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38. There is broad agreement among Christian churches that the whole People of God participates in God’s mission. All baptised Christians are called to a life of witness and service.¹⁴ With reference to 1 Peter 2:9, ecumenical documents often describe this calling as participation in a “royal priesthood”.¹⁵ All members of the body of Christ have received certain complementary gifts (charismata) for their service.¹⁶

39. The ministries in the church are rooted in the threefold ministry of Christ, i.e. the ministry of prophet, priest and king.¹⁷ The church – gathered under the word and called to service – receives in its midst various charisms. The ministries are renewed out of these charisms, and the charisms in turn are sustained by the ministries.¹⁸ It is God’s will that those with special functions should “equip the saints for the work of ministry” and that this building up of the church is carried out in an orderly way (cf. Eph 4:11–12; 1 Cor 14:12, 26, 40). Consequently an order of ministries arises under the guidance of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit.¹⁹ The Protestant churches emphasise that the order of ministries should not be understood hierarchically. Levels of responsibility in the church are an important issue even for the Protestant churches, and the different ministries should be ordered and practiced as service, in terms of mutuality, and not as exclusive rights or domination.²⁰

40. The whole life of Christians and of the church “is to be led under the commission to be worship to God. In the narrower sense this is liturgical celebration (leiturgia), in its wider interpretation it is ‘reasonable worship’ (logike latreia, Rom 12: 2) in the everyday life of the world which is indicated by the three notions of martyria, diakonia and koinonia”²¹. Within this service there are certain ministries which are indispensable for the life and order of the church as will be shown in the following: These are the ministry of word and sacraments (see below, nos. 41–42), the ministry of diakonia (see below, nos. 48–49) and the ministry of episkopé (see below, nos. 71seqq.). In the churches there are also other services and ministries that are vital to the church’s life. Teaching the faith of the church belongs to several ministries. Many churches have a special teaching ministry, however, which they would consider indispensable.