Fasting Between Us and the Protestants

His Holiness Pope Shenouda III explains the essential difference between the Orthodox understanding of fasting and the Protestant view. In the Orthodox faith, fasting is not merely a private hidden act but a communal and ecclesial worship that expresses the unity of the one body in Christ.

1. Fasting Between Private and Communal Worship
The Pope distinguishes between private fasting, which should be done in secret as the Lord said in Matthew 6, and public fasting, practiced by the whole Church with one spirit — like the fasts of Nineveh, Esther, and Nehemiah. Public fasting does not contradict the command of secrecy, as it represents a collective act of repentance and unity among believers.

2. Fasting in the Holy Scripture
His Holiness affirms that the concept of collective fasting is clearly found in the Bible — in Joel’s “Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly,” in Nehemiah and Ezra, and even in the New Testament when the apostles fasted together (Acts 13). Therefore, when the Church organizes fasts, it is not inventing something new but following biblical teaching.

3. Responding to Protestant Objections

• About Colossians 2:16 (“Let no one judge you in food or drink”): The Pope explains that this refers not to Christian fasting but to Judaizing practices that mixed Christianity with Jewish laws of ritual purity.

• About 1 Timothy 4 (“commanding to abstain from foods”): He clarifies that Paul spoke about forbidding foods as evil, while fasting is voluntary self-discipline — asceticism, not prohibition — since we eat these same foods after the fast.

4. The Spiritual Meaning of Vegetarian Fasting
The Pope cites examples from Scripture to affirm the value of plant-based fasting:

• Adam and Eve ate only plants before the Fall.

• Daniel abstained from meat and wine during his fast.

• John the Baptist lived on simple food.
  These examples show that fasting from meat is not prohibition but training the soul in self-control and humility.

5. The Danger of Making Fasting a Private Matter Only
The Pope warns that when Protestants made fasting a personal option, it eventually disappeared completely. The Orthodox Church, however, preserved fasting as communal worship, where the whole Church fasts together with one heart and one mind, forming one body united in repentance and prayer.

Spiritual Message
Fasting in the Coptic Orthodox faith is a fellowship in repentance, a unity in worship, and an ascetic path toward purity of heart — not mere deprivation of food. It is a sacred time when the entire community sanctifies itself before God with sincerity, humility, and love.

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