More Ministries

Doorkeepers and Subdeacons do not exhaust the list of ministries common in the earlier Christian centuries. And these diverse ministries could have profound theological and ecclesiological significances.

Take the Unity of the Universal Church. This could be expressed by the inclusion of names on the Diptychs; by the exchange of letter of Communion from one Church (or bishop) to another. But the commonest everyday expression of it was by the acceptance of Christians travelling to an unknown place by their fellow Christians there. They might show 'Commendatory letters', but the essential expression of their acceptance was the hospitality they were given. And, in down to earth terms, this was largely a matter of hospitality shown by the Widows of a Church.

And let's not forget that the Widows were not an ad hoc group; they were a formal body who sometimes sat in particular places in the Ekklesia. Admission to this Order had formality attached to it, just as did admission to Holy Order. And it appears that sometimes Widows might have been called presbytides.

I don't know how such riches might be restored to present-day Church life. But ... and this is the point of my posts on Monoliturgy and Vicepresbyters ... modern styles of liturgy (often more among Protestants than among Catholics) give little sense of the Church as a corporate body with a plurality of ministerial callings. And, to that extent, they might fairly be called 'corrupt'.