of rules and guidelines that help us live the Orthodox faith in practical ways. Think of it as the Church’s wisdom about how faith works out in real life.
The word “canon” means a measuring rod or standard. These aren’t laws like what you’d find in the Texas Penal Code. They’re more like a doctor’s treatment plan, meant to heal, not punish.
Where Canons Come From
The canons come from three main sources. First, the seven Ecumenical Councils gave us canons alongside the great dogmatic definitions we confess in the Creed. Second, local councils of bishops addressed specific problems in their regions, and some of those decisions got accepted by the whole Church. Third, certain Church Fathers, like St. Basil the Great, wrote letters or rules that the Church later recognized as authoritative.
Here’s something that surprises people coming from Protestant backgrounds: these canons developed over time as the Church responded to actual situations. They weren’t handed down all at once like the Ten Commandments. When a controversy arose or someone asked “Can we do this?” the bishops gathered, prayed, and gave an answer. That answer became a canon.
How We Use Them
If you grew up Catholic, you might think of canon law as that massive book with numbered paragraphs covering every possible scenario. Orthodox canon law doesn’t work that way. We don’t have a systematic code. We have a collection of canons from different times and places, and sometimes they even seem to contradict each other.
That’s where the bishop comes in. He applies the canons with two principles in mind: akribeia and economia. Akribeia means strictness, following the letter of the canon exactly. Economia means dispensation, applying the canon with pastoral flexibility for the sake of someone’s salvation. Both are valid. A good bishop knows when to use which.
Let me give you an example. There’s a canon that says if you miss church for three consecutive Sundays without good reason, you’re excommunicated. Now, plenty of folks in Beaumont work offshore on rotating schedules. A rigid application of that canon would be pastorally disastrous. So the bishop (or the priest under his authority) applies economia. The canon’s purpose is to prevent people from abandoning the Church, not to punish roughnecks who work two weeks on, two weeks off.
What You’ll Actually Encounter
Most Orthodox Christians never read the canons directly. But you’ll bump into them in practice. There are canons about fasting before communion. Canons about how many times someone can be married in the Church. Canons about who can be ordained and under what circumstances. Canons about how bishops are chosen and what happens if a priest does something seriously wrong.
When you go to confession, your priest might reference a canon about penance for a particular sin. When someone asks about remarriage after divorce, the canons come into play. When the parish council discusses church governance, canonical tradition shapes those conversations.
The Quinisext Council (also called Trullo) in 692 gave us a bunch of canons that still matter today. It’s where we get the rule that bishops must be celibate but priests can be married (before ordination, anyway). It addressed everything from what you can eat during Lent to how icons should be made.
Not Just Rules
The key thing to understand is that canons exist for our salvation. They’re not arbitrary rules God made up to test our obedience. They’re the Church’s accumulated wisdom about what helps people grow closer to God and what leads them away.
Fr. Thomas Hopko used to say that in Orthodoxy, we don’t have canon lawyers the way Catholics do. We have pastors who know the canonical tradition and apply it with love. The goal isn’t compliance. It’s healing.
This can be frustrating if you’re used to clear-cut answers. “Can I do X?” might get you “It depends” as an answer. But that’s because the Church treats you as a person, not a case number. Your priest and bishop consider your situation, your spiritual state, and what will actually help you become more like Christ.
So when you hear about “the canons,” don’t think of a legal code. Think of a toolbox a doctor uses. The tools are good and necessary. But a good doctor knows which tool to use when, and sometimes the most healing thing isn’t the most obvious application. That’s the Orthodox approach, and it’s been working for two thousand years.
