The New Age - Part 6

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

We concluded part 5 with:

 

(p.289) " Reconciliation within the Christian church will involve recognition of

different ministries. The present ministries of the different churches all

derive from the second century or later. In the New Testament there is neither

papacy, episcopacy nor priesthood. The only priesthood, properly speaking, in

the New Testament is that of Christ himself and of the people, which St Peter

describes as a " holy priesthood " . It would be necessary to reconsider the

different ministries in this light. "

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and Christian Faith)

Chapter 13, p.289.

 

Here now is part 6.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

 

The New Age - Part 6

 

(p.289) The present system of the papacy dates from the Gregorian reform of the

twelfth century. It is important to recognise that this movement had its value

at the time. One must consider that the Holy Spirit was present in each

development of the church but each was limited to its particular historic

horizon. It was only when the Eastern church separated from the Western that the

papacy began to develop its present structure. It would be necessary to go

behind the present structure of the papacy to the fifth century if a

reconciliation is to be found with the Eastern churches. The Eastern church will

never be reconciled with the present system of the papacy which is an evolution

of the last ten centuries. In the fifth century there were five patriarchates:

Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople and Rome. Already in the fifth

century the primacy of the Pope, St Leo, was fully recognised but he was 'primus

inter pares', the first among equals, and he normally never interfered in the

affairs of the Eastern churches. There was a right of appeal to Rome and the

right of intervention in grave necessity was recognised, but the patriarchs were

responsible for the liturgy, theology and the whole conduct of their churches

just as the Pope, as patriarch of the West, was responsible for the Western

churches. At that time the Pope only appointed bishops in his own patriarchate.

So this was a very different structure of the church from that of later

centuries, and yet it was a unified church which recognised the primacy of the

Pope. So we could go back to that point as a model for the reorganisation of the

church today, particularly in the light of the Eastern churches.

 

With regard to the other churches apart from the Eastern church, it will be

necessary to go even further back for a model. The person to go to is St

Irenaeus, that great theologian and churchman of the second century. He was the

most representative figure in the Catholic church at the time, being a bishop in

Gaul, coming originally from Asia and being in close touch with Rome. He shows

the Roman church at that time as the centre of Christendom. He speaks of it as

being founded by the chief of the apostles, Peter and Paul, not Peter alone,

notice, and he uses a very important phrase, 'potiorem principalitatem'. This

may mean " more powerful presidency " or perhaps " more powerful origin " . The

original was written in Greek and we only have the Latin translation so we

cannot be quite sure of the meaning. But because the Roman church was founded by

Peter and Paul it has a kind of primacy without a doubt. Then Irenaeus says in a

very important sentence, " With this church it is necessary that every church

should agree, or come together ('convenire' in Latin), every church, that is,

the faithful from all parts ('eos qui sunt undeque fideles'). " This is an

excellent model of the Roman church as a centre of unity to which people come

from all parts. It seems to me that we have a model, there in the second

century, of Rome seen as the seat of Peter and Paul, as a centre of unity to

which people come from all parts and where the true faith is always preserved.

That was St Irenaeus's point. It is to be noticed that the emphasis is on the

church itself, rather than on the bishop. (p.291) The bishop became more

important in the course of time but at this point it was the church that was

important. This brings out further the function of Rome which is that it should

be a centre of unity rather than a centre of power. Today many people in all

churches see the possibility of a papacy which would be a centre of unity, of

the pope as exercising a ministry of unity on behalf of the whole church. This

would mean that Rome would no longer be the centre of power and domination which

it had become in the Middle Ages.

 

This character of the Roman church is brought out further by St Ignatius writing

in the second century to the Roman church, again not to the bishop but to the

church. He speaks of the church as " presiding over the charity " ('prothestos tes

agapes') or, perhaps, " presiding in charity " . Again it is a difficult phrase to

translate, let alone know the exact meaning of, but it looks as though the

church herself is considered as a charity, a school of love. The Pope has this

function of " presiding over the charity " or " presiding in charity " . The point is

that it is a presidence of love rather than of power. That takes us back to the

second century. But now we have to go further back still, because Irenaeus

speaks always in terms of episcopacy which was fully developed by this time in

the second century. But when we go back to the New Testament there is neither

episcopacy nor priesthood in the usual sense. On the other hand we find a great

many other different ministries. St Paul speaks of apostles and prophets but

also of evangelists, pastors and teachers, helpers and administrators. So that

was the structure of the church in the New Testament and it seems that we have

to go back to the New Testament itself to restructure the ministries of the

church. In that light the ministries of other churches which have no bishops

could be reconciled with the church as a whole. We should also be aware that in

the New Testament women played a very considerable part in the ministry of the

church, and any attempt at renewing the structures of the ministry of the church

would involve women having ministries in equality with men. (p.292) That would

be the normal development that we would expect. So this is how the development

of the ministries in the church could be envisaged, while remembering, of

course, that in the New Testament the position of Peter among the apostles still

remains a valid and unquestionable fact which has meaning for the church today

just as it had then.

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith) Chapter 13, p.289-292

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0