Читать книгу Amt, Ordination, Episkopé und theologische Ausbildung / Ministry, ordination, episkopé and theological education - Группа авторов - Страница 24

41. The first of these indispensable ministries is the ministry of word and sacraments which is highlighted in all the churches of CPCE.²² This is a consensus which is ecumenically significant both within and beyond CPCE. The Confessio Augustana (CA V and XXVIII) speaks of the ministry of teaching the gospel and administering the sacraments (ministerium docendi evangelii et porrigendi sacramenta), which is instituted in order that we may obtain faith in God’s justifying grace (CA IV).²³ The significance of this particular ministry has also been highlighted by the Confessio Helvetica Posterior (XVIII), which states that God has always used ministers in the service of the church and will continue to use them. Their main duties are the teaching of the gospel of Christ and the proper administration of the sacraments. Accordingly, Tampere Thesis 1 states: “In conformity with Christ’s institution there is a ministry pertaining to word and sacrament, the ministerium verbi (Augsburg Confession V), which ‘proclaims the gospel and dispenses the sacraments’ […] The churches from both traditions²⁴ which have signed or are participating in the Leuenberg Agreement concur that the ‘ordained ministry’²⁵ belongs to the being of the church”.

42. The particularity of the ministry of word and sacraments is not a matter of ranking within the order of ministries or among the wider services in the church. It lies in the specific purpose to which this ministry is assigned within the church as a collective body created by the gospel (creatura verbi). The church is entirely dependent on God’s grace, which is conveyed specifically by the proclamation of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments. In the Reformation view these two functions represent together the necessary, divinely instituted, marks of the true church (notae ecclesiae).²⁶

43. The community of believers is given responsibility, in a wide sense, for maintaining proclamation, baptism and Holy Communion as means of grace in the church.²⁷ However, the reference to the priesthood of the baptised does not aim to reduce the importance of the particular ministry of word and sacraments in the regular life of the church. According to the Lutheran confessions, only “rightly called” ministers should be allowed to carry out the “public” service of the means of grace (cf. CA XIV). The Reformed Reformation did not use this category of publicity, but ensured as well that the ministry of word and sacraments was formally maintained. Only under exceptional circumstances, such as in times of persecution, non-ordained believers were formally called to serve as preachers. In personal counselling any Christian has the authority to state God’s forgiveness to a person who shows repentance. “The particular ministry […] consists in the public proclamation of the word and in the dispensation of the sacraments before the congregation and yet within the congregation, who exercise their functions of priesthood of all believers in prayer, personal witness and service.”²⁸

44. In the Protestant churches the ministry of word and sacraments has been traditionally exercised by full-time parish/ circuit ministers. This has had, and still retains, its value in securing ministers who are well trained for their task and can apply themselves fully to their task. But traditional and historically contingent forms of parish ministry (“Pfarramt”) are not the only possible forms of securing the divinely instituted ministry of word and sacraments. This ministry can be exercised in different terms of employment and with specially assigned functions and areas of service.

45. Historically, under exceptional circumstances non-ordained persons have been authorised in their churches to serve as ministers of word and sacraments without special professional qualifications. Over the last decades, however, several churches have, for various reasons, developed more permanent forms of ministry at a local level, where persons (mostly on a part-time and temporary basis) are assigned responsibility of preaching the gospel and often also celebrating the Lord’s Supper. Such forms of “local ministry” respond to urgent needs and have become widely recognised. Due to their local character these new forms of ministry have raised questions at the interchurch level regarding their ministerial character, such as their connection to the traditional ministry of word and sacraments, and how to recognise their place among the other ordered ministries. It is important that locally defined ministries are exercised within defined areas of responsibility and with requirements of appropriate training.²⁹ In addition, their forms of recognition must be theologically and structurally compatible with those of the other ordered ministries in the church. Of special importance, in this regard, is the issue of ordination for all ministries of word and sacraments.³⁰ In this area, there will necessarily be significant variations among the churches, and consultations within the CPCE churches will be helpful.

46. The ministers of word and sacraments have to exercise their ministry in communion with the worldwide Christian church on the basis of a clear calling (vocatio interna as well as vocatio externa). This means that they should perform their service on the basis of a recognised mandate. This mandate is given through ordination according to the order of each church. It does not, however, give ordained ministers a humanly based authority over the congregation. Their authority for this is derived from God’s word proclaimed through the means of grace.³¹ Rather, as it is the ordained minister’s task to “confront and comfort the congregation with the word of God”³², the ministry is clearly prophetic.

47. The term “ministry of word and sacraments” denotes that the preaching of the word and the administration of the sacraments cannot be separated from each other. This is also presupposed in the traditional terminology of ministerium verbi. Proclamation and sacraments are in the view of the Reformation the two forms of the gospel (verbum audibile and verbum visibile) by which the church is constituted.³³ The preaching of God’s word necessarily leads to the building up of a community that is served by the sacraments. And such a community cannot exist without being guided and judged by God’s word.