Church Membership
Church Membership
In order to establish regulations for the election of the Pope-Patriarch, another set of regulations for the selection of the bishop, and a third set for the selection of the priest, we must first ask: Who are the members who elect or select all these fathers? That is, we must examine the subject of:
Church Membership.
In fact, there are three types of church membership that differ in their importance, depth, and function: general membership, spiritual membership, and active membership. Perhaps we may add a fourth membership to these three at the end of the article…
1- General Membership
Every person who has received the grace of baptism from the Holy Church is a member of it; he is one of the community of believers, or a person upon whom the name of Christ has been called…
This group may include all children and infants and believers, all age levels, and all degrees of education or ignorance, experience or lack thereof… And naturally, no one among the people would agree that this general membership should be entrusted with choosing the fathers of the Church, since it includes millions of voters.
2- Spiritual Membership
This includes all members of the Church who practice the spiritual life in it through confession and Communion, fasting, prayer, attending religious meetings, practicing virtues, and growing in a life of repentance. The condition of spiritual membership would exclude the non-spiritual, but at the same time it would retain children, the young, the ignorant, and the inexperienced, and it would also retain those who are young in their mentality and personality, who can easily be led and directed by others. Therefore, this condition (spiritual membership) is not sufficient.
3- Active Membership
This includes baptized spiritual members of the Church who have work and labor in the Holy Church. Their work in the Church gives them an opportunity to know its needs, to know its leaders, clergy, and monks, and to understand more than others through knowledge and experience. Among these are:
The fathers of the bishops, priests, professors of theological colleges and religious institutes, members of church councils, members of general Christian bodies such as the communal councils and the Coptic Endowments Authority, members of Coptic associations, deacons, servants of Sunday School, leaders of university families, and all those working in church activities and Church projects such as social service, nurseries, religious education in schools, and spiritual supervision of student residences. Also included are prominent men of the pen and thought in the ecclesiastical and religious circles, such as scholars and writers of the Church, prominent authors, and men of the Coptic press.
From this active membership, those who can elect or select the hierarchs and fathers of the Church can be determined.
Screening Active Membership
Not every active member in the Church is permitted to participate in the election of the hierarchs and fathers of the Church.
Why?
First—Because of age:
There may be young people who work in the service of the diaconate, Sunday School, and university families, and perhaps among the members of some religious associations. From the standpoint of knowledge and experience, we cannot entrust these young people, because of their age, with such a serious task as the one before us.
Therefore, a certain age should be determined at which the tens of thousands working in the Church may participate in choosing the hierarchs and fathers of the Church.
Second—Because of the lack of spiritual membership:
Unfortunately, there may be among those working in the Church persons who do not enjoy its spiritual membership. Undoubtedly, the ideal situation is that no one should work in the Church except those who are spiritual, but the practical reality is otherwise. There may be some deviants and some abnormal people who intrude themselves into church work, and perhaps because of them disputes and divisions arise within the service in the Church. The matter, therefore, requires screening, effort, and time until this screening is completed.
Therefore, the active member should obtain spiritual membership. This spiritual membership should also be organized.
Important Notes
In some of the current regulations—whether those concerning the election of clergy or the communal councils—there are requirements related to financial status, or the level or type of employment. There may be a person in a prestigious position, or one with prominent positions or a large financial income, and yet he is far from the Church and from its active membership. He has no knowledge of the candidates except what he hears here or there of news whose accuracy he does not know. So, should such a person, regardless of his status, be allowed to enter into a process with which he has no connection?!
Can a Fourth Membership Be Added?
If active membership should be screened or filtered so that the factors of age and spirituality are integrated within it, and if some believe that the high holy ranks, such as the rank of Pope or bishop, should not be left to the discussions of the general people, out of concern for their dignity and holiness, away from disputes, publications, pamphlets, and forms of attack and defamation, then can we emerge from all this by adding a fourth membership, namely: distinguished leadership membership or distinguished active membership?
4- Leadership Membership
For this membership, it is required that its holder have obtained the three previous memberships, in addition to being distinguished by a leadership quality, either by virtue of his position, by virtue of his personality, or through other requirements. Just as there are bodies that have this quality, their members are supposed to be leaders.
If we want to filter those who have active membership so that they may have leadership membership, we can give examples of this, including:
If every church council consists of ten people, for example, and thus the members of church councils (their committees) in Cairo and Alexandria alone number approximately 1,500, then if we limited this to the principal positions, such as the president, secretary, and treasurer, we could reduce the number to 450. The same approach could be followed with the Coptic associations…
Among the Sunday School service, instead of tens of thousands of servants, if the matter were limited to the trustees alone, or the assistant trustees were added to them, the number would reach a few hundred instead of a few thousand. Likewise, regarding the deacons, if the matter were limited to the heads of the deacon teams.
As for the fathers of the priests, in the regulation for the election of the Pope-Patriarch, all the priests of Cairo and Alexandria could have the right to vote because they have a direct connection with the Pope. As for the priests of the provinces, representatives could be chosen on their behalf….
When we speak of leadership membership, we mean avoiding individual influence upon groups that are uninformed and unexamining, and limiting it to leadership members who possess such factors of personality, age, and experience as to keep them away from the circle of being influenced by others; rather, they are subject to their consciences.
The whole matter is left open for study and the expression of opinions. El-Keraza Magazine is ready to open its pages to every constructive dialogue and every opinion that serves the Church and helps in establishing useful regulations for its edification.
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