Holy Trinity Orthodox Christian Church - The Nature of Christian Leadership

SOME REFLECTIONS FROM AN ORTHODOX THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE, PART 1

"Thus says the Lord God: Behold, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves...the weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the crippled you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them...I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep...says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will watch over; I will feed them in justice." (Ezekiel 34:2-4,15-16).

By Fr. Theodore Stylianopoulos

When difficulties arise in a family, a corporation, or the nation itself, the role of leadership is especially critical. The same holds true when difficulties arise in a parish or the wider Church. Leadership becomes the key to facing up to the problems, engage them with honesty and wisdom, and come out on the other side stronger and more mature both as individuals and as a body. An essential part of the task is to reflect on and discuss the nature of Christian leadership itself and permit it to become the cornerstone of combined efforts to address the difficulties and resolve the problems for the love of Christ and the good of the Church, without recriminations, retaliations and demonization of others.

What is Christian leadership from an Orthodox perspective? What is the purpose of leadership? Who can legitimately exercise it? What is the authority behind leadership? And what are the attributes, methods, and limits of leadership? The following are some basic reflections offered in good faith for further thinking and discussion. In our ecclesial context, what is needed is a sound theology and spirituality of Christian leadership pertaining to all aspects of the life of the Church, especially its spiritual principles and values. Of course this is not to exclude the established structures and laws within which leadership is exercised, including the role of the Holy Canons, the Charter of the Archdiocese, the Uniform Parish Bylaws, and all other formally adopted policies, procedures and regulations of Church institutions. All these elements are interdependent and should be mutually supportive in a healthy and vital Christian community.

1) The Model of Christian Leadership: Jesus Christ

To define Christian leadership, we must look above all to the supreme Model and Leader of the Church, Christ Himself. By word and example Christ has embodied the deepest aspects of Christian leadership based on love and service. We need but to recall His reply to the disciples when they began to dispute about places of honor and precedence in God's Kingdom. Jesus instructed them with the following words: "You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be the slave of all. For the Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:42-44)." Christ has once-for-all defined Christian leadership, not as domineering and controlling, but as loving and servant leadership.

Perhaps the most powerful metaphor for imaging leadership in Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition is that of the shepherd or pastor (poimen). In the Gospels Christ speaks about Himself as the Good Shepherd who, out of love, leaves the ninety-nine sheep to seek out the one which is lost. You may recall the Byzantine icon of the Good Shepherd carrying the lost sheep on his shoulders. According to the Gospel of St. John, chapter 10, the Good Shepherd knows His sheep by name and is ready to give His very life for the sheep out of love. That's why the sheep hear His voice and follow Him as He leads them out to feed them and quench their thirst under His unfailing protection. In contrast, Christ has sharp words for contemporary Jewish leaders who abused their position calling them "hirelings", "thieves and robbers," who come to "steal" and "destroy." Christ had in mind the "word of the Lord" to the Prophet Ezekiel in the Old Testament: "Thus says the Lord God: Behold, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves...the weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the crippled you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them...I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep...says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will watch over; I will feed them in justice." (Ezekiel 34:2-4,15-16).

Christ exercised leadership through love and humility. But He also exemplified divine authority and spiritual boldness in His leadership. No one can lead without authority. Jesus constantly appealed to the authority He had received from God the Father. Jesus gave authority to the disciples to preach, teach, baptize, and guide His flock (Mt 18:18; 28:18-20; Jn 20:21-22). Of course, He did so in order for them to exercise this authority within the Church and not over the Church, a task properly carried out when motivated by love, conducted in humility and intended for the purpose of edifying service in the Name of Christ and for the good of the Church. This is a basic teaching of the New Testament and Orthodox Christianity, as compared to certain other Christian churches and traditions which appear authoritarian whether in the legal or charismatic expressions.

Accordingly, the spiritual leaders of the Church, which includes all the clergy, and especially the Bishops, have divine authority to lead, teach, guide and discipline the flock, but must do so in the spirit and manner of Christ, that is, on the basis of love and service, not personal interests, predilections, agendas, self-aggrandizement, arbitrary acts, etc. In the New Testament Christians are instructed to "obey their leaders and submit to them" (Hebrews 13:17) but also "to consider the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith"(Hebrews 13:7), that is, to be inspired by and learn from the example of the faithful and righteous life of their shepherds. Nothing is more convincing and effective than leadership by example in terms of love, humility, fairness, compassion, forgiveness, and good judgment. The disciples devoted their whole life and service to the Lord precisely because He loved them, He washed their feet as an example of service, and commanded them to love one another as He loved them (Jn 13:1-17,34).

If we look extensively into Scripture about shepherds and flock, we will find that Scripture contains many more passages about the responsibilities of and admonitions to leaders, rather than passages about obedience to them by the people of God. For example, we read in First Peter 5:2-4: "Tend the flock of God that is your charge, not by constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly, not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock." In the Church the gifts of authority and leadership are precisely gifts for the purpose of service on the basis of love; they are not personal prerogatives or arbitrary rights to be exercised by fiat and refusal of accountability. Blind obedience may have a limited place in the military (within the bounds of the military code), but it has no place in Christianity, and certainly not in the Orthodox Church as a loving community and the Body of Christ. In the Church, authority and power derive from God, they belong to the whole Church ("where two or three are gathered in my Name," Mt. 18:20), and are to exercised with love and humility for the salvation of souls. Apart from these theological and spiritual principles, authority and power translate into arbitrariness and authoritarianism which end up betraying Christ, perverting the Orthodox understanding of leadership, and harming the Church and its mission in the world.

"...the ultimate authority in the Church is the Holy Spirit which manifests Himself in the total life of the Church, and not the episcopacy or the clergy in isolation. In fact there have been instances in Church history in which the people of God have repudiated the acts and decisions of entire synods of Bishops."

And what of the role of the laity? According to Orthodox teaching all Christians, including the laity, are invested with authority and power by virtue of their baptism, faith and Christian living. The New Testament teaches that all Christians are endowed with gifts, including gifts of leadership, and are called to manifest them for the up building of the Church. For example, St. Paul writes in First Corinthians: "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one . . . And God has appointed in the Church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers of various kinds of tongues" (1 Corinthians 12:4-6, 28). And all together "constitute the household of God, built on the cornerstone of Christ, in whom we are united and grow into a holy temple, the dwelling place of God in the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:19-21).

Therefore the laity, too, are gifted by God, authorized by Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to actively exercise initiatives and responsibilities, that is, the gift of servant leadership within the full range of the life of the Church. Of course, the authority and power of the laity is not equal to the authority of Presbyters and particularly the Bishops whose roles are defined by Canon Law, that is, who are endowed with specific canonical rights and responsibilities.

On the other hand, in broader perspective, the ultimate authority in the Church is the Holy Spirit which manifests Himself in the total life of the Church, and not the episcopacy or the clergy in isolation. In fact there have been instances in Church history in which the people of God have repudiated the acts and decisions of entire synods of Bishops. It is in this sense that Orthodox theology explains "the conscience of the Church," "the infallibility of the Church" (rather than of any single Bishop, Patriarch, or Synod in isolation), the people as "the guardians of the Faith," and "the voice of the people [as] the voice of God."

According to the deepest understanding of Orthodoxy (as compared to the Roman Catholic view of the Pope, the episcopate and the clergy in general), there is an inalienable and definitive mutuality and balance between clergy and laity so that the whole Church at once, both clergy and laity, are cooperatively responsible and accountable for all of God's gifts and charges to the Church for the fulfillment of its mission. In this perspective, while authority is more concentrated in the clergy and especially the Bishops, it ultimately rests more deeply and widely in the whole Church constituted by clergy and laity alike.

THE HOLY CANONS

In the Orthodox Church, the preservation of truth, the welfare of the Church, and all Christians are corporately responsible for the life of the Church. Neither blind obedience nor democracy, but a free and joyful acceptance of what is true, noble, constructive and conducive of the divine love and salvation.

In the difficulties facing the Church and related to the subject of leadership, much has been said about the role of the Holy Canons, their superiority as compared to other... policies and procedures governing our Church institutions. No one challenges the sacred role of the Canons in the life of the Church. And it is true that the Holy Canons grant dominant authority to Bishops and Synods of Bishops. However, the Holy Canons need interpretation, cannot be used selectively, and should not be opposed to lesser charters and regulations which guide all Orthodox Churches throughout the world. Above all, the Canons cannot be exploited legalistically, that is, as a cold body of laws independent of the loving community and saving compassion of the Church. "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor 2:6). The Canons establish parameters to be invoked as the last measure of discipline for the sake of safeguarding the Church, parameters within which other formal Church regulations...are also valid and significant for the good order of the Church. The Canons and all Church regulations are intended to be applied with the spirit of Christ and not before the ways of love, wisdom and persuasion are completely exhausted. To appeal to the Holy Canons apart from love and discernment, or for the purposes of personal power and arbitrary control, militates against the teachings of Christ and harms the life of the Church according to Orthodox theology and spirituality.

"A false idea [is] clericalism as absolute power for which the priest has no account to give. In fact, the priest in the Orthodox Church must be ready to explain his every opinion, decision or statement, to justify them not only "formally" by a reference to a canon or rule, but spiritually as true, saving and according to the will of God...In the Orthodox Church, the preservation of truth, the welfare of the Church, and all Christians are corporately responsible for the life of the Church. Neither blind obedience nor democracy, but a free and joyful acceptance of what is true, noble, constructive and conducive of the divine love and salvation." (Alexander Schmemann, Clergy and Laity in the Orthodox Church).

"The bishop is a Eucharistic person. His primary ministry is to preside at the Divine Liturgy, and all his other functions as teacher or administrator are to be interpreted in terms of his role as celebrant at the Eucharist. The bishop's cathedra [official seat in the Church] is not to be regarded as the throne of a ruler or judge, or as a professor's chair; all such models are misleading. His cathedra is the seat that he uses as Eucharistic president. By the same token, an ex cathedra pronouncement is not an arbitrary or arrogant statement, based on an appeal to authority, but the kind of thing that a bishop says when talking pastorally to his flock during the Eucharist. Trouble starts as soon as the bishop himself, or others round him, cease to view him in a Eucharistic context, and start to think of him as prelate, prince or bureaucrat." (Bishop Kallistos Ware, Church and Eucharist, Communion and Intercommunion).

Christ gives to the clergy not the gift of power, but the gift of love and through it the power of love. The meaning of worldly power is incompatible with the nature of the Church, being reduced into power over the Church and therefore over Christ...In truth, ecclesiastical power should possess of service, exercised through love and extending to the self-sacrifice of the clergy on behalf of the people of God...according to the example of the One who "took the form of a servant" and "served in our midst"--Christ.

Both clergy and laity have special rights and duties befitting them and deriving from divine law. Any abolition or usurpation or confusion of these rights and duties is forbidden...The general exclusion of the laity from exercise of their tripartite service in the Church [that is, kingly/administrative, prophetic/didactic, and priestly/liturgical], which belongs to them, leads to autocracy of power by the clergy, which is what happened in the Roman Catholic Church, especially during the Middle Ages.

The clergy and, especially the bishops, should not forget the God-willed equality of all members of the one body of the Church. Saint Chrysostom, quoting Saint Paul, says the following: "Not even I, the apostle, am above you, because you are also a body, like I am, and I am like you, and we all have the same head, and have experienced the same pains"...and elsewhere, referring to the "human division" of the members of the Church into "sheep and shepherds," he observes that "there are sheep and shepherds according to human divisions, but according to Christ all are sheep; for both the shepherds and the ones who are shepherded are being shepherded by One, the Shepherd above." (John Karmiris, The Status and Ministry of the Laity in the Orthodox Church).

In the Liturgy we hear: "Let us love one another that with one mind we may confess Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." And again: "May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with all." Let that liturgical exhortation and that eucharistic blessing be our prayer and our anchor of hope for reconciliation and healing in the Church so that united and strengthened we may go forward as a Church into the twenty-first century for the glory of Christ.