The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the experience of lay ministry in the Russian Church in the 20th–21st centuries. It is based on the typology of services proposed by Fr. Nikolas Afanasiev. In his work “Lay Ministry in the Church”, Afanasiev, proceeding from the fundamental ecclesiological position on the unity of the Church body, argues that the division of the church into serving clergy and non-serving laity is unacceptable, since the ministry of the royal priesthood by the gift of the Holy Spirit is common to all members of the church. Along with the common ministry of all the faithful, there is private ministry among God’s people. Afanasiev examines lay ministry in three aspects: participation in the church rites, church governance and teaching. He calls the first of these the general ministry of the people of God, while the second and third are called private ministry. In defining this typology, Fr. Nikolas relies on early Christian sources, in which the most prominent role for all lay people is service in the realm of sacred rites, primarily participation in the sacrament of the Eucharist. The analysis of modern experience shows that lay ministry in the Russian Church is realized in all three directions: 1) the royal priesthood can be exercised not only through co-service in the sacraments, but also through participation in various church associations (unions, communities, brotherhoods) and through service to inter-church unity; 2) church teaching manifests itself in the gathering of the Church through catechesis, spiritual enlightenment and theological education; 3) participation in church governance is possible at the canonical level through membership in the parish assembly, parish council, activities of diocesan synodal structures, participation in the Local Council, etc., as well as informally — through the implementation of free non-political initiatives. The article highlights another form of lay ministry of the faithful, not considered by Fr. Nikolas Afanasiev within the framework of church ministry: the “apostolate of the laity”, i. e., the ministry of Christian mission and witness, carried out “at the boundaries” of the Church.