Locul și slujirea laicilor în Biserică în gândirea euharistică a părintelui Nikolai Afanasiev
The Place and Ministry of the Laity in the Church According to Father Nikolai Afanasiev’s Eucharistic Theology

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the place and ministry of the laity in the Church according to Father Nikolai Afanasiev’s eucharistic ecclesiology. Afanasiev’s distinctive contribution lies in his recovery of the biblical understanding of the Church as a “royal priesthood,” where the distinction between clergy and laity represents not an ontological separation but a functional differentiation within the same eucharistic community. Based on biblical and patristic evidence, Afanasiev demonstrates that in the early Church, lay people actively participated in all dimensions of ecclesial life: liturgical, confessional, diaconal, and prophetic. He critiques the historical development of clericalism, which transformed the laity into passive recipients of grace administered exclusively by the clergy, and proposes a restoration of the authentic relationship between sacramental priesthood and universal priesthood. This vision has profound implications for contemporary Church life, including liturgical renewal, theological formation of the laity, mobilization of the entire community’s missionary potential, and development of participatory structures. Afanasiev’s ecclesiology offers a profound theological foundation for rediscovering the active vocation of the laity, not as a concession to modern democratic spirit, but as a recovery of the original ecclesial consciousness.

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