§ 122. The Appointment of Parish Priests in General

The very position of the parish priest in the diocesan constitution, and likewise the relation of the parish office to the central diocesan authority, itself shows us that the chief and decisive voice in the appointment of parish priests must belong to the supreme holder of diocesan authority, namely, the bishop. This right of the bishop, as much as it proceeds from the very nature of the matter, has been just as much confirmed by the legislation of the Church of every century.[1] For the sake of better assurance that a trustworthy person would be chosen for the office concerned, one who would be capable of performing his office well, the bishop usually heard beforehand the opinion of his clergy concerning the candidates in question, and then pronounced his own judgment as to the person who was to be appointed parish priest.[2] Just as the voice of the clergy, so too the bishop heard the voice of the people concerned before appointing anyone as their pastor. In the earliest times of the Church this voice of the people counted for much more with the bishop than the voice of the clergy, and in general no one was appointed to any public office of the Church without the people; there exists a multitude of testimonies to this, of which we have already mentioned several;[3] and to this participation of the people in the appointment of church pastors in general, and of parish priests in particular, the Church attached especially great significance, first because public opinion could serve the church authority as the best guarantee that the most worthy would be chosen and appointed, since the people know him and have publicly expressed their own judgment about him, and second, because this served as a manifest sign of the close moral bond between pastor and flock, and a unanimously chosen pastor represented in himself the expression of the love of his flock and the common object of that love.

This participation of clergy and people in the appointment, by the bishop, of the parish priests concerned, underwent changes in the course of time. The participation of the clergy was more or less retained, while the participation of the people, owing to the bond into which the Church entered with the state, passed for the most part to the state authority, whose help the Church itself often sought for the sake of the better stability of its ordinances in society, and for the sake of ensuring its general good order.[4] Today the state authority has replaced the popular element especially in those states where the Orthodox faith is at the same time the state faith. In general, according to the canonical ordinances of the Orthodox Church, the supreme right in the appointment of parish priests belonged to the diocesan bishop; the people were to express their opinion regarding the person concerned who was to be their pastor, and to attest the confidence they had in that person—while the clergy, or the presbyteral council, was to inform the bishop about that same person, about his qualities and abilities, and to assist the bishop with counsel as to whether or not this or that parish ought to be entrusted to someone. The participation of the state in the appointment of parish priests is conditioned by the relation that exists in the various states between the church and the state authority.

In order that someone may in general take up a public church office, it is necessary strictly to observe all those conditions which we have set out when speaking of entry into the hierarchy.[5] Besides those conditions, for a parish priest it is required: a) that he be a member of the clergy of the diocese in which he is to serve, and if by chance a cleric from another diocese seeks a parish post, he must have a letter of release from the bishop concerned and must be formally received into the clergy of the new diocese;[6] b) that he be a secular priest;[7] c) that he has passed well the examination of qualification for a parish priest before the established examining board;[8] and d) that he acknowledge by solemn oath that he knows all his duties and that he will conscientiously perform them, and further, that he will in everything be obedient to his superior authority.[9] Only after all this does he receive the letter of institution [synđelija] prescribed by law[10] and is formally installed in his post of office;[11] and from that time he begins to enjoy the corresponding remuneration for that office.[12]