It is the conviction of the Orthodox that Christ is the only priest, pastor and teacher of the Christian Church. He alone guides and rules his people. He alone forgives sins and offers communion with God, his Father.

It is also the Orthodox conviction that Christ has not abandoned his people, but that he remains with his Church as its living and unique head. Christ remains present and active in the Church through his Holy Spirit.

The sacrament of holy orders in the Christian Church is the objective guarantee of the perpetual presence of Christ with his people. The bishops, priests, and deacons of the Church have no other function or service than to manifest the presence and action of Christ to his people. In this sense, the clergy do not act in behalf of Christ or instead of Christ as though he himself were absent. They are neither vicars of Christ, nor substitutes for Christ nor representatives of Christ. ** amen! **

Christ is present now, always, and forever in his Church. The sacramental ministry of the Church -- the bishops, priests, and deacons -- receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to manifest Christ in the Spirit to men. Thus, through his chosen ministers, Christ exercises and realizes his unique and exclusive function as priest, perpetually offering himself as the perfect sacrifice to the Father on behalf of his human brothers and sisters. Through his ministers in the Church, Christ also acts as teacher, himself proclaiming the divine words of the Father to men. He acts as the good shepherd, the one pastor who guides his flock. He acts as the forgiver and healer, remitting sins and curing the ills of menÄphysical, mental and spiritual. He acts as bishop, overseeing the community which he has gathered for himself (1 Pet 2:25). He acts as deacon (which means servant or minister) for he alone is the suffering servant of the Father who has come "not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28).

from www.oca.org/pages/orth_chri/Orthodox-Faith/Worship/Holy-Orders.html

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No problem going to church, my next door neighbor, myself, and my wife make up "two or more gathered together in His name".

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BUT HOW LONG WILL THAT LAST, BEFORE SOMEONE "FEELS" A "CALL"


For relief: www.beliefnet.com/frameset.asp?pageLoc=/story/14/story_1403_1.html&boardID=1756
(Frederica Matthews-Green: "I am going to have to apologize to someone Sunday night. In fact, I am going to have to apologize to about a hundred people--one at a time, face to face. I'm looking forward to it. ...")

Edited by - PotOnWheel on 02/25/2003 11:36:32 AM

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It is important to remember that Christ is present in, with, and through the acts that we perform in worship. According to His will, His work is accomplished through what we do when we gather for worship. The work of worship that we offer can be a means of receiving Christ. Through His grace, the acts that we perform in celebrating holy communion become a means for the building up of His Church. Preaching and listening to preaching are acts of man through which God's Word addresses men. It is indeed misleading to distinguish in worship between acting and receiving for both occur simultaneously. Our giving is receiving. Christ may work in the worship we offer.

The unique quality of Christian worship is that it centers upon the work of God in Christ in establishing a community of those who are enabled to worship Him. It is by the power of God that men are united in receiving what God has done for them. The Pauline metaphor, the "body of Christ," expresses most concisely the nature of the Church. Just as no part of the human body can exist independently of the rest, so Christians cannot exist without the Church. John Calvin was merely echoing a third-century theologian when he observed that he saw no "hope for any forgiveness of sins or any salvation" outside of the Church.20 (Institutes of the Christian Religion, IV, i, 4) Christian worship, then, is the worship of those who "are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another."

In this sense we refer to Christian worship as corporate worship, that is, the worship of those who are one body, the body of Christ. This important fact distinguishes Christian worship from all other worship offered in this world. It has a unity which the dimensions of time and space cannot overcome.

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That is not to say that all assemblies "do church" as well as others...

But it also says that the church is an on-going thing. The Byzantine Liturgy sings "Thou alone, O Lord our God, art Master over those in heaven and on earth, Who on the throne of the Cherubim art borne" and has a hymn declaring that the congregation "represents" that part of the church -- angels, mind you(!) -- before God. That's humbling, isn't it. The Church goes on. WE can join it, as "services are already in progress." But to "do church" we have to do it together! You can't take communion with yourself. Instead, the liturgy says: "Let us love one another that with one accord we may confess: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Trinity, One in essence and Undivided." We dare not approach the table in disunity!

Church is this: "Peace be to all." (Which is the Spirit, and notice a vertical relationship.) AND "And to thy spirit." (Which indicates the horizontal relationship.)

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As to the ELCA and its liturgy -- it can't be too different. All the Christian liturgies stem from the same sources (like as with the Liturgies of St. James and St. Mark), from: The Jewish Synagog (Service of the Word) and the Temple (Service of the Table).

It CAN'T be the same all the whole year. The year changes. You may need to learn what is being meant. The difference between the "fixed feasts" and the "movable feasts" is interesting. Christmas and the other feasts having to do with the Incarnation are all Earth-directed, and locked as to date. While Pascha/Easter and those feasts related to it "float" on top of the others because they are Eschatologically oriented. Christians live in the "now and not yet."


Embrace that.