17.

 Give the understanding you derived from this chapter concerning the position of the bishop in the Church.

·        Christ called the Apostles to exercise the highest ministry in the Church, and the Apostles in turn named bishops as their immediate successors and continuers.

·        The administrative structure of the early Church consisted of a bishop of a particular city and the flock he governed.

·        Presbyters (priests) and deacons assisted the bishop in a threefold ministry, a pattern that became widely established by the end of the first century.

·        Bishops have the highest rank in the Church, and they therefore receive the highest degree of grace.

·        St. Ignatius of Antioch saw the bishop of the Church as presiding as the visible representative of Christ, Who is the Head of the Church. He also saw the bishop's primary task as that of celebrating the Eucharist. This teaching occupies a permanent place in the tradition of the Church.

·        St. Ignatius saw the bishop as the center of unity in the local community. For Ignatius, the local community — that is, the bishop surrounded by his flock, is the Church. This concept of the central importance of the local community (bishop and flock) is emphasized in Orthodoxy.

·        The Orthodox Church is a conciliar Church in which bishops consult with one another in Councils in order to achieve a common mind under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

·        And, as noted in the introduction and this chapter, the Orthodox Church is the only Church in Christendom that has an uninterrupted succession of bishops going all the way back to the Apostles.

(A more complete development on the position of the bishop in the Church will be given in chapter ten).