The Gift of Authority

Ecumenical Review, The, Jan, 2000 by Michael Root

This interaction is discussed in the context of a comprehensive ecclesiology which readers will recognize as a variant of the many closely related communion ecclesiologies to be found in ecumenical documents. The central ecclesiological term is "synodality", which GA understands in terms of its etymology as the "walking together" which typifies those who "follow Jesus on the way" (GA [sections] 34).(14) Within this synodality, Tradition occurs and the Amen of the church is pronounced from age to age. If this Amen is to be spoken with clarity, decisions will need to be made about its content. While these decisions always involve the entire body ([subsections] 30,43), some persons within that body, particularly those who exercise a ministry of episcope, have special responsibilities:

   The Spirit of Christ endows each bishop with the pastoral authority needed
   for the effective exercise of episcope within a local church ... Its
   binding nature is implicit in the bishop's task of teaching the faith
   through the proclamation and explanation of the word of God, of providing
   for the celebration of the sacraments and of maintaining the church in
   holiness and truth ([sections] 36).

This ministry of episcope "must never be separated from the `symphony' of the whole people of God ... The bishops, the clergy and the other faithful must all recognize and receive what is mediated from God through each other. Thus the sensus fidelium of the people of God and the ministry of memory exist together in reciprocal relation" ([sections] 30).(15)

The faith of the community affirmed and expressed in this process has an essential priority to the faith of the individual. "The meaning of the revealed gospel of God is fully understood only within the church. God's revelation has been entrusted to a community ... The faith of the community precedes the faith of the individual" (GA [sections] 23). The inevitably partial faith of the individual needs to grow into the fuller, more comprehensive faith of the church and thus become "yet more complete as that person receives all that the church, in faithfulness to the word of God, affirms to be the authentic content of the divine revelation" ([sections] 12).

How is this synodal process of Tradition kept faithful to its apostolic foundations? On the one hand, the entire process is understood to be grounded in and ruled by the scriptures, which "within Tradition ... occupy a unique and normative place and belong to what has been given once for all". The church "regards this corpus alone as the inspired word of God written and, as such, uniquely authoritative" (GA [sections] 19). On the other hand, GA understands the promise of Christ to uphold the church and to send the Spirit who will lead the church into truth as implying both the indefectibility of the church and the infallibility of certain teachings:

   In specific circumstances, those with this ministry of oversight
   (episcope), assisted by the Holy Spirit, may together come to a judgment
   which, being faithful to scripture and consistent with apostolic Tradition,
   is preserved from error. By such a judgment, which is a renewed expression
   of God's one yes in Jesus Christ, the church is maintained in the truth so
   that it may continue to offer its amen to the glory of God. This is what is
   meant when it is affirmed that the church may teach infallibly (see Auth
   II, 24-28, 32) ... [Such teaching] requires the participation, in their
   distinctive ways, of the whole body of believers, not only those charged
   with the ministry of memory ... Since it is the faithfulness of the whole
   people of God which is at stake, reception of teaching is integral to the
   process ([subsections] 42-43).