A Structure of Government of the Ministers and Populous

Basileia Ouranos. Latreia diakonia

 

The Government of the Church is the oldest government form known to man, preceding all other forms including the social compact. The Church Specific is composed of dedicated public servants who depend on their individual conscience in the performance of their duties and mission and the support of the people they serve. The church in its most general sense would include the ministers and the populous who gather in congregations of families which forms a community bound only by faith, hope and charity around the living altars of the Church Specific.

Ministers in the Church Specific are truly titular leaders who only exercise authority over that which they are freely given by the people or produce in common effort. The Church Specific is composed of small independent religious orders that are brotherhoods by adoption and includes their families. Each order is formed by an agreement in one accord which also recognizes by its testimony and mutual service congregations of record and other orders creating a chain of recognition.

The mutual but autonomous recognition of orders through overseer-ship and service establishes a society of service where the highest order is not ruler but servant to all in accordance to the appointment and polity of Christ.

Historians have identified the early Church as a “viable republic in the heart of the Roman Empire”. If the church in general can be called a republic it would only be in the sense of the earlier “Libera Res Publica”, and not the constitutional republics, “Res Publica”, as seen under the Caesars.

The Church is the one form of government that allows the freedom of choice to rest entirely in the hand of the individual. Choice in contribution in support of the government, choice in administration of government affairs, choice in testimony and recognition is by a loyal and diligent attention to the weightier matters of law, judgment, mercy and faith. Such communities and societies can only be maintained by a virtuous people who care about each other as much as they care about themselves.

The Pattern

This system of self government is dependent upon individuals in congregation helping one another. Congregations are usually no more that ten or 12 families choosing their own minister. Those congregations gather in groups of ten or twelve. The ministers of each congregation choose their local minister by testimony and their contributions given in trust and in establishing a record of mutual service.

This pattern of choosing ministers for their ability to serve the people is repeated throughout a living network of faith, hope and charity until the highest group is no more than the best public servants of servants to all.

The Support

Contributions in support of this government of service composed of a body of titular leaders are freely and completely given to the ministers of choice. It is the responsibility of each elder of every family to give according to the service of the minister and the responsibility of the minister to administer that gift to the best of his ability for the good of all. The power to choose to give again or not give is the power to withdraw support and reelect new ministers to replace those who do not truly serve.

The Requirements

Elders of each family must act with love and virtue, diligently and unselfishly attending to the weightier matters of law, judgment, mercy and faith under the perfect law of liberty through faith, hope and charity.

The Ordained ministers of Christ must give up their right to the things of the “world”, the potestas and imperium of their own families, and their personal estate to become a part of a brotherhood of men in one accord under God the Father who art in heaven bound by faith, hope and charity and for the purposes of Christ and in the service of His Kingdom at hand under the protection and authority of His Holy Comforter.