August 24 2022
ABOLISH THE CLERGY?
A few years ago, on a 10km run, I caught up with another runner and we talked, while enjoying the scenery in the Madoc area. He was a retired head of the Newfoundland Constabulary and in that capacity had to interview the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in that Province, in connection with sex crimes committed by his clergy. In his long career of interviewing people, he had never experienced such stonewalling as he had encountered there.
O, the church. For me a continuous cause of frustration and irritation. My difficulty has mostly been with sermons that fail to connect to today, with ministers denying the essence of the Christian faith, with hymns that celebrate heaven.
Now, in the year of the Lord 2022, my church – my wife died almost 2 years ago – has no minister. I hope we never find a new one.
Reason?
Educationally, a monologue is the least effective way of conveying a topic: also, after 8 minutes, attention wanes. In addition, the church’s basic message is usually old hat: God Created, we sinned, Christ redeemed, we go to heaven. Moreover, sermons are primarily geared to the intellect, which breeds dualism: the soul for God, the earth for us: there’s a word for that: Gnosticism. I increasingly believe that the failure to see Creation as holy, is a factor in Global Heating.
Time for a radical change.
We need a new orientation, primarily geared to our final destination: the New Creation, because eternity is for those who prepare for it.
“There is no temple there”,
“There is no temple there”, says Revelation in describing our future. “No temple” means no church, means no Bible, while God’s Created Word, the Holy Earth, remains. It’s about time that the church acknowledges that the Church as institute and the Bible as God’s indirect word, are going to be things of the past, while creation, God’s direct Word, is forever.
Basically, the church structure is based on Old Testament organization with the Pope as High-priest, and the clergy as priests, even though Paul’s outline in 1 Corinthians 14, emphasizes the laity. Paul, the eminent missionary, advocated gatherings centered on small group discussions, cautioning that “everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.”
Why has the church evolved differently?
The basic answer is: the clergy. We simply don’t trust the Spirit to direct us in an orderly way. The clergy is afraid that the laity will express opinions tainted with heresies, vainglory, and vanity, also suspecting that the same people will always carry the conversation. The ‘ordained’ simply do not believe that “The Spirit helps us in our weakness”, as Romans 8:26 tells us.
But salvation is a personal matter: that’s why what people think and believe must be expressed and broadened, impossible in the current situation.
Small is beautiful.
Schumacher, in his classic, Small is beautiful, celebrated the benefits of keeping organizations within reasonable limits. That’s especially true of church gatherings. Large churches tend to be impersonal, emphasizing not so much the needs of the parishioners, as the personal talents of its leaders.
Leadership comes with certain dangers. The old Romans had an appropriate saying: “Quod Licet Iovi, non Licet Bovi”, basically stating that “What is allowed for Jupiter – the gods – is not allowed for the Cows, the common folk”. At times, the clergy were regarded as gods, allowing them to commit acts not allowed to less privileged people. The root of sexual misconduct is not primarily celibacy – the married Southern Baptist officials have the same problem – but the supposedly privileged position of the preachers. In the Netherlands and Scotland, the clergy used to be called, ‘Dominee’ or “Lord”, a designation reminding me of “Le droit du Seigneur”.
I believe that the present preacher-dominated practices are contrary to New Testament prescriptions: they prevent spiritual growth, foster complacency and ignorance, and lead to lethargy, stagnation and collapse, all too visible today.
The Bible is very explicit.
Abolish the clergy? Listen to Jesus! In Mathew 23, the “Woe to you, teachers”, is repeated seven times, each succeeding time in stronger terms, ending with “You snakes! You brood of vipers”. Jesus was dead-set against religion. He knew that religion would kill him. His very last miracle occurred when he was dying on the cross: the heavy curtain separating the common area from the Holy of Holies, ripped from Top to Bottom, signaling the death of formal religion. Jesus came to bring LIFE and that to the full: John 10: 10.
Jesus came to teach us how to live, how to prepare ourselves, not for heaven, as explicitly denied in John 3: 13, but for eternity in an environment cleaned of all pollution, by the blood of the Lamb.
Abolish the clergy? Yes, prioritize personal participation.