by Fr. Jonathan H. Cholcher
The perfect form of government does exist in and for the Church of Christ, but not according to any form of this world corrupted in sin and death. “Perfect” means the form actually leading to perfection, not just an “ideal” which may or may not be achieved (cf., Plato, Republic), or the “best” that mankind can devise (cf., Aristotle, Politics). The Lord instructed His disciples, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” He then taught His disciples to pray: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 5:48; 6:9-10). Christ Jesus, the Savior, preached “the kingdom of God” and participation in it for all who would truly live (Matt. 4:17, 23; 5:3; 6:33; 12:28; 13:36f.).
The apostle Paul writes, “For our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). In another place he writes, “But now [those who died in faith] desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them,” and a little later in the same epistle, “But you (the faithful on earth) have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 11:16; 12:22).
Just prior to His arrest and crucifixion, the Lord described the kingdom of heaven “like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding” (Matt. 22:2-3; cf. Eph. 5:25-27, 32; Rev. 19:6-9). At the Lord’s Table of Holy Communion, Christ said to His apostles: “And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Lk. 22:29-30).
The Lord distinguished His kingdom from any form of earthly, or worldly, kingdom. He told Pilate, the Roman procurator of Judea, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here” (Jn. 18:36). Jesus reiterated the not-of-this-world quality of His kingdom in His great prayer to God the Father before His arrest: “I have given [My disciples] Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (Jn. 17:14). Yet Christ’s kingdom, which supersedes all other kings and kingdoms of this world, is a present reality for the believers in Christ (Lk. 17:20-21; Dan. 2:44-45; Rev. 11:15; 20:4-6).
In summary, the perfect form of government does exist among humankind. It exists when the faithful in Christ are gathered for communion with God and each other at the Lord’s Table. This is the manifestation of the kingdom of God on earth, a participation in the uncreated life of the Holy Trinity which is the kingdom of heaven including the holy angels and the saints departed this temporal life. This perfect form of government exists to perfect us in that unchanging and incorruptible kingdom beyond this world which is passing away in sin and death.
The constitution of this perfect form of government is manifest at the Divine Liturgy of the Church as the rule of the Law of God the Holy Trinity. The baptized faithful gathered for Holy Communion are the kingdom, constituted specifically as members of one Body with its Head, the King and High Priest Jesus Christ. Four orders, or ranks, of citizens come together in assembly on earth: bishops, presbyters (priests [elders]), deacons, and people (laity), and the faithful on earth are co-citizens with the righteous departed and angelic hosts of heaven. [See Acts 2:38-45; 26:18; 1 Cor. 12:12-13, 27-28; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:19-22; Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:1-13; 4:14; 5:17-20; Heb. 8:1-6; 12:22-24; 1 Pet. 5:1-4; et al.]
Though described with several terms taken from political usage in the ancient Greco-Roman world, the government of the Church cannot be categorized in nor conform to the same meanings of that secular usage. For instance, the basic term usually translated as “church,” namely ekklēsia (Gk.,), refers to the assembly in which decisions pertaining to the governance of a city, or state, take place (cf. Acts 19:32). In the governance of the Church, the use of ekklēsia does not imply a political system of democracy, oligarchy, aristocracy, or monarchy to make those decisions; rather, the assembly (ekklēsia) which is the Church gathers, by definition, for the Lord’s Supper in the Divine Liturgy and everything associated with that constitution (cf. 1 Cor. 11:17-34; Heb. 10:19-25). This is a usage taken from the Old Covenant fulfilled in the New (cf. Deut. 4:10; 23:2-8; 1 Chr. 28:8; Ps. 21:23; Heb. 2:12).
Kingdom (Gk., basileia; Lat., regnum); city/state (Gk., polis; Lat. civitas); constitution/citizenship (Gk., politeia/politevma; Lat., civitas); citizen (Gk., politēs; Lat., civis); community/association/communion (Gk., koinōnia; Lat., communitas); liturgy/public service (Gk., leitourgia) – these are all terms used in ancient political discourse according to the various theories of governance in human society. In the Christian Scriptures and writings of the Church Fathers, all these terms apply to the form of government constituted in the kingdom of God at the Table of the Lord Christ, the covenant or compact defining God’s relationship with His people who live and conduct themselves according to His laws.
The purpose of government in the Church is not to achieve some worldly kind of paradise, or utopia, for which all secular political theorists strive but admit is unachievable. The term Utopia, famously coined by Thomas More (1516), means both a “good-place” (Gk., eutopia) and “not-a-place” (Gk., outopia).
The purpose of government in the Church is to order and transform human existence unto eternal life according to the righteousness of God in communion with God and all of creation in Jesus Christ the God-Man. “I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church (ekklēsia) of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh…” (1 Tim. 3:15-16). “Only let your conduct (Gk., politevesthe) be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel…Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, of any comfort of love, if any communion (koinōnia) of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy be being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind…Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…” (Phil. 1:27; 2:1-2, 5-11).
The perfect form of government in the Church functions as follows. The local assembly of baptized Christians gathered for Divine Liturgy is the manifestation of the kingdom of God in which Jesus Christ is King and High Priest and everything is a type, or icon, of Christ’s relationship with His Church. This government is best described not in institutional terms, but as a relationship of love and nurture: a Husband and His Bride (by extension, household and family), and a Shepherd and His flock (see 2 Cor. 11:1-2; Eph. 5:22-33; John 10:11-16; 21:15-17; Acts 20:28; Heb. 13:20-21; 1 Pet. 5:1-4).
Presiding at the liturgical assembly is the bishop, or overseer/supervisor (Gk., episkopos) and shepherd (Lat., pastor). Presbyters (Gk., presbyteroi; Eng., presters=priests) serve alongside the bishop teaching the people and presiding at the liturgical assembly and its mysteries (sacraments) at the appointment of the bishop in his absence. Deacons (Gk., diakonoi) assist the bishop and presbyters serving various specific ministries within the Church supplying the material and spiritual needs of the saints under the management of the bishop. The people (Gk., laos; hence, laity), the recipients of the grace of God to which the bishops, presbyters, and deacons belong, are “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, [God’s] own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9).
The Church so constituted pursues one chief aim: “the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13; see Matt. 28:18-20; Col. 1:27-29; Titus 2:11-14; 2 Pet. 1:2-11; 1 Jn. 1:1-4; etc.). Thus the government of the Church is a hierarchy, literally, a priest-rule engaged in thank-offerings and prayers to God. The Head of the Body/Household/Bride of the Church is Christ Jesus the great High Priest. The Body/Household/Bride of Christ is composed of persons who are ordained to the priesthood (presbytery) as bishops, priests, and deacons, together with the royal priesthood of all the people. Each member of the Body/Household of God functions cooperatively under the direction of Christ Jesus in its proper order manifested most clearly in the service of the Divine Liturgy, being built and building one another up in the faith, hope, and love of God the Holy Trinity.
The Church so constituted in each locality is whole, or entire (Gk., katholikē; “catholic”). Thus the perfect form of government should exist in every local Orthodox Church, wherever the baptized faithful are gathered for Holy Communion, as has been the reality since the inception of the Church at Pentecost and its succession in every generation of Christians after the Apostles. The bishops of each local Church constitute, or manifest, the Church’s/Churches’ unity in doctrine, practice, and the mission of the Gospel.
St. Ignatius of Antioch (+107 A.D.) summarizes: “See that you all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as you would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the command of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church (ekklēsia) without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper (or, sure) Eucharist (Divine Liturgy with Holy Communion), which is administered either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude of the people also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic Church. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a love-feast (Gk., agape; cf. Jude 12); but whatsoever he shall approve, that is also pleasing to God, so that everything that is done may be secure and valid (or, sure)” (To the Smyrnaeans, 8; see also the First Epistle of Clement, 40-44, 54 [97 A.D.]).
Throughout the course of Christian history various conventions of worldly governmental organization have been adopted for use by the Church. As the number of local churches grew in the ancient Roman empire, they were grouped into parishes (paroikiai) and dioceses (dioikiai), both distinctions common to the imperial organization, the larger groups of churches being supervised by a single bishop residing in the most influential city of each respective geographical region. That influential city was frequently called a metropolis (lit., mother-city); hence, its bishop was called a metropolitan. Similarly, the bishops of the most influential cities, or capitals, of whole countries (patria), such as Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria (in Egypt), came to be called patriarchs. The episcopal title Ecumenical Patriarch includes a further distinction between the civilized (oikoumenē; cf. ecumenical council) and uncivilized (barbarian) parts of the world inhabited by human society and their ecclesiastical jurisdiction(s); the various jurisdictions (lit., rights to govern) tend to be defined as national “churches” according to boundaries of geography, language, and culture (e.g., Latin (Roman), Syrian, Greek, Russian, etc.).
In our day, especially in Western European and American society, parliamentary and democratic conventions are commonly employed in Church governance, for example: Church statutes (legal constitutions), Metropolitan and Diocesan Councils, the offices of chancellor and dean, parish bylaws, and popular vote (according to Robert’s Rules of Order). All these conventions tend toward increasing complexity and bureaucracy, legality and state-craft, and once adopted are infrequently rescinded.
All conventions of worldly organization may be helpful means of administering Church affairs, but importantly, they are not essential to the form of government in the Church established by the Lord Jesus. Over-emphasis on maintaining these ancillary conventions of governance for their own sake detracts from and eventually threatens to eliminate a clear vision of the very purpose of government in the Church as given by Christ. For instance, when the Israelites wanted “a king like all the rest of the nations,” God allowed it with this warning: “In doing this they have rejected Me, to bring to naught My reign over them” (1 Kgm. 8).
The purpose of government in the Church is not simply to maintain an institutional order, however that is conceived, in order to have success according to worldly standards, but communion with God in the practice of the righteousness of faith and love. The true purpose of government in the Church is always revealed in and from the Divine Liturgy where the household and flock of God is gathered for correction and nourishment, and enabled to strive forward unto eternal life in the kingdom of God.
The perfect form of government does exist in the Church of Christ preserved in the Orthodox tradition. The simple practice of this government suffices for the genuine needs of both the faithful and those whom the Lord still calls to salvation and participation in His new heaven and earth.
