Bonovox

How should the Church be governed?  Should the patriarchs act like emperors, issuing decrees which all believers must obey?  Should bishops see themselves as local governors, demanding unquestioning submission of the people?  Should the clergy be a kind of spiritual army, enforcing the will of the patriarchs and the bishops, and meting out punishment on sinners?  The first consideration for the Church is not how to punish sins, but how to prevent sins from being committed.  And when a sin has been committed, the task of the Church is to encourage the sinner to confess the sin and make amends--so that no punishment is required.  This is quite a different attitude to wrongdoing from that which the state adopts, and so requires a quite different style of government.  Moreover, each individual is answerable not to a priest, bishop or patriarch, but to God.  So the primary authority of those within the Church is not to issue decrees, but to stir up the souls and enliven the consciences of believers, so that by their own volition they will obey the laws of God.  IN short those in authority within the Church should see themselves not as rulers, but as preachers and pastors.