{"id":3822,"date":"2015-07-16T19:04:38","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T23:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/roadsfromemmaus\/?p=3822"},"modified":"2015-07-16T19:19:16","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T23:19:16","slug":"st-ignatius-of-antioch-and-the-upstairsdownstairs-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/asd\/2015\/07\/16\/st-ignatius-of-antioch-and-the-upstairsdownstairs-church\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Ignatius of Antioch and the “Upstairs\/Downstairs Church”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Martyrdom of St. Ignatius of Antioch
(From Wikimedia Commons<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The following is an excerpt from a series of lectures I am soon going to deliver on St. Ignatius of Antioch.<\/i><\/p>\n

Men of flesh cannot act spiritually, nor can spiritual men act in a fleshly way, just as faith cannot perform deeds of unfaith or unfaith those of faith. But what you do in relation to the flesh is spiritual, for you do everything in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

—St. Ignatius of Antioch, To the Ephesians 8:2<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

O<\/span>nce the proper relationship of the spirit to the body is established\u2014that the spirit rules the body, not the reverse\u2014then all of life becomes spiritual. There is no spiritual \u201cpart\u201d of life. There is only life, which is spiritual. As Ignatius writes: \u201cBut what you do in relation to the flesh is spiritual, for you do everything in Jesus Christ\u201d (Ephesians 8:2b).<\/p>\n

This vision is decidedly different from those who try to inject the secularized vision of compartmentalization even into church life. Some people believe that there are \u201cspiritual\u201d parts of life in the parish and \u201cbusiness\u201d parts, and they try to arrange authority and responsibility accordingly. The division that exists in their own lives, where some things are \u201cspiritual\u201d but other things are otherwise, is being projected onto the very Church of God.<\/p>\n

This approach to church life is sometimes called the \u201cupstairs\/downstairs church.\u201d That is, the \u201cspiritual\u201d part, governed by the clergy, happens \u201cupstairs\u201d in the church. Everything else, governed by the lay leadership, happens \u201cdownstairs\u201d in the parish social hall. The laity don\u2019t tell the clergy how to run the church services, and the clergy don\u2019t tell the laity how to spend the money.<\/p>\n

But such a division is alien to Ignatius. For him, everything the Christian does \u201cin relation to the flesh is spiritual,\u201d because he does everything in Jesus Christ. The Christian is always a God-bearer, whether he is serving the Divine Liturgy or scrubbing toilets, and so he is subject to the authority and ways of the Kingdom of God, not secular society. It is contradictory to suggest that there can be any \u201csecular\u201d side to either a Christian or his parish community, because God is always there with us.<\/p>\n

Ignatius says, \u201cNothing escapes the Father\u2019s notice; even our secrets are near him. We should therefore do everything on the assumption that he dwells in us, so that we may be his temples and he may be our God in us\u2014as is the case, and as will be manifest before our face by the effects of the love which we justly bear toward him\u201d (Ephesians 15:3). If we are temples where God dwells, everything that we are and everything we do is spiritual. If, as Ignatius says, we are \u201cGod-bearers,\u201d then there can be no secular life for the Christian. <\/p>\n

And there can also be no \u201cupstairs\/downstairs church\u201d for a parish. All that is to be done can only be done as prayer, under the spiritual leadership of the bishop and his appointed representative. It is not that clergy are qualified to do everything\u2014they need the expertise and experience of everyone in the parish. It is that everyone\u2014including the laity\u2014is a minister in the church, and the bishop or his presbyter is the chief minister, the one who directs all and helps all to see how we may \u201cdo everything on the assumption that he dwells in us, so that we may be his temples and he may be our God in us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is an excerpt from a series of lectures I am soon going to deliver on St. Ignatius of Antioch. Men of flesh cannot act spiritually, nor can spiritual men act in a fleshly way, just as faith cannot perform deeds of unfaith or unfaith those of faith. But what you do in relation to the flesh is spiritual, for you do everything\u2026 <\/i> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[751],"tags":[656,848],"class_list":["post-3822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-spirituality","tag-ignatius-of-antioch","tag-parish-life"],"yoast_head":"St. Ignatius of Antioch and the "Upstairs\/Downstairs Church" — Fr. 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