Yonkers, New York, November 6, 2026
Photo: oca.org
Assisted suicide, “by whatever name it is known,” can’t be blessed by the Church in any way, the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America says in a new pastoral letter to the clergy, monastics, and faithful.
The Synod approved the statement, titled “A Christian Ending to Our Life,” during its regular Fall 2026 session at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary under the presidency of His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon.
The bishops say many clergy, clinicians, and families have asked for guidance as the law in Canada and a growing number of American states permits physicians to prescribe lethal drugs, and in some places administer them.
“The dignity of a human person does not rest on strength, independence, or usefulness,” the statement says. “It rests on the image of God, which is no less present in one who lies dying than in one who is in the fullness of health.” The bishops write that many who ask for an assisted death do so less because of pain than because they fear losing independence or becoming a burden. They say these fears are real and that the Church doesn’t dismiss them.
The statement separates these acts from care the Church does bless. It says the Church blesses the careful use of medicines to relieve pain and other distress of the dying, and that a treatment that no longer offers reasonable hope of benefit, or whose burdens are disproportionate, may be withheld or withdrawn. Death is then “not chosen but accepted from the hand of God,” the statement says. Hospice and palliative care are called “works of mercy.”
Orthodox Christians may not request, prescribe, dispense, administer, or procure the means of assisted suicide or euthanasia, nor counsel, encourage, or approve such an act, the statement says. It calls this a grave sin, to be brought to God in repentance and confession, and adds that compassionate presence to a suffering person isn’t, in itself, approval.
A priest may not bless, arrange, or facilitate an assisted death. Funeral and memorial services are left to the diocesan bishop’s discernment, as in cases of suicide. Orthodox clinicians aren’t to take part in causing a patient’s death, and the Church stands with them when they refuse on grounds of conscience.
The bishops also speak directly to the sick. “You are not a burden to the Body of Christ,” they write. “When others care for you, you are not taking from them; you are giving them Christ to serve.” The statement encourages every adult to prepare an advance directive.
An appendix contains the advance directive of the ever-memorable Archimandrite Roman Braga (1922–2015), who was proposed for canonization last year. “Because of this belief, it is not always necessary to use every possible means to resist death,” Archimandrite Roman writes, referring to the Orthodox belief that in death life is transformed into eternal life. He also directs: “I be given medications and treatments to relieve pain even if this results in shortening my life, but not for the purpose of ending my life.”
“Let us therefore care for one another to the end,” the statement concludes. “Let us relieve every pain we can relieve, and sit beside every pain we cannot.”
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