The Priest in Community Quotes

“The priest in the church is called to serve this priesthood of Christ, to stand in the midst of the cloud of unknowing, to lead the community to the consciousness of God's saving word, and to invite into God's strengthening arms those who are far from his presence.”
― Urban T. Holmes III, The Priest in Community: Exploring the Roots of Ministry

“The priesthood of Christ leads more directly to understanding the ministerial priesthood than the Old Testament Levitical priesthood. The priesthood of Christ leads us beneath a simple equation of priest with the traditional sacrificial cultic figure. Christ is the means of God's self-disclosure or revelation. He images for us what it means to be human before God. This is a priestly act, while at the same time it is a prophetic act. To possess priestly character is to accept the expectation of the church to mediate this word of revelation in Christ.”
― Urban T. Holmes III, The Priest in Community: Exploring the Roots of Ministry

“The light the priest sheds on the community is as the light of the moon. This is one way of describing what is said here. It underlies the fact that the priest is both different from the community and yet exists only, in one sense, by virtue of community. What is seen in the priest is the reflection of what is the presence of God in the people.”
― Urban T. Holmes III, The Priest in Community: Exploring the Roots of Ministry