On the Combination of Spiritual Service and Secular Concerns #
The question of the relationship between the spiritual and the secular has always been relevant in the Christian world, and to this day, debate continues about whether it is acceptable for a clergyman to engage in worldly concerns, to hold occupations outside of Church service, or to possess secular education and skills enabling work beyond the bounds of the Church.
To understand the essence of this issue, one must grasp the nature of Christian priesthood. The dogmatic meaning of the priesthood lies in the event of Pentecost — the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles — when they received extraordinary heavenly gifts from God: the ability to speak in various tongues for preaching to foreign nations, to heal the sick, to raise the dead, and to perform diverse miracles imbued with doctrinal meaning, serving as visible proof of the Lord’s omnipotence and the truth of the Christian faith. The apostles also received the authority to pass on the grace of the Holy Spirit to other worthy Christians. Thus arose the threefold order of Christ’s New Testament priesthood.
For this reason, the Lord Jesus Christ is called the High Priest, for He Himself manifested the image of the New Testament priesthood; and during the Divine Liturgy, the priest represents Christ, and it is the Lord Himself who performs the central sacrament of the Church — the Eucharist — through the hands of the priest.
Let us now turn our attention to the earthly lives of the apostles. Peter and Andrew were fishermen, Luke was a physician and an artist, Matthew was a tax official, and the Apostle Paul earned his livelihood by making tents. Therefore, many of the apostles, besides their spiritual service, did not abandon their secular occupations by which they supported their bodily needs — and nowhere in Holy Scripture is it stated that the apostles wholly forsook their professions after Pentecost.
As practice shows, parishioners usually do not leave their priest without support and provide him with a reasonably adequate material livelihood; thus, he has no pressing need to earn a living outside the Church.
However, it often happens that priests serve in small parishes where the income from parish life is minimal. Naturally, it is easier for a monk — who lives alone and is undemanding in food and daily life. But many priests have large families. So what is to be done in such a case?
The fact is that the apostolic canons, when speaking of “worldly cares,” primarily refer to prohibitions against secular occupations: the prohibition of being elected to secular government bodies, of assuming positions involving the exercise of state power, and of engaging in political activity. This is confirmed by authoritative interpreters of the canons, such as John Zonaras, Theodore Balsamon, and Alexei Aristen. However, there are no prohibitions against a priest receiving an education or engaging in various types of work during non-liturgical hours — such as teaching, conducting scholarly research, practicing medicine, and thereby supporting his family. There is also no ban on maintaining a home garden or farm and selling the fruits of one’s own labor.
Thus, the canons allow for different life circumstances, and by following them, one can always find a worthy, Christian solution to any difficult situation in life.