Clergy and Laity in the Church
April 23, 2008 by kevinburt
This is a nice overview of the Orthodox understanding of “Clergy” and “Laity” the late Protopresbyter, Fr. Alexander Schmemann. He takes the same approach to explaining laity as Afanasiev did in his book, The Church of the Holy Spirit (recently republished by Notre Dame). One snippet from toward the end of the essay:
Democracy is the greatest and noblest ideal of the human community. But in its very essence it does not apply to the Church for the simple reason that the Church is not a mere human community. She is governed not “by the people, and for the people”— but by God and for the fulfillment of His Kingdom. Her structure, dogma, liturgy and ethics do not depend on any majority vote, for all these elements are God given and God defined. Both clergy and laity are to accept them in obedience and humility.
While that is true, I don’t think it define’s the Church’s understanding of clergy and laity, or even Fr Alexander Schmemann’s.
Anglican Churches (in England anyway) had a Table of Kindred and Affinity with whom one was not allowed to marry. At the top were two headings: “A man may not marry” and “A woman may not marry”, followed by a list of about 30. It began with “A man may not marry his grandmother” and “A woman may not marry her grandfather”.
But it would be silly to take that as the essence of Christian teaching on marriage.
So with Fr Alexander’s statement. It’s tyrue, but it does not convey the truth about clergy and laity.
Steve,
I think I understand you to be saying simply that an “essay” this brief cannot exhaust or fully treat the Church’s understanding of clergy and laity? If so, then yes, it is quite brief and naturally unable to completely exhaust such a rich area of the Church’s life.
You did not find anything erroneous about it, though, did you?
warmly,
Kevin