I remember that after 9/11 at a prayer service at the Greek parish in town, we of course prayed for the victims and their families--but not specifically by name. Most of those of course would not be Orthodox. Maybe it wasn't the canonical thing to do??? However, I do think it was the Christian thing to do.
I think that's what I mean by the question. Isn't there a difference between a heretic who teaches heresy and one who has been born into heterodoxy through no fault of their own.
This is why Timothy the Great of Alexandria taught that those who were Chalcedonians of the simple sort did not need to present a theolgoical thesis when they came across to the Church but if they rejected heresy that was enough. Yet clergy had to spend a years probabtion before being received in their orders to ensure their stability.
I'm not saying that no distinction is necessary, not at all, but if a child is known to us, say, who is desperately ill, yet its parents are not Orthodox, and don't know anything about Orthodoxy, but are seeking to be devout according to what they know of the truth, should we not pray, even and especially at the liturgy?
I don't know. I'm not trying to change tradition. But it seems to me there is a difference between praying 'Lord, help Arius who has a bad foot at the moment', and praying for a simple believer who hasn't been fortunate enough to find Orthodoxy yet but still has needs?
