16.

 Give your understanding of the position of the bishop in the Church.

The hierarchy was established by Christ. As St. Paul instructs:

“He gave some, Apostles; and some, prophets; and some, Evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ; till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:11-13).

Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky explains that:

All members of the Church of Christ comprise a single flock of God. All are equal before the judgment of God. However, just as parts of the body have different functions in the life of the organism, and as in a house building each part has its own use, so also in the Church there exist various ministries. The highest ministry in the Church as an organization is borne by the hierarchy, which is distinct from the ordinary members [Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, p. 246].

Archpriest Seraphim Slobodskoy goes on to note that following the example of the Old Testament Church, in which there were a high priest, priests, and Levites, the Apostles also instituted in the New Testament Christian Church the priesthood: bishops, priests, and deacons. Of these, the bishops comprise the highest rank in the Church, and bishops therefore receive the highest degree of grace.

            Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky additionally notes that:

The Lord Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry chose from among His followers twelve disciples — the Apostles (those “sent forth”) — giving to them special spiritual gifts and a special authority. Appearing to them after His Resurrection, He said to them, As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them: and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained (Jn 20: 21-23). These words mean that it is essential to be sent from above in order to fulfill the Apostolic ministry, as well as the pastoral ministry that follows after it. The scope of these ministries is expressed in the final words of the Lord to His disciples before His Ascension: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Mt 28:19-20). In these final words the Savior indicates the triple ministry of the Apostles in their mission: 1) to teach, 2) to perform sacred functions (baptize), and 3) to govern (teaching them to observe all things”). And in the words “I am with you always, even to the end of the world,” He blessed the pastoral work of their successors for all times to the end of the ages, until the existence of the earthly Church itself should come to an end. The words of the Lord cited before this, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:21), testify that this authority of pastorship is inseparably united with special gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit. The three hierarchical ministries are united in a single concept of pastorship, in accordance with the expression of the Lord Himself: Feed My lambs, feed My sheep (the words to the Apostle Peter in Jn 21:15, 17), and of the Apostles: Feed the flock of God (1 Peter 5:2).

The Apostles were always citing the ides of the divine institution of the hierarchy. It was by a special rite that the Apostle Matthias was joined to the rank of the twelve in place of Judas who had fallen away (Acts 1). This rite was the choosing of worthy persons, followed by prayer and the drawing of lots. The Apostles themselves chose successors for themselves through ordination. These successors were the bishops [Op. cit. pp. 246-47; emphasis added].

Again, Fr. Michael stresses, “The Apostles — those precisely among them who were called to the highest ministry in the Church by the Lord Himself — placed bishops as their immediate successors and continuers.” Moreover, he adds, the Apostles placed “presbyters as their own helpers and as helpers of the bishops, as 'hands' of the bishops, placing the further matter of the ordination of presbyters with the bishops.” [Ibid., p. 248].

            Commenting on Apostolic Succession and the uninterruptedness of the Orthodox Church's episcopate, Fr. Michael notes that:

The succession from the Apostles and the uninterruptedness of the episcopacy comprise one of the essential sides of the Church. And, on the contrary: the absence of the succession of the episcopacy in one or another Christian denomination deprives it of an attribute of the true Church, even if in it there is present an undistorted dogmatic teaching. Such an understanding was present to the Church from its beginning. From the Church History of Eusebius of Caesarea we know that all the local ancient Christian Churches preserved lists of their bishops in their uninterrupted succession [Ibid., p. 253].

As was noted in the introduction of this book, there is a twofold nature to Apostolic Succession. First, there must be an unbroken historical consecration of the hierarchy from the hands of the Apostles — that is, an uninterrupted chain of ordinations of bishops back to the Apostles. Secondly, there must be uncompromising fidelity to the correct doctrines and correct practices established by the Apostles. As the introduction also states, the Roman Catholic Church cannot demonstrate an unchanged faith or unchanged practices as it deviated from both Apostolic teachings and Apostolic practices. Apostolic Succession was severed in the West as of Rome's departure from the Apostolic Church in 1054, although it continued in the Eastern Orthodox Church, whose bishops to this day have a living continuity with the Holy Apostles.

            Regarding the equality of the Church's bishops, Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky writes that:

Among the bishops there are some who are leaders by their position, but not by their hierarchical, grace-given dignity. Thus it was also among the Apostles themselves.... The mutual relations of the Apostles were built upon the foundation of hierarchical equality.... The same mutual relations according to the principle of hierarchical grace-given equality remains forever in the Church among the successors of the Apostles — the bishops [Ibid., p. 252].

Archpriest Seraphim Slobodskoy stresses the same, that all bishops are equal. He adds that the most deserving of bishops are called archbishops, while the bishops whose sees are centered in major cities are called metropolitans (after the Greek word metropolis, a large city). Also, bishops of ancient major cites of the Roman Empire — Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem — are called patriarchs, a title that is also used for bishops of the capitals of some Orthodox countries.

            There is no bishop in Orthodoxy with an equivalent position to the Roman pope. The patriarch of Constantinople, ever since the East-West schism of 1054, has traditionally enjoyed a position of special honor among all Orthodox communities, but he does not have a right to interfere in the actual affairs of the other Churches.

            In Scripture, the Church is represented as the Bride of Christ, and this union with Him is presented in the image of the marital bond (Eph 5, Rev 21). Likewise, the bishop, as the highest pastor of the Church and the image of Christ, is represented in Church teaching as the guardian of her spiritual virginity — that is, inner purity in faith, life, and in all her activity in the world. Therefore a bishop is betrothed to the Church, as the Apostle Paul speaks of himself in relation to the Corinthian Church (2 Cor 11:2). This bond of a bishop with his diocese must be exclusive and single. When a Church or group of Christians is left without a bishop, it is called “widowed.” These concepts were so strictly understood in the ancient Church that the occupation of two sees was called bigamy, and the unlawful occupation by a bishop of another's see was considered adultery.

            Since ancient times, Orthodox bishops have been unmarried and celibate. With the complete renunciation of carnal and worldly ties, a bishop's union with the Church and his diocese is completely pure, spiritual, and independent of the flesh and world, as is proper for a bridegroom of the Church. This attitude of the Church was given formal definition in the canon of the Sixth Ecumenical Council in 680, and this definition is a strict rule for all time in the absence of another Ecumenical Council.

            As a bishop explains regarding this canon, the rise of monasticism in the fourth century gave the Church many great bishops on the one hand, and on the other hand gave a lofty understanding of bodily abstinence. Inasmuch as the bishop's rank is the highest in the Church, all the more must a bishop's life be directed to total service to God and Church in body and soul. This consciousness contributed to the fact that, already in the fourth century, unmarried bishops were regarded as naturally basic to Church order.

            The same bishop also notes that even earlier than the Sixth Ecumenical Council, a council was called in Carthage in 390. This council's second canon prescribed that a bishop must be unmarried and preserve his virginity, and as the basis for this decree, the Fathers of the council referred to Apostolic Tradition preserved by the Church from ancient times. Other testimonies as well show how deeply rooted was the practice of appointing only unmarried persons as bishops. It is also shown that the majority of bishops came from the monks and that these monastic bishops were the greatest luminaries of the Church.

            Writing of the bishop's position in the Church, St. Dositheus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, states:

The dignity of the bishop is so necessary for the Church that without him neither the Church nor the name Christian could exist or be spoken of at all.... He is the living image of God upon earth... and a fountain of all the Mysteries [Sacraments] of the Catholic [Universal] Church, through which we obtain salvation.

St. Cyprian of Carthage, who, as mentioned, was one of the most authoritative of the early Fathers of the Church, and who was beheaded in 258, explains that “if any are not with the bishop, they are not in the Church.” This comment refers to the fact that since Christ is made manifest in His Church through the ministry of the bishops, to sever communion with an Orthodox bishop means that one is cut off from the Church.

            The bishop's dignity that St. Dositheus spoke of is derivative of his threefold power of ruling, teaching, and celebrating the Mysteries, capacities with which he is endowed by the Holy Spirit when he is consecrated. Regarding the ruling function, a bishop is called upon by God to rule and guide the flock entrusted to him. Episkopos in Greek means overseer, and a bishop is just that: an overseer of his community (diocese). He is also a monarch within his diocese, although not in the connotative sense of being a harsh and impersonal tyrant, for his is guided by the law of Christian love in the exercising of his ministry.

            A bishop is called upon to be a teacher of the faith and to proclaim the truth — such is his teaching office, which is the special charisma he receives from the Holy Spirit at his consecration. The teaching ministry is performed first and foremost in the celebration of the Eucharist, when he delivers sermons, or when other members of the Church (priests or laymen) act as the bishop's delegates in delivering sermons.

            Celebrating the Mysteries is another function of a bishop, and this occupation is aptly summarized in St. Dositheus’ description of the bishop as “the fountain of all the Mysteries.” The bishop was usually the celebrant of the Eucharist in the primitive Church. However, presbyters (priests, the second rank of the sacred ministry under the bishop) may serve, with an Episcopal blessing, all the Mysteries and Church services, save that of the Mystery of Ordination and the sanctification of holy chrism or an antimens (antimension). From the Apostle James, it is seen that priests performed the Church's sacred rites (James 5:14), and also that in the early Church there could be several priests in each community, whereas only one bishop was appointed for a city and the region around it. Priests act as the bishops' deputies when they celebrate the Holy Liturgy.

            Additional duties of the bishop include the ordination of clergy. He alone ordains all the orders except for the order of bishop, for which at least two bishops are needed.

            The bishop also consecrates churches. It is the bishop's job to oversee and administer all the churches in his diocese. No church can be built without his permission.

            Bishops also consecrate the antimins used on the altar (see chapter 11) and bless chrism. In the early Church, as the number of converts continued to grow, it became physically impossible for an Apostle or bishop personally to lay hands upon each. The Church therefore began to bless a mixture of oil and spices, or chrism, which, when applied by a priest and accompanied by specified prayers, acts in the same way as a physical laying on of hands. New chrism is periodically blessed and the old chrism is added to it, thus perpetuating a chain of blessing reaching all the way back to the early Church.

            In addition to the special ordained ministry conferred through the Mystery of Holy Orders, a bishop is involved with yet another ministry, although not one limited to his rank alone. This bishop and all Christians alike are prophets and priests, for the Holy Spirit is given to all Christians alike. This fact was especially apparent in the Apostolic Church where, not only was there an institutional ministry bestowed directly by the laying on of hands, but where God-given gifts were bestowed directly by the Holy Spirit. Of these gifts, the Apostle Paul mentions the working of miracles, healing, speaking in tongues, etc. (1 Corinthians). Although not so much evident in modern times, these gifts have nonetheless been visible on occasion throughout the Church's history. They were especially prominent in nineteenth-century Russia in the ministry of the elder. Eldership, rather than being received through ordination, was received directly from the Holy Spirit and was exercised by laymen, in addition to priests and bishops.

            The textbook sums up the bishop's position in the Church with the reminder that even though a bishop's authority is fundamentally that of the Church, he is not to be thought of as someone set up over the Church. Instead, a bishop is in the Church as one of its members, and he is a holder of an office within the Church. Pastor and flock are united in an organic bond so that neither the bishop nor the people can properly be though of in isolation from the other. St. Cyprian states in brief: “The Church is the people united to the bishop, the flock clinging to its shepherd. The bishop is in the Church and the Church is in the bishop.”

            Lastly, it is important to note that a bishop's charisma does not guarantee that he will not fall into error and preach false doctrine, for he is still a man and is thus capable of making mistakes. Here once again is the principle of synergy: the divine element does not eliminate the human. While the Church as a whole is infallible, no individual member of it is infallible, save Christ, its Head. Given these facts, one can all the better understand how a vast number of hierarchs in modern times have entered into apostasy with their involvement with the end-times phenomenon of the panheresy of ecumenism. Speaking of this apostasy, Archbishop Theophan of Poltava and Pereyaslavka, confessor to the last imperial family of Russia, writes:

Regarding the affairs of the Church, in the words of the Savior, one of the most awesome phenomena of the final days is that at that time “the stars shall fall from heaven” (Mt 24:29). According to the Savior’s own explanation, these stars are the angels of the Churches, in other words, the bishops (Rev 1:20). The religious and moral fall of the bishops is thus one of the most characteristic signs of the final days. The fall of the bishops is particularly horrifying when they deviate from the doctrines of the faith, or, as the Apostle Paul put it, when they “would pervert the Gospel of Christ” (Gal 1:7)  [Selected Letters, p. 44].