I first heard the notion of the diocese as the fundamental unit of the church back in the 1980s from my bishop. But I never heard a reasonable theology that supported his claim. Practically, I recoiled at this absurd idea thrust upon the church by the bishops who had, under this rubric, either lost touch with reality or suffered form significant amnesia. Anybody with any sense knows that the fundamental unit of the church is the local congregation. The local parish is the place where the people are, and as we all know, the baptized faithful are the church.
I tried to find a theology that justified the Bishop's idea. I "googled" theology of diocese" and came up with nothing. But I do believe that I remember correctly that the notion that the diocese is the fundamental unit of the church arose accidentally from the 4th century Roman political organizational system. After Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, the church continued to flourish and grow, and therefore, needed to organize itself to fit the growth. The church thus adopted the Roman form of administrative organization which was the diocese. An early definition of the word diocese means to dwell, occupy, manage, derivative of oikos house.
In the New Testament the first churches were house churches, relatively small, probably attended by no more than 50 people. Think about that when we consider that an early definition of the diocese was a derivative of the word "house." Jewish Christians also met in synagogues. As the church grew, they used bigger houses and some of them were donated by wealthy Roman citizens who were Christians. This made them "churches" in the modern sense of a public building set aside for worship.
The early church in the British Isles had no diocesan system. Celtic Christianity was organized around a monastic tradition where the Abbot was more powerful than the bishop. This was a spiritual community united through a communion of friendships and alliances between spiritual leaders and their monasteries. The diocese as an administrative principle in British Christianity was not adopted until after Augustine of Canterbury arrived on British soil in 597 A.D., establishing sees at Rochester in Kent and East Saxon (London).
Parish priests and their people know that the local parish is the fundamental unit of the church. This is where the baptized faithful assemble for worship, prayer, discipleship and ministry. Our catechism puts it this way: The Church is described as the Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head and all baptized persons are members. It is called the People of God, the New Israel, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, and the pillar and ground of truth. This basic statement says nothing about organizational and administrative structure, but to me implies that the local assembly is the organizing principle of the body.
While the diocese is the traditional judicatory style of Anglican and Roman Catholics, there is no practical or theological justification for the notion that it is the fundamental unit. Ecumenically it doesn't hold water either. The Methodist are organized in conferences. The Lutherans have their Synods. Ecumenical charity demands that we recognize these and other Christian organizational structures as just as valid as the diocese.
What planet are the bishops who believe this living on? The local parish has always been the fundamental unit of the church. This is where the action is. If the local parish did not exist, there would be no diocese. The diocese depends on us, not we on them.
Article V, Section 5 of the Episcopal Church Constitution states: "No new Diocese shall be formed unless it shall contain at least six Parishes and at least six Presbyters (Rectors)..."
ReplyDeleteClearly a Diocese cannot exist without Parishes but a Parish can exist without a Diocese. Actually the Constitution prohibits splitting of Dioceses if doing so results in less than twelve Parishes in the original Diocese.
The fundamental unit of the Church can only be the people formed into Parishes.
In the Jewish tradition, the fundamental unit of the faith is the family. We can learn something from this as Christians, especially that the "Body of Christ" is not tied to a building, but is an extended family of people who "bear each other's burdens."
ReplyDelete- George Smith, St. Mark's, Glen Ellyn, IL
I am of two minds about this. Although I experience the local congregation as Church, I am aware that the local congregation in isolation is unhealthy. We need our connections to other congregations in the diocese and we might even need our connection to our bishop, and not just for confirmation. ☺️We also need connections with congregations in other denominations and with other faith communities and secular organizations. If the Church's purpose is sharing in the missio Dei, then wide networks of relationship are important.
ReplyDeleteWhere does faith come from? And, what is the Fundamental Unit of the Church? Well, according to the peoples choice, Woody Guthrie, IT COMES FROM THE HEART OF HUMANIY.
ReplyDelete"Faith Will Heal You" by Woody Guthrie is a peoples song and I think spoken in the language of the people, folk music, which has it's origins in the Gospel and African American Spirituals.
Faith is a pure gift of the Spirit that as Woody sings, "...is quicker." The gift is incarnate in the fleshy heart of humanity not the idles of human worship, which include the structures of cenralized power erected to incase the heart and imprison faith.
Listen and ponder these words from Woody, probably written from a box car on the rails somewhere west of Tulsa or Topeka.
Lots of folks say that healing comes
From things that you drink and eat;
Powders and pills and lotions to pour
In your mouth and stomach and feet.
Oils and salves and waxes and dyes,
In all of these gods they believe;
But the healing takes place by your faith and your work
And not in any of these.
Some would rather to trust in a weed
Or a mineral, root, or an herb.
Others put trust in a salt or a soap,
And not in the word of the Lord.
Some people go to the sugar sack,
And some to the kerosene can.
But healing ain't hiding in any of these;
It comes from the heart of man.
The rhubarb root and juniper juice,
Cornmeal ashes and liquor.
These things are but empty idle gods;
The fire of the spirit is quicker.
The soda and syrup and alkalines
Are as dead as an old doornail.
So put your faith in the work that you do,
And learn that faith will heal.
So put your faith in the work that you do,
And learn that faith will heal.
Lots of folks say that healing comes
From things that you drink and eat;
Powders and pills and lotions to pour
In your mouth and stomach and feet.
Oils and salves and waxes and dyes,
In all of these gods they believe;
But the healing takes place by your faith and your work
And not in any of these.
But the healing takes place by your faith and your work
And not in any of these.
But the healing takes place by your faith and your work
And not in any of these.
Perhaps, we may include a verse about the Fundamental Unit of the Church?
Matthew Cobb, Rector
St. Luke's
Wamego, KS 66547
Wow, thank you all; such thoughtful and creative responses.
ReplyDeleteI remember having that announcement (not conversation) with my bishop in the late 1980's. I said I did not see things that way, but he was like talking to a walkie-talkie. He was always on "send" and never on "receive". Does that sound familiar?
ReplyDeleteDaniel Weir: I agree with you said about "isolation". This is why I invented the "Regional Parish". You may hear more on this in my next Blog.
ReplyDeletead "what" between with and you. ;-)
ReplyDeleteWe had a church that you pine for in my Kansas home town. With a sense for ironic theology, it was called the Congregational Church and the members referred to themselves as congregationalists.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a seminary degree, so I have to ask if I am missing an etymological nuance in the name "Episcopal" church?
I wonder if there needs to be some clarity around what we mean by fundamental. As an Episcopal priest, I do see all four orders (lay, bishop, deacon, priest) as fundamentally important to our tradition. If we say the basic unit of the Church (capital C) is the parish, isn't that more in line with other traditions such as Congregationalist and Presbyterians? I could go on with other ecclesial questions that I think would say in one manner or another that the diocese (which by definition has all four orders) is the fundamental expression of the Church. I would also point to the Lambeth Quadrilateral and its significance in our tradition.
ReplyDeleteIf however we are defining fundamental as where the heart and passion of our faith is expressed (which seems to be the case), then why stop at the parish level? Why not the a Christian household or say the individual Christian and her copy of scriptures? What does a parish have that these others do not? I can only surmise one thing: a priest (and therefore in our tradition the sacraments). If that is the case, I would like to hear more about why priests are fundamental in our tradition and bishops are not.
It is not a matter of having a bishop. It is about how the bishop works.
ReplyDeleteThank you for all the great comments, This item has created a lot of interest and sparked an important conversation.
ReplyDeleteGreat post and comments! Rather than fundamental unit, I am interested in where the power comes from. As all good organizers know (and a parish priest has a fair amount in common with a community organizer), it comes from the grass roots up, not the top down. That is why in our reorganization we need to think less in terms of hierarchy (as important as that may be) and more in terms of relational or interactive leadership and power.
ReplyDeleteI think comments #1--Gary and #13 Cliff together form 1. our actual legal structure and 2. the power or human energy locus for authentic functioning together. And then Bob Shahan's comment is about the episcopal leadership integrity style to actually empower what Cliff is noting. Having worked for two PB's and one diocesan bishop as staff as well as having consulted in dozens of dioceses to help out bishops, councils, stewardship commissions and congregations of all sorts, tangible health and growth occurred in my observation in the interactivity of the base community leadership (rectors and lay leaders) when they found partnership, empathy and challenge from the bishop and staff. What I observe frequently today in our circumstances are growing attempts to act as if one or the other (parish base leadership or diocesan authority) vainly behave at best indifferently to or merely tolerate the other in denial that the currency of the actual relationship does flow through formal power and money. So if the formalities get used to manipulate consent and conformity and money (apportionment) as controlling leverage, then, as Cliff notes, relationship exchange based on understanding, respect and actual emotional care will suffer and does. So now we have all sorts of pull outs of congregations from dioceses, law suits to get empty buildings and therefore useless assets back that will in the end be expense centers for bishops and dioceses in many cases. And in the very terminal point, our American church is finally a volunteer association wherein empowerment, encouragement, compassion, mutual respect and admiration for us all as lay, clergy/episcopal associates or, if you will the power of love over the love of power, is wherein the actual presence of the Holy Spirit in the Body of Christ will be manifest in ministry and mission. Oh, a little clue. . ., if you are a rector or bishop and keep reminding me incessantly of your formal power role (or worse use military analogies), I just don't feel the love. . . and by the way will probably not open my heart or wallet to you.
ReplyDeleteThe diocese is the fundamental unit of the church because the diocese is where the bishop is, and, as St Ignatius of Antioch put it in the 2nd century, "where the bishop is, there is the church." Both parishes and provinces ("national churches") are derivative entities. Only the diocese is primary (fundamental), but only the diocese possesses all that is necessary for a church to be and do what a church is and does. Yes, parishes are "where the action is." No argument there. And diocesan *structures* certainly exist to serve and strengthen the ministry of parishes, not the other way around. But a parish without a diocese is cut off from the source of its life.
ReplyDeleteWhere is St. Ignatius cited directly as canonical authority for The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church USA? Otherwise, it is a fine historic opinion.
ReplyDeleteIf I remember history correctly, the notion of a diocese surrounding the bishop was not evident at the time Ignatius wrote. The traditional side of me wants to agree with Bp. Martins that where the bishop is, so is the church. However, reality and constitutionality dictate otherwise. It is not the existence of the bishop that I worry about; it the centralization of power perceived as authentic along with disregard for the fundamental role of the parish that concerns me. Historically, Ignatius is simply a blip on the screen. Interesting but irrelevant in today's world. Christian mission in the 21st century must begin or continue on the local level under the solid pastoral leadership of a presbyter, or "presbyter-bishop" as is evidenced in the New Testament.
ReplyDeleteThe only fundamental thing a bishop performs essential to an historical sacramental community is to ordain. We can see from this blog and the comments it is really a yet to be defined via media issue.
ReplyDeleteGreat exchange!! One responder sought to answer the Blog’s question by quoting St. Ignatius, “where the bishop is, there is the church.” He then extrapolated that the diocese is the fundamental unit of the church because, again, that is ‘where the bishop is.’ His syllogistic logic fails in the light of history. The Church came to our land with the first Anglican Priest in 1607 at Jamestown, Virginia Colony. The first bishop graced our shores in 1789, Samuel Seabury. However if one follows St. Ignatius, there was “no church here in America” for those 182 years between the first priest and the first bishop. Absurd! The Church prospered for nearly 200 years without bishops on the ground.
ReplyDeleteIn reality, none of the authors of Episcopal Journey of Hope has ever advocated abandoning the Episcopal office or the diocesan structure; but rather a dramatic downsizing of the number of dioceses, and bishops, through merger. For as a Bishop noted above, “…diocesan structures certainly exist to serve and strengthen the ministry of parishes, not the other way around.” Right Reverend Sir – thank you for supporting our premise.
Hey, my man, Gary!! Thank you for again pointing to the facts of history, our actual narrative of American tradition.
ReplyDeleteWithout the bishop, there are no church members at all - since the bishop confirms (or receives) every member.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds pretty fundamental, to me.