§ 59. The Concept of the Hierarchy

Church authority did not, as we have seen, arise in the Church by degrees, that is, it was not gradually formed and developed, but it arose together with the Church herself, and derives from the very Founder of the Church, who handed over that authority to His apostles, and from them it passed to determined persons in the Church. To these persons—not to all members of the Church without distinction—that authority belongs today, as it always will belong. There exists, then, in the Church an order of persons who are the guardians and bearers of that sacred authority which Christ instituted. These persons, possessing such authority, compose the hierarchy (ἱεραρχία, sacrum principatum), or the sacred order [svešteno-načelništvo]. Dionysius the Areopagite defines it thus: “Our hierarchy is called, and is, an institution for all sacred things (ἁπάντων ἱερῶν πραγματεία), which, founded by the divine Hierarch, has the power to perform all sacred services.”[1] All those persons who, by way of apostolic succession, have lawfully received church authority, compose the hierarchy, or, as it is called in the canons, the sacred order (κατάλογος ἱερατικός).[2] They are divided, as we have already said, into sacred ministers (ἱερωμένοι) and church-servers, or clerics in the wider sense (ὑπηρέται ἢ κληρικοί).[3] The former are called to perform sacred service, the latter to carry out the outward liturgical offices.

All sacred ministers, according to the hierarchical degree in which each stands, are equal among themselves in the power of performing the sacred rites; but they are not equal among themselves in the other two branches of church authority. In this latter relation, what decides is the position which they occupy in the governance of the Church, and the service which, by virtue of a lawful mission (κανονικὴ ἀποστολή), they perform. In this regard the division of the hierarchy set forth in the Middle Ages is a fitting one, namely: the hierarchy of the sacred rites (ἱεραρχία ἱερατική, hierarchia ordinis) and the hierarchy of governance (ἱεραρχία διοικητική, hierarchia jurisdictionis). The power of teaching (ἐξουσία διδακτική), in view of the fact that teaching (preaching) forms an essential part of the liturgy, belongs to the sacred hierarchy; but on the other hand, since the right of teaching in the strict sense belongs only to those who have received that right by a special canonical mission, this power is closely bound to the governing hierarchy and forms a part of it.

Independently of the hierarchical degree which someone holds, and likewise independently of his position in the governance of the Church, all who belong to the sacred order—whether they have entered it through ordination or through cheirothesia—are, by that very order, subject to certain established canonical duties which all, without distinction, are bound to fulfill; and, according to the particular position which they occupy in the Church, as her chosen ministers, in addition to the duties by which they are bound, they also have, by virtue of that same order, the corresponding general rights, which are likewise canonically guaranteed to them. Beside these general rights and duties, which extend to all who belong to the sacred order, there exists, at the same time, a canonically established relation among the various members of the hierarchy, by which it becomes possible to maintain good order and harmony among them all.