Why does the Orthodox Church encourage its members to pray for the dead?
Some would say that such a practice is at best superstitious, and perhaps even heretical. The Scriptures very strictly forbid any attempt to summon the spirits of the dead, or to try to engage them in conversation (see for example Leviticus 19:31 and 20:6, as well as 1 Samuel 28). But knowing that our Christian parents, grandparents, children, brothers, sisters, and friends live on with Christ after they die, and remembering the great unity that we still have with them as fellow-members of Christ’s Body, the Church finds nothing in the Scriptures that would prohibit Christians from expressing love for and maintaining a sense of fellowship with those who have died. And what better way do we have to express our love than to pray for them?4 Someone might object, “If they are already in heaven, how can they possibly need our prayers? Their eternal destiny is already settled!” Very true! One’s eternal destiny-whether one spends eternity in heaven or in hell-is determined by how one believes
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