Liturgical Symbolism – The "Whole" Body

I’ve been revisiting an old favourite today in relation to another project. As part of my re-read I stopped to consider the following:

Liturgical ministry is not primarily an honour but a function of service in and to the Church assembled for divine worship. Loading sancutaries with special ministers for ideological reasons, or to confer status and honour on special groups in the assembly, violates this fact and often has the effect of suggesting that the highest degree of Christian engranchisement is to be found in clerical or quasiclerical status. The general principle is that ministers proliferate according to liturgical need, the need being determined by the assembly rather than by ideology.

- Elements of Rite, by Aidan Kavanagh, 72-3

Not long ago Bp. Tim Cravens wrote a post of a similar vein. While there is certainly an element within our community that seeks ordination for their own sense of personal dignity, ideology, and status, this is deplorable and we all owe it to ourselves, and our communities to be a bit more . . . . selective when it comes to ordination; there is another, and to my mind overlooked aspect to this issue. When the the majority (or in some cases all of) the community wears a collar the fullness of the body of Christ is not relised.

What I mean by this is that all possible gifts of spirit and ministry are not cultivated in these settings, to some extent I wonder if it does not negatively affect the catholicity of the assembly – “catholic” here being the “whole” body of Christ in that place. If our vision of church is the three fold orders only – then perhaps everyone ought to be ordained. But our vision of the church is not exclusively the three fold order – but there is that essential fourth order – the laity, whose presnece ensures that the “whole” body is realised, and the fullness of the gifts of the Spirit in that place are present.

In a word, its about balance; an unbalanced body falls over – it cannot stand, wheras a balanced body stands firm, and can meet all blessing and adversity confident and strong.