In the Bible, the book of Acts, chapter 6, tells the story of the twelve disciples calling for a division of labor between those required to serve community needs and those responsible for preaching and teaching. They argued, "It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables." As a consequence, the community chose seven leaders of good standing for special service, and they stood before the apostles, "who prayed and laid hands on them."
This biblical story is the beginning of a process in Christian history whereby the churches have "ordered" their ministries, creating two categories of believers: clergy and laity. From the very beginning, however, the argument has been that clergy are no better Christians than any other faithful Christian believer. God calls the whole people (the laos) into ministry, yet the people (led by the Spirit) have found it helpful to designate certain people for various forms of service to and for the church. The apostle Paul wrote about the church as the "body of Christ" filled with members pursuing a variety of callings. "The gifts [God] gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. . . ." (Ephesians 4:11–13). This diversity of roles, Christians came to believe, was not only efficient but also part of God's plan.
Yet designating some persons to be special religious leaders (clergy) is not exclusive to Christianity. In pre-Christian history the ancient Greeks held to a concept of service wherein a few leaders were recognized and charged to support and enable others. In Asia the Chinese philosopher Confucius taught that for the good of society certain leaders were needed to provide civil service—a high calling. In ancient Israel the priests, the prophets, and even the Pharisees were all valued as people whom God called to serve the wider community.
In the history of Western civilization Christian and Jewish communities have formalized religious leadership through a ritual ceremony known as "ordination," whereby clergy are formally authorized to preach and teach. Christians have further defined the clergy as persons linked directly to the life and ministry of Jesus through "apostolic succession." Apostolic succession connotes the idea that the clergy are "set apart" through prayer and the laying on of hands of Christian leaders who have themselves been ordained in a similar manner. The authority of Jesus Christ is channeled to each new generation of clergy through a succession of ordained leaders, or through the continuity of the Christian community as a whole. Once ordained, the clergy carry an "indelible mark" of sacramental privilege and identity. And even when the clergy cease to function in priestly roles, they are forever ordained—vested for life with a divine authority to serve the needs of the church and to spread the gospel message.
Threefold Ordering of Clergy
Christian practice has defined three orders of clergy: deacons, elders, and bishops. Building on the practices of Hellenistic Judaism, the early church designated certain leaders as elders, or presbyteroi. Such persons were charged with religious leadership on behalf of the whole Christian community, exercising ministries of word and sacrament in local congregations and shaping the teaching and outreach of the early church. This basic clerical office (priest or minister) was entrusted primarily with ministries of word and sacrament.
In the history of the church, however, two other orders of clergy developed. On the one hand there were the bishops, or episkopoi —priests with wider church responsibilities over especially large Christian communities, or over several congregations. The role of the bishop was patterned after the head of the Roman household and served to protect individual Christian groups from heretical ideas and practices. In time bishops came to exercise political power as well as provide theological guidance. And in Western Europe the bishop of Rome, the pope, became chief ecclesiastical and political overseer over all clergy and laity. The early church specified certain qualifications for bishops and maintained its right and responsibility to make judgments about the suitability of those chosen to oversee the Christian ecclesiastical household, as set forth in the biblical letters of Timothy and Titus.
Finally, as ministries of word and sacrament and ministries of oversight were defined and limited to priests and bishops, a third order of clergy took form. Although this third order was less formal, certain persons, called deacons or diakonai, were consecrated as servants to work within and for the churches and embody the caring mandate of the gospel. Deacons supported the work of the other clergy—elders and bishops. Deacons emphasized the servant calling of the whole Christian community and embodied the servant ministry of the servant community.
At one level the Christian church rejected all hierarchical value judgments made about its members and leaders. Christianity turned the world's standards upside down, stating that the first shall be last. Such radical theology argued against the need for having any clergy at all. In practice, however, the threefold ordering of clergy leadership became deeply embedded in Christian history. Bishops, priests, and deacons came to control incredible and sometimes destructive spiritual and material power. The Protestant Reformation in Western Europe tried to correct some of the problems in the sixteenth century by going back to first-century practices. Reformers rejected bishops and made deacons into a "lay" order. They defined the clergy almost exclusively in terms of word and sacrament.
Protestantism dramatically changed the relationship between clergy and laity. Although most Protestant churches continued to have clergy, Protestant theology emphasized the "priesthood of all believers." Clergy were not considered any better than laity but were simply viewed as persons blessed with needed talents and empowered to function religiously with, and on behalf of, the whole community. Protestants considered ordination a special or "holy" calling, but its holiness was connected with the actions of the whole people of God (the priesthood of all believers), rather than with the life of a particular individual. Apostolic succession, for many Protestants, was the collective legacy of the Christian community keeping faith through the ages, rather than a sequence of ceremonies (or hands) linking one ordained person to the next one.
Although Roman Catholicism continued to affirm the important role of the clergy, especially as sacramental leaders, in the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, Catholics reaffirmed the importance of the ministry of the whole people of God. Progressive reforms were instituted to honor the diversity of ministries within the Christian community.
In North America all religious life and all practice were shaped by the democratic ideology of the United States. Critical of all privilege and status, some Christians rejected the importance of formal education for clergy and became followers of revivalists and preachers filled with the Holy Spirit. On the American frontier and in rapidly industrializing cities, the clergy reached out to serve the needs of society through social action ministries. In the United States the clergy became change agents committed to correcting injustices—taking leadership in movements for peace, for the abolition of slavery, for labor, for civil rights, and for the correction of numerous social problems. Although the clergy lost their stature in public life as an elite class of civic leaders, they became more directly involved in the lives of people.
The twentieth century has seen a renewed appreciation for the threefold ordering of ministry. Not only have Christians developed constructive ecumenical conversations about bishops, priests, and deacons, but also clergy in the United States have moved beyond traditional parish responsibilities to become preachers on the revival circuit, chaplains in hospitals and on campuses, missionaries to cities or distant lands, or leaders of developing ministries in totally new settings of need. Regardless of the arena of service, however, all clergy have been chosen by a religious community and authorized to provide religious support and guidance for the faithful.
Qualifications for Clergy
The question of qualifications for the clergy has been debated throughout Christian and Jewish history from the first century to the present. Do they need to be circumcised or uncircumcised? Youthful or mature? Well educated or especially pious? Charismatic preachers or skilled healers? Born-again believers or learned scholars? Married or celibate? Divorced or married only once? Polygamous or monogamous? Male or female? Heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual? Persons with disabilities, or persons who have no obvious physical or mental limitations? In some settings there are additional questions generated by the cultural context within which the church exists. In the United States, the clergy are found to be all of these types of people, depending on the denomination. Although some of these qualifications are considered irrelevant in modern times, others continue to generate heated debate and painful choices. Controversies about who can be clergy often touch the most precious and sacred values of local congregations and wider church traditions.
Generally speaking, most religious communities look to the various practices and prohibitions outlined in the Bible to decide who is qualified to be clergy. Some (e.g., the Quakers) reject the idea of any clergy. Others believe that only men can be clergy. Still others insist that clergy should be celibate. Most traditions require some special education and training for clergy. Overall, people tend to believe that clergy are essential to the well-being of the religious community. They understand clergy to be "called" by God, as well as by the church or synagogue or mosque or temple, and they hold clergy to "holy" or "priestly" responsibilities—preaching and officiating at the sacramental rites of the traditions (ministries of word and sacrament). Within Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and so on rabbis, priests/ministers, imams, and monks teach and lead prayers for the whole community, keeping alive the traditions they represent. In all cases the clergy exercise a sacred trust for the well-being of all adherents of a particular religious tradition.
See alsoChurch; Clothing, Religious; Judaism; Judeo-Christian Tradition; Liturgy and Worship; Mainline Protestantism; Ministry; Ordination; Ordination of Women; Parish; Practice; Prayer; Preaching; Priestess; Priesthood; Religious Communities; Ritual; Roman Catholicism; Sacraments; Seminaries.
Bibliography
Schillebeeckx, Edward. The Church with a Human Face:A New and Expanded Theology of Ministry. 1985.
World Council of Churches. Baptism, EucharistandMinistry. 1982.
Barbara Brown Zikmund
