Page 172 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

O r t h o d o x y
who, acting as the eucharistic president in persona Christi, is
profoundly constitutive of the mystery of the Church by dis-
tributing the charisms of Church ministries through ordina-
tion.
One of the fundamental ministries constituting the eucha-
ristic community as Church was from the earliest times the
deacon. Together with the bishop and the presbyters, the dea-
cons were regarded by St. Ignatius of Antioch toward the end
of the first century as an essential part of the structure of the
Church, which realizes its unity when the community is “with
the bishop and the presbyters and the deacons who are with
the bishop”; “without these,” he writes, “[the community] can-
not be called a Church” (To the Trallians 3.1). So essential and
important was the ministry of the deacon for St. Ignatius that
he linked him to Christ himself, echoing the New Testament
idea that all ministries are reflections and expressions of
Christ’s ministry.
Regrettably, for various reasons, the office of the deacon has
lost its original importance through the centuries and has
come to be regarded merely as a step toward the priesthood.
Yet despite these historical shifts, the fundamental structure
of the Church remained in essence one and the same, at least
in the Orthodox Church. The Church is a community with a
specific structure comprising the bishop at its center, sur-
rounded by the presbyters and assisted by the deacons, always
with the indispensable presence of the laity, the people of God.
In such a structure, the importance of the deacon needs to be
brought to our attention.
Recent scholarly publications have turned to biblical and
early patristic sources, reminding us of the original purpose
and expression of the Body of Christ and seeking to discern
the fundamental ministry and mission of the Church. Hith-
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