Does ordination imply that only ministers should preside at Baptism and the Eucharist?

​Baptists developed and formed a single, unified dogma where belief is obligatory and undoubtful. Baptists support the main Protestantism faith in God and the idea of personal salvation through faith alone. Baptists also highlight the differences with Lutheranism and Catholicism. Externally Baptist cult seems simplistic. For example, from the observed seven Christian sacraments (not as a sacrament, but as the ceremonies), only three exist in Baptism, communion (breaking of bread), christening and the priesthood. In addition, they are interpreted and executed in a somewhat different way.

​The bulk of the Baptists support the key provisions of orthodox Protestantism. They accept the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the doctrine of the dual nature of Jesus Christ, faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, his resurrection, ascension and the coming arrival, recognize original sin and the afterlife in the form of reward or punishment. Baptists believe faith sole criterion of salvation, proclaiming the universal priesthood of the people and claim that between God and man should not be a mediator, it is believed that the only source of faith and practice is Scripture.

N.Wright wrote: “These differing religious traditions have historically held different ways of understanding the relationship between church, civil society and state. No account of the social teaching of the Christian churches will be complete therefore if it does not take into account the English Free Church tradition which has not only shaped the political character of this country but that of other nations”.

​Most Baptist denominations believe that man is spiritually free and able to interpret the Bible, relying on the mind. On this basis the subsequent call to pastor, preacher, priest, etc., is just a way of maintaining order in the external church. Due to sufficient divergence external rites, in Protestantism, there can be no strict definition of a name titles. Differ as bishop, pastor and priest.

Since the ordination of presbyters becomes a “man of the rulers of the brothers“. The ordination implies that only ministers should preside the Eucharist. This is because that only church person should preside the Eucharist such as: apostle, presbyter (bishop). However bishop aloud on behalf of all believers brings thanksgiving and “words and bloodless service” “of all and for all.” It is not separated from the faithful people.

​The main ceremony of the Baptist is the Eucharist, which is done usually once a month and is called the breaking of bread. For Communion in most churches and believers are allowed, not yet baptized. A small group of so-called strict Baptists allows to participate in this ceremony only baptized. Baptism is seen as a man of faith and communion – as a remembrance of the Last Supper, Christ’s sufferings and death. Baptists also practice rites of marriage and burial. Worship has usually not a liturgical character, the focus of the sermon is given to prayer meetings and reading the Scriptures. Also characteristic impromptu prayer (they can be silent) and the singing of hymns. Traditional decoration of Baptist churches is very simple.

​Eucharist is celebrated in the liturgy of the faithful – the third part of the Divine Liturgy – and are, thus, its most important component. Since the early years of Christianity in various churches began to take shape distinct ranks of the Liturgy. There were Persian, Egyptian, Syrian, Western and many other rites within which differences were also observed. Only Syrian officials were more than sixty.

The most significant ministry was at the ancient succession that led to the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great.

1. Clement Liturgy (her rite VIII is in the book of the Apostolic Constitutions).

2. Liturgy of St. James, brother of the Lord in the flesh (committed in the Church of Antioch and Jerusalem).

3. Liturgy of the Apostle and Evangelist Mark (committed in the Egyptian church.)

In I – II centuries ranks liturgies were not recorded in writing and transmitted orally. But with the advent of heresy created a need for the written fixation and, moreover, the unification of the succession of different ranks.

​St. Basil the Great (c. 330 – 379) who courted fame teacher of the Church carried out this mission. He was slender ranks of the liturgy, in which Divine service was set out in strict order and harmony of its parts. However, the modern ranks of Episcopal liturgies are very different from the original. The process of change is natural and covers all aspects of the life of the Church.

Some local Churches on the feast day of St. James the Apostle (October 23) Liturgy of his name. The fact that its rite survived to this day – is extremely important for us, because it is the liturgical memorial of all the Apostles, with St. James had the closest contact.

​The same can be said about the rites of the Eucharist: they are all in some way expressingnot only the unity of the celebrant and the people, but also their “synergy” – cooperation, concelebration literally those words. Thus, the reading of the Word of God, and an explanation of his sermon offered in the first part of the Eucharistic celebration, self-evidently involves listening and receiving message. The transfer of oblation to the altar and the occurrence in it of a special “altar” did not destroy the original practice of offering gifts at the meeting of the people, and that takes place in the present-day “grand entrance.” Finally, the “kiss of peace”, although it is now done by one clergy, within the meaning of the exclamation “Let us love one another! ..” Refers to the entire congregation, as well as the final exclamation.

​D.Bloesch stated that: “The pope has authority when he submits himself unreservedly to Scripture, when he places the gospel over his own wisdom and insights’ and would ‘earn the right to be listened to when he ceases to think of himself as a supreme authority in the church and is willing to view himself as simply a servant of the Word’ for papal statements can only be a ‘dim reflection of the truth of the gospel’ unless purified and reinterpreted ‘by the Holy Spirit speaking through the Scriptures”

This is all the more noteworthy that the Byzantine Rite Liturgy systematically developed to a larger branch of the “laity” and the “clergy”, “praying” of “ordinary people” This influence was powerless radically alter the original rite of the Eucharist, yet every word and action expresses the concelebration of each other, each in his place and in his ministry, in a single divine service of the Church. On the causes, consequences of this new, and “nominalist” liturgical piety, alas, almost completely reigns in the Church, we have said and will say more. Now it is only important to emphasize that this new piety did not manage to overshadow or distort beyond recognition truly conciliar nature of the Eucharist, to wrest it from the Church, and, therefore, on the meeting.

Even the most obvious and probably the saddest result of this new “piety” is the actual separation from the communion of the laity, have ceased to flow out of their participation in the liturgy. Then it became for them something exceptional and could not do against the direct evidence of the Eucharistic rank. Gary Badcock in The House Where God Lives argues that we need to return to the very foundation of what the church is, its ressourcement, before we can articulate an ecclesiology sufficient to deal with our increasingly global culture. The church is non-negotiable for the Christian, not because of its community, not because of its social abilities, but only because God lives in the Church and nowhere else (Badcock, 2009)

​The main defect of the liturgical life is that we attach more importance that came by chance and coincidence features liturgical rank than their essence. Basic principles of the doctrine of the Eucharist serve them clearly. The nature of the Eucharist is preserved in them intact. “We should not be considered as a single religion and belief. Religion can be a dead thing, a dead form, dead cult … How often Christians point to horrible behavior of the Popes, the horrors of the Inquisition … All of this will be clear if we do not mix religion and faith. Religion and faith are not the same thing”.

According to the teaching of Baptists, “living” faith is not something opposed to knowledge and truth. On the contrary, it is a special, higher capacity of knowledge that reveals the world of the supernatural believer. By faith, man approaches the world beyond, with God. “Live” faith is not a simple trust or unaccountable credulity. This is an act of will, the interaction between the human soul and God. It is this faith, understood as an act of will, and can, according to the teachings of Baptists, to give the true knowledge of God, for then allegedly changed the whole perspective of life, is manifest a new world realities, Christ himself. Believer not only recognizes religious truth, and internally, the heart is experiencing it. Therefore, “the believer is totally irrelevant philosophical proof of the existence of God, as the existence of God is immediately given in consciousness believing Christian.” Thus, Baptism expresses a general tendency for the Protestant religion to the inner world of man, seeks to subjugate the entire world of human emotions and feelings. Belief in Baptism appears as the result of personal emotional experience, a deep inner conviction. Bringing up the “slave of conviction” is the main goal of Baptist doctrine.

Works Cited

Avis, P. (2002). The Christian Church: An Introduction to the Major Traditions. SPCK Publishing; First Edition edition.

Badcock, G. (2009). The House Where God Lives: The Doctrine of the Church.Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Bloesch, D. (2005). The Church: Sacraments, Worship, Ministry, Mission. InterVarsity Press.

Wright, N. (2005). Free Church, Free State: The Positive Baptist Vision. Paternoster Press.

Wright, N. (2002). New Baptists, New Agenda. Paternoster.