Monday, May 04, 2009

Ministry, not office

"Although various functions are mentioned in the New Testament, the problem of a Church office is never explicitly dealt with. Church 'office' is not a biblical concept. It came later after reflection and is not without its own difficulties. Evidently the secular words for 'office' were deliberately and consistently avoided in the New Testament in connection with Church functions. They express a relation of domination...

"Of course there is authority in the Church. But authority is only legitimate when it is based on service and not on power, prior rights and privileges from which the obligation of service is then considered to flow. We would therefore do better, if we want to speak in a precise theological fashion, to speak about Church ministry rather than about Church office. To be sure, it is not the word that counts but the way it is understood; talk about Church 'ministry' can also be misused to hide the realities if the exercise of domination in the Church is not abandoned at the same time...

"Power can be used well or badly. Even in the Church power cannot simply be abolished. But it can be used, when effectively channeled, to carry out functions that serve the common welfare. The unavoidable use of power is one thing; the use of it by individuals or groups to dominate is quite another. In the latter case it is a matter of retaining a privileged position or increasing one's own power. Power can be used responsibly in the Church only in terms of service and is to be evaluated according to its quality as service; such power which comes from service is genuine (and primarily inner) authority. The opposition is therefore not between power and service but between the use of power to dominate and its use to serve."—Why Priests, pages 39-40

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