Role of Laymen in the Church (Teachings of the Orthodox Church) Christianity. Orthodoxy. Catholicism. Sense of life. Articles for Christians.
Don't be anxious for your life, what you will eat, nor yet for your body, what you will wear.                Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.                Consider the ravens: they don't sow, they don't reap, they have no warehouse or barn, and God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds!                Which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his height?                If then you aren't able to do even the least things, why are you anxious about the rest?                Consider the lilies, how they grow. They don't toil, neither do they spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.                But if this is how God clothes the grass in the field, which today exists, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith?                Don't seek what you will eat or what you will drink; neither be anxious.                For the nations of the world seek after all of these things, but your Father knows that you need these things.                But seek God's Kingdom, and all these things will be added to you.               
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Role of Laymen in the Church (Teachings of the Orthodox Church)
   

QUESTION:

Your explanation until now makes the Orthodox Church look like a highly clerical body with strong hierarchal control. What about the laymen in the Church? Do they have a role?

ANSWER:

First of all, it has to be understood that all members of the Church are full members, each with his own calling and responsibility.

The clergy are those members who have a special service within the body, and not over it or apart from it. They are chosen from the people and are ordained within the community with the special sacramental function to lead and to care for the life of the faithful.

The clergy, however, are in no way infallible. They also have no "personal" rights or powers. Their entire service is organically carried on in and for the Church. If they fail in their service and prove themselves unworthy, they may be challenged by the lay people and by procedures clearly indicated in church laws they may be removed from their ministry. There are many examples in Orthodox Church history when lay people have preserved the Christian Faith in opposition to unworthy hierarchs.

Also it must be seen that there are conciliar bodies on every level of church life in which lay people participate. The majority of theologians and teachers in the Orthodox Church, as well as church administrators and workers of various sorts, are lay people and not clergymen.

Thus, although the clergy have their own particular function of leadership, and that by sacramental grace and not merely by human choice or selection, the lay people have their functions as well. All, however, are responsible for the integrity of the Church. This traditional Orthodox position has the official confirmation of the famous Encyclical Letter of the Eastern Patriarchs of 1848. In this letter it is clearly expressed that the entire body of the Church is the bearer of the Orthodox Faith and Life, with each member bearing full responsibility before God and men for Christian unity in the truth and Love of God. Thus if we can speak about any infallibility at all, or of any power or authority, it must belong to God who lives and acts in all of His People, led by the sacramental hierarchy.







Published in January 2011.









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