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What about the Laity?

Ben

As I scan numerous Independent Sacramental jurisdictions, I see websites speaking about apostolic succession.  I see pictures of bishops, patriarchs, and priests dressed up in vestments and clerical cassocks.  What do I see so little of?  God’s people!  To be a bishop, priest, patriarch is to be in relation with other people.  There is no church without a bishop, but a single bishop or group of bishops does not constitute the church.  I see lots of pictures of clergy but few of God’s people who share in the priesthood of all the baptized.  In baptism, we are all made priests and kings of God.  To reduce the church to the clergy is to destroy the salvific work of Jesus Christ.


This past week I began reading “The Church of The Holy Spirit” by Nicholas Afanasiev.  I am still working my way through this book but it is an extremely transformative book at understanding the relationship between the clergy and the “laity” which I put in quotes for a reason.  My own personal understanding formed long ago fits nicely with the ecclesiology contained thus far in the book.  The author is an Orthodox theologian who regrettably is not well-known today. 


In seminary, I constantly heard that the priest acts in persona Christi capitis.  I never liked this view as it seemed to separate the priest from the people.  Seminarians holding fast to the ontological view seemed to focus on what they were going to get out of the sacrament of Holy Orders rather than seeing it as a gift in service to others.  For me, ministry and orders are to be understood as a function to the community.  Nicholas agrees with this view as he states, “The difference between a person who has a particular ministry and a person who does not have such a ministry is not ontological but functional” (p16).


There is a reason why Nicholas holds this view.  He believes the distinction is “ontological if the Church did not have the priestly ministry in common for all its members” (p16).  To deny this commonality is to deny that the baptized are given the gifts of the Spirit.  All have the same Spirit but not all have the same gifts; Paul clearly recognizes the different spiritual gifts needed for the upbuilding of the church. 


Personally, I hold a high and exalted view of the “laity” because I take Scripture seriously.  Jesus did not die for the bishops, patriarchs, priests and deacons.  Jesus died for everyone and the new waters of baptism – the living water that he freely offers makes us a new creation.  “Laity” are seen in negative light – what they cannot do and the fact that they are not consecrated despite them truly being consecrated and children of God.  Yes, the baptized share in Christ’s priesthood and his kingdom.  I frequently attend the Maronite liturgy and I love that the priest calls down the Holy Spirit to “come upon us and our offering.”  The Eucharistic prayer uses the word “we” frequently because we offer the Eucharist together.  I think of both Eastern and Western Eucharistic prayers which use “we” continuously such as “We, your people and your ministers, recall his passion…“ And again, “we thank you for counting us worthy to stand in your presence and serve you.”  There is no Eucharist apart from the “we” of the community.


Nicholas Afanasiev detests the separation of the laity from the clergy.  Rather than laity, he speaks about the laic which is a member of God’s household.  Both the clergy and the laic are priests and offer spiritual sacrifices to God.  As noted earlier, the Eucharistic prayers, even when said by one celebrant, reflect the communal nature of everyone participating in the one sacrifice.


Moreover, Nicholas states, “In the New Testament, the Old Testament prophecy was fulfilled: the entire people, not just a part of it, serve in the name of the Lord.  The entire New Testament people is God’s possession and each person within it is a cleric” (p.14).  All members of the church share the same nature because they share the one Spirit.  Each person and each role in the church are particular aspects and members of the church but do not constitute the entirety of the church.  We cannot exist without each other in the church along with the action of the Holy Spirit and the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. 


The teaching on consecration led to the distinction between clergy and laity.  Previously, baptism was seen as consecration but later this was reserved to the clergy.  The laity were seen as alienated from holy things rather than being manifestations of the holy.  Churches were built with a separation of the altar and sanctuary from the people.  Regrettably, “in the course of history it came to be that it was not a profanius, an outsider who was made ‘holy’ but on the contrary, it was ‘fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God’ who became ‘outsiders’” (p19).


Both the sacraments and the liturgy are celebrated by and in the Church.  They are celebrated by all the baptized but only in communion with others and with the presider.  “A bishop or a presbyter, presiding over the people of God, celebrates the sacraments only together with the people without whom their role as a presiders would be mere phantasy” (p37).  Often the Independent Sacramental Movement does exactly what Nicholas detests.  Without the people of God, the bishop is separated from the church.  There are some in the ISM movement who are attracted to magic which Nicholas warns is not genuine sacramentality.  “Mysteries have nothing in common with magic, and primarily because the sacrosanct words uttered by a bishop or a presbyter alone, without the people – without the Church and outside of the Church – do not make mystery happen” (p39). 


From what I can see, the Independent Sacramental Movement frequently takes over Scholastic distinctions and uses them as a basis for an ecclesiology that Catholics and Orthodox theologians want to overcome.  The ideal is no longer the Catholic priest celebrating mass with a server at a side altar or an Orthodox priest silently reading the anaphora behind an iconostasis.  Liturgical renewal recognizes that the entire people of God participate in the very mystery of salvation.  The challenge for the Independent Sacramental Movement is to move away from the distinctions we inherited to move to a more biblical and theologically sound approach of what it means to be Church. 


Recently, I watched an ISM liturgy online celebrated with a congregation and was horrified that the priest did everything.  The priest proclaimed the readings and only distributed the Body of Christ without making the cup assessable.  Even as a Roman Catholic priest during more informal daily masses I had the laity proclaim the readings and had a person offer the cup.  In the Sunday celebrations, I stove to have active participation with choirs, Eucharistic ministers, servers, lectors, ushers and greeters.  Each baptized person shares in the priesthood of Jesus Christ.  Only as a community can we recognize Jesus in the word that is proclaimed and in the breaking of the bread.

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