Everything that exists in the Church serves the Eucharist and has an Eucharistic “essence” (has the reason for its origin and existence in the Eucharist). All dogmas (doctrines) were established with one purpose – to lead the faithful to the Church, to Holy Communion. To be convinced of this, it is enough just to look at the definitions (decisions) of the Ecumenical Councils: all of them end with “anathemas”, that is, excommunication from Holy Communion. Similarly, all established Church canons and rules of Ecumenical and Local Councils and Holy Fathers also have one purpose – to regulate the proper Church, that is, Eucharistic, life of the members of the Church, which is easy to verify – most rules even in form, by the letter (in essence all Scripture is Eucharistic – about the Eucharist and Communion of It – V.A.) speak of the conditions for participation in the Eucharist: “… let him be excluded (from the Eucharist – V.A.)”, that is, if a church member does not meet certain conditions described in the rule (and, of course, does not repent, does not show a desire to change), then he cannot be communed in such a spiritual state; therefore, one who has fallen under “anathema”, prohibition, the Church, for his own good (exclusion is not a punishment, but a great mercy!), does not allow to commune, until he repents or undergoes a period (defined by the Church: e.g., for fornication, for murder… even those who confessed these sins and asked the Church for prayers to perform the labors of repentance and struggle with passions (fornication, anger…) – for a certain number of years were excluded from the Eucharist) penance, imposed by the Church. (Many rules concern “regulating” the lives and relationships of bishops, presbyters, deacons – but, if you remember, that these clerical ranks (hierarchy) were established only for one purpose – performance, ministry of the Eucharist, then one can say, that all Church rules even by form regulate the Eucharistic Life of the Church!). I must immediately note that Church rules cannot be literally applied under any circumstances!!! Rules are called “canons”, “rules”, because they point to a pattern, to a principle, to an essence, which MUST in each specific historical epoch be clothed in a new form (quantitative, metric category must change to preserve inviolate, relevant the essence, the principle of the canon, the rule). For example, now, to exclude someone from the Eucharist, it is necessary that this “someone” lives by the Eucharist! A sinner came to the priest, confessed – the priest (only the priest can look into catalogs and templates, but not the presbyter!) looked up the catalog “sins – punishment” (it can all be memorized, so you do not necessarily have to peek into the book), calculated on the calculator the number of years for which one must be excluded and says: you are excluded from the Chalice for 270 years… I repeat, if this is a Church person, who lives a Eucharistic life, – her (and only her – because she is in the Church! One cannot exclude from the Church someone who is not in the Church!) can be excluded from the Holy Chalice (even for 1000 years – such a person will still be growing into the Body of Christ, with total repentance preparing for the Eucharist; read in St. John Climacus The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Word 5: about true repentance and about the life of condemned saints and about the prison). But how to exclude someone who has never even joined, who initially must be joined – and he must immediately be excluded?! Or, if now they ordained candidates for presbyters, who meet the prescriptions of the canons – then there would be no presbyters, no one to ordain!.. And generally, everything that is written in “the word” (all Holy Scripture of the Church – all theology of the Church, as an expression of the experience of God-knowledge in verbal word, paints, sounds, gestures, etc.), has one goal: to lead a person (to show her the way) to the Eucharist – correct hypostatic (spiritual) life; because outside the Life of the Church, outside the Eucharist “the word” becomes ideology, idol, an obstacle on the way to the Living God, becomes a wall and an abyss between God and man “the word”; and thus Truth ceases to be an event of Personal communication and relations with Other Hypostases (Divine and created), and turns into rational possession of objectified essences – instead of living God and by God, man begins to think God (naturally, an idol, because God is not such, as “the word” speaks about – see Part I.) and think oneself in Him!?
“If anyone – a bishop, or a presbyter, or a deacon, or anyone listed in the clergy, or a layman, having no significant reason or obstacle, through which he was long removed from his church, but, being in the city, three Sundays in a row during three weeks, does not come to church prayer meetings (to the Eucharist and its communion – V.A.), then the cleric let be excluded from the clergy, and the layman let be deprived of church communion” (80th Rule of the Quinisext (Trullan) Ecumenical Council).