The article advances a theological and historical thesis to the effect that the Church possesses a divine authority that empowers it to institute and modify the “forms” and the organizational and liturgical practices in a manner that serves the salvation of man through the ages, so long as this does not touch the three constants (Holy Scripture, dogma, and the Creed of Faith).
The text discusses the following points:
The difference between essence and form: Christ established the essence and left the Church the freedom to determine the organizational and liturgical form (such as the Divine Liturgy and the development of the ranks).
The authority of the Church and the living tradition: The Church is not a rigid entity but a living body led by the Holy Spirit, and it is its authority that fashioned the bounds of the biblical books, the prayers, and the orders of the priesthood throughout history.
Historical witnesses for ecclesiastical change: a review of the modifications the Church imposed over time, such as (the prohibition of the agape meals, the transformation of the laying on of hands into anointing with chrism, the imposing of celibacy on the bishop after it had been permitted, and the institution of ranks such as monasticism and the church courts).
The question of the ordination of women: appealing to the historical existence of deaconesses to prove that excluding women, or re-ordaining them in the degrees of the priesthood, falls within the “canonical forms liable to change” in the future if the catholic Church agrees upon it by consensus – for what was not in the past shall be in the future.
Keywords: the authority of the Church, the ordination of women, the priesthood of women, canon law, church tradition, the historical development of the rites, the authority of binding and loosing, deaconesses in Christianity, Orthodox theology, ecclesiastical reform.
Introduction
The Church founded by Jesus enjoys the full authority to modify, to create, and to change throughout its entire historical course, for it has the authority from the Lord Christ who founded it with His precious blood to modify and to create new forms in its course for the salvation of man. But it does not enjoy the absolute authority that would empower it to modify three elements: Holy Scripture, dogma, and the Creed of Faith. As for everything else, it has its complete authority to determine its form according to what suits the salvation of man in every age, for the reality of the New Testament Church is completely different from the reality of God’s people, that is, the Church of the Old Testament, to whom God gave everything, the essence and the form that contains the essence, whereas in the New Testament the matter is completely and radically different.
When Jesus ascended He asked of His apostles one thing: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Mt 28:19). He had previously given them authority: “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Mt 18:18), and He said to the disciples in the person of the apostle Peter “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Mt 16:19).
Jesus did not establish on earth any system or institution, nor did He establish ranks and orders, nor regulations and laws, but He gave them the new principle: the new life in Christ by the Holy Spirit[1] He gave them the moral law[2], and the task of the historical Church is to proclaim the Kingdom of God, and He sent it forth into the world to evangelize and to save, and it organizes itself according to what suits all the historical situations, and He left His Church freedom of action, and did not impose upon it the form through which it must work, because it is a sharer in His divine saving economy until the second coming. So it organized its work and organized the community of believers according to the canon law[3], and created ranks and orders and organized its life, and the authority given to it empowers it to establish the fitting order for its work. For example, Jesus said “Do this in remembrance of Me,” but He did not establish a form, nor did He establish laws; this the Church determined afterwards. Christ established the essence and the Church determined the form that expresses the essence, in contrast to the Old Testament where God established the essence and the form.
Therefore the authority of the Church, as the special people of God, is above the authority of Holy Scripture and above tradition. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware says: “Holy Scripture derives its authority in the end from the Church, for it was the Church that originally determined which are the books composing Holy Scripture.”[4], because Christ came to found a Church, not to compose a book[5], and the authority of the Church is above tradition because it is the Church that fashioned it, preserved it, and nourishes it. He says: and although tradition is internally fixed – because God does not change – it continually takes on new forms, and is a principle of renewal and growth… for it is not a static memory but the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit[6]. So the Church is not conservative, for conservatism preserves the petrified forms of the past, alienated from life; rather it is traditional, for tradition possesses life through experience and radiates it in forms in the present[7]. And as one of the bishops indicated at the Council of Carthage in the year 257: (the Lord said: I am the truth, and He did not say I am the custom or the custom of my forefathers).
This authority appears directly from the side of the apostles, for they created the ministry of the tables, and the ministry of the bishop and the deacon, and the breaking of bread was held in homes, then the ministries began to develop and their forms to diversify[8]. The Church thereafter prohibited the meals mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles[9] and changed the usages of the apostles and altered them completely. For example, the Church changed the laying of the bishop’s hand on the head of the baptized, according to the usages of the apostles, into anointing with the oil of chrism by the hand of the priest (the essence did not change, but the form), and created the rank of the priest and the rank of the chorepiscopos[10], and established the dioceses and the ordering of the bishops, and we came to have an archbishop, a patriarch, and a metropolitan, and established the ordering of the mysteries such as the mystery of confession and the mystery of marriage, and established monasticism and organized it, and established the church courts, whereas Jesus Himself refused to settle a dispute between two men[11]. And whereas Jesus said divorce is for the cause of adultery, the Church proceeded to grant three kinds of separation (divorce, annulment of marriage, and invalidity of marriage), and composed the Creed of Faith and added to it the phrase (consubstantial with the Father), which is not found in Holy Scripture, and abolished the holy kiss mentioned in the Gospel, and changed the form of the communion.
It excluded the married priest from the episcopate, while Paul the apostle recommends the marriage of the bishop, and it chose bishops from among the monks, that is, from the new institution that it itself established, although Jesus chose married men from among His disciples. But when the Church saw that it was fitting for the bishop to be unmarried, it forbade his marriage, although the canonists are in agreement that no proof can be established for the existence of a divine or apostolic command imposing celibacy on the clergy…. And it says: “That the priestly degree is considered an impediment (impedimentum) is a church canon, not divine.”[12]. And whereas deaconesses existed in the New Testament, and their rank was among the ranks of the Holy Spirit[13], and the deaconesses were ordained in the sanctuary by the laying on of the bishop’s hand just as the deacon is ordained[14], the Church stopped the ordination of women[15], and the church canons forbade the woman from entering the sanctuary, and even from communion and from entering the church even during the period of menstruation.
This changing and altering comes because of its authority as the community of the Body of Christ, and the Church is Christ Himself in His fullness who fills all things[16]. The Church preserves the faith delivered to the saints and the elements of tradition, for among the various elements that compose tradition, Holy Scripture occupies a special place, as do the Creed of Faith and the dogmatic definitions issued by the ecumenical councils. The Orthodox regard these basic elements of tradition as handed down, absolute, and unchangeable, and not liable to cancelation or even to reconsideration. As for the remaining elements of tradition, they do not have the same standing[17]. And by its authority given to it from Jesus it changes and alters the forms according to what is beneficial, and for the service of the salvation of man.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the standpoint of canonical church law, the Church is progressive, because it is able to add to it, to omit from it, or to make in it whatever modification and alteration suits the needs of every time and place[18]. If the Church takes a decision to ordain women within the orders of the priesthood, or to choose bishops again from among the married, or to set a fixed date for Easter, or to change and modify any form whatsoever, then the consensus of opinion in the whole inhabited world (the oikoumene) is considered to be free from the suspicion of error and safeguarded by the promise of Christ the Lord that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church[19].
For just as what was in the days of the apostles did not remain or was changed afterwards, so what was not in the past may be present in the future, because the word of Jesus is entirely true: “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Mt 18:18).
[1] Father George Florovsky, Scripture, Church, and Tradition (An Orthodox Perspective), translated into Arabic by Father Michel Najm, Manshurat al-Nour, p. 76
[2] The Collection of Canon Law, or the Canons of the Universal Christian Church, collected, translated, and arranged by Archimandrite Hanania Kassab, Manshurat al-Nour, 1998, p. 38
[3] Canon Law, 38
[4] Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Faith: Faith and Doctrine, p. 17
[5] Father George Atiyeh, The Orthodox Faith as Life, Tradition, and Theology, Maktabat al-Bishara, Baniyas, 2008, p. 76
[6] Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Faith: Faith and Doctrine, p. 15
[7] Hierotheos Vlachos, Orthodox Ecclesiastical Thought, Arabized by Father Anton Malki, al-Nour Orthodox Cooperative for Publishing and Distribution, Beirut 2002, p. 176
[8] See, for example, the book The Sociology of Christianity, from p. 58
[9] Canon Law, Canon 28, p. 224
[10] Canon Law, p. 65
[11] “But He said to him, ‘Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?’” (Lk 12:14).
[12] Canon Law, p. 546
[13] The Apostolic Constitutions, Arabized by Father George Nassour, The Oldest Christian Texts, Liturgical Texts Series (6), Kaslik 2006, p. 79.
[14] The Book of the Apostolic Constitutions, p. 397
[15] Canon Law, 95
[16] George Florovsky, 80
[17] Timothy Ware, p. 12
[18] Canon Law, p. 39
[19] Canon Law, 10