The Rev. Stephen Harding on authority – one’s own and the community's

Authority Must Be Shared

Earlier, I wrote about the authority that results from being ordained (See issue #17 Professional Practice). In addition to the authority that comes from G-d, there are two other sources of authority – one from within oneself, and one that the community gives. I write this time about the authority that comes from within.

When I supervised chaplain interns at the hospice, we would invariably have a conversation about authority – theirs. As a result of these conversations, which never failed to move me, I eventually discovered the biblical Greek word for authority: exousia [1]. I understand exousia to consist of the prefix ‘ex’ – ‘out of’, and ‘ousia’ – ‘substance’ or ‘essence’. Authority for me comes, in part, out of one’s own essence or substance, and that, for me, is linked with responsibility: I have the authority to act because I as priest and/or man, am responsible for preserving/changing/advancing/taking care of whatever situation I am in.

Looking more closely at my own authority in my vocation as priest, I have authority – which is different than power (dynamis in biblical Greek – ‘force’) – in the situations in which I am responsible to G-d, responsible to myself, and responsible to others. As a Hospice Chaplain, my authority to act grew out of my responsibility to help the person die well, as defined by that person. This sometimes took the form of being the conscience for the multi-disciplinary team providing care, sometimes being the patient or family’s advocate, sometimes helping the physicians to change the medical goals of care, and, sometimes, being with the person as they died.

The other source for authority is that which the community gives one. Because of who I am and because of my relationship with G-d, part of my function is to be a vehicle through which other people can deepen their own relationships with the Divine – to pray the space - and so, in a sense, part of my authority is given to me by the community that I am in to continue to deepen my relationship in G-d and to function as priest in their community, whatever that hospital, institution, or parish community may be.

In the hospital the patients and staff give me the authority to be their Chaplain. There is an implicit relationship as soon as I walk in the room: They are my congregants, and I am their priest for as long as they are in the hospital. Without their consent, I have little authority to act. When I talk with parishioners, they give me the authority to listen, respond, pray, and bless. When I’m with members of the Fire Department, they give me the authority to bless them, bless the apparatus, and to keep them in my prayers.

In my vocation, because my authority comes from three sources (G-d, from within myself, community), my authority cannot help but be shared – because I must remember and recognize that I am in a multivalent set of relationships that permits me to function as a conduit for G-d.

[1] Matthew 21:23-27; Mark 11:27-33; Luke 20:1-8 (NRSV); Young’s Analytical Concordance, 22nd American Edition, Revised, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1970, p. 63.