Page 179 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

T H E P E O P L E O F G O D A N D T H E R O L E O F T H E L A I T Y
The People of God and the Role of the
L aity
The Church, in its fundamental structure, consists of clergy
and laity, and this distinction arises from the very struc-
ture of the Eucharistic Assembly: there are those who preside
and offer the Eucharist, and those who respond with the
“Amen.” This structure dates back to the first Apostolic Com-
munities (see 1 Cor 14-16), is attested by the First Epistle of
Clement, Justin Martyr, and the entire subsequent tradition.
From this Eucharistic structure the Church was formed into
clergy and laity. Thus the so-called lay element is not second-
ary, but a fundamental part of the Church’s very being. Just as
there can be no Divine Eucharist without the people, so there
can be no Church without the laity.
The Church is before all things the people of God, called
from dispersion into unity. The people of God are not simply
a multitude scattered through history, but a people gathered
into one Body in Christ. This is the great paradox of ecclesial
life: the many are dispersed in the world, yet already united in
the One. This reality is revealed above all in the Eucharistic
assembly, when the people of God are gathered in one place
around the one bishop, at the one altar. There the Church is
manifested in her fullness, and there all natural and social
divisions are overcome, for the Eucharistic gathering is not
founded on blood, class, profession, or common interest, but
on the calling of God.
The bishop presides in the midst of the assembly, surround-
ed by presbyters and assisted by deacons, but this order has
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