§ 118. District Protopresbyters

The district protopresbyter is the superior over the parish clergy of the district concerned. He is so called, and holds the dignity of protopresbyter, only in the territorial Serbian and Romanian churches. In the other territorial churches the superior over the given number of parishes and parish clergy is called differently. In Russia, for instance, our protopresbyterate district is called blagochinie, and the superior blagochinny; in Bulgaria he is called archiereyski namestnik [episcopal vicar/deputy]. Accordingly, the office of this superior need not be bound up with protopresbyteral church dignity; rather, the superior of a district may be a priest who holds no church dignity whatsoever. Nor is this superior’s office everywhere permanently fixed in one person; rather, it may cease and pass from one person to another, and in general last only for some determined time.[1]

The number of parishes composing one protopresbyterate, or, in general, a district placed under the oversight of one special priest, varies according to the geographical position of one diocese or another, but usually ten parishes are regarded as the smallest normal number.[2]

The right of appointing district protopresbyters belongs to the diocesan bishop, on the proposal of the spiritual consistory, or of the priestly council attached to the bishop.[3]

The competence of district protopresbyters is determined by their significance as vicars of the bishop in the districts concerned. Their supervisory rights in the districts entrusted to them extend to everything to which the bishop’s own rights extend in his diocese, naturally with such limitations as the pontifical and archpastoral rights of the diocesan bishops place upon these rights of theirs. In exercising the said rights, district protopresbyters have established duties, which are set out at greater or lesser length, both in older and in newer instructions issued by the competent church authorities and by which they are to be guided.

The duties of district protopresbyters, according to the various existing instructions, may be divided according to the duties which the bishop has in his diocese in exercising the power of teaching, of divine service, and of governance, and district protopresbyters likewise are obliged to direct their oversight in the districts concerned to these same branches of church authority. We shall mention these supervisory duties here only in the main.

With regard to teaching, district protopresbyters must attend to: 1) whether the Orthodox faith is everywhere kept in purity in the district entrusted to them, 2) whether the parish priests preach every Sunday and every feast, and whether they preach in the spirit of the Orthodox Church, 3) whether they regularly catechize the children, 4) whether Christian doctrine is taught according to books prescribed and approved by the higher church authority, 5) whether the priests cultivate theological learning, what books they read in general, and what periodicals they take, and 6) finally, that at every visitation of the district they instruct, both publicly in church and at other gatherings, both the people and the subordinate clergy.

With regard to divine service, the protopresbyters are obliged to attend to: 1) whether, in accordance with the church prescriptions and the ecclesiastical statute, everything necessary for divine worship is present at every parish church, and how this is kept and in what order the priests hold it, 2) whether the necessary liturgical books are present at every church and in what order they are kept, 3) whether the church buildings are clean and orderly, 4) whether churches are built according to a plan approved by the competent authority, 5) whether the priests keep the holy gifts for the sick and the holy chrism in good order, 6) whether the priests serve in church when they should and whether they do not by chance omit any service, especially during the fasts, 7) whether the holy mysteries are performed according to the prescriptions of the Church, and whether, especially with regard to marriage, the ordinances of the civil authority are observed, and 8) whether all the faithful confess and commune at the prescribed times, and likewise, whether at least once every year the priests themselves also confess before the district confessors concerned.

With regard to governance, that is, of church-administrative life, the district protopresbyters are obliged to oversee and attend to: 1) whether the subordinate parish priests execute exactly the ordinances of the competent authorities, 2) whether the priests conscientiously and according to the relevant prescriptions keep the parish administrative records, 3) whether they by chance do not engage in occupations which might lower their priestly standing, 4) whether the priests live honorably and piously in their own house and in their own family, 5) whether they bring up their children well, 6) whether widowed priests do not by chance keep in their house any woman about whom something suspicious might be presumed, 7) whether the priests always wear the prescribed clerical dress, 8) whether they do not by chance exact unlawful fees for their services; 9) the district church overseers are further obliged to take care of priests who are in need, and likewise of the orphans and widows of the clergy, 10) to oversee whether church property is conscientiously administered, 11) to convoke the clergy of their district once, or even twice, every year to a general gathering for deliberation on the needs of the Church and for the maintenance of theological learning, 12) to see to it that any post which by chance and unexpectedly becomes vacant is filled at once, 13) to report without delay to the diocesan bishop as soon as anything extraordinary occurs in his district, 14) to keep an exact register of all the priests of the district concerned and to note in detail everything concerning each of them, 15) regularly, once, and even twice, a year to visit all the parishes of their district, in the course of which, besides personal verification of everything in the parish concerned, to pay particular attention to how the parish registers and the other official books are kept and conducted, and likewise, in what order the church-communal library is kept and whether the necessary care is taken for its increase, and finally 16) after every visitation of their district, to submit a detailed report to the diocesan bishop on the state of the district, together with their opinion on the changes that might by chance need to be introduced into the existing institutions.[4]