The article examines the place and role of the laity within the synodal vision of the Church developed in the teaching of Pope Francis. It traces and discusses the historical evolution of the relationship between clergy and laity, from the early Christian concept of laos Theou to the modern understanding of the People of God. Although the Second Vatican Council and the subsequent apostolic exhortation Christifideles laici affirmed the dignity and mission of the laity, their participation in the Church’s governance and decision-making remains limited. Synodality – understood as the common journey of the People of God – emerges as a response to this tension. Pope Francis presents it as a new stage in ecclesiological development, in which the laity’s shared responsibility for the Church’s mission constitutes not a supplement but the very essence of its life and activity.

In the specialist literature of the Eastern Orthodox Church, canonical studies devoted to the norms governing the participation of laypeople in the exercise of the Church’s jurisdictional power are relatively few and, in most cases, lack a holistic approach that includes references to both the biblical text and the texts of the early liturgical-canonical literature and canonical collections of the third and fourth centuries. Therefore, insofar as time and space have permitted, we have sought in the present study to examine and evaluate the testimonies provided by these sources, correlating them with the provisions of the canonical legislation of the first Christian millennium. In order to illustrate how the participation of the laity in the exercise of jurisdictional power was understood and implemented throughout history, we have also made use of the canonical doctrine of the Eastern Church, as reflected especially in the commentaries of the twelfth-century Byzantine canonists. Finally, in order to provide the reader with an understanding of how the participation of the laity in the exercise of the Church’s jurisdictional power is realised today, we have examined and evaluated the Statute for the Organisation and Functioning of the Romanian Orthodox Church as an example of the normative framework of a local Orthodox Church.

The article presents a Lutheran approach to the issues of priesthood of all believers and church ministry. It does so in three steps. In the first part, it reaches into the theological legacy of Martin Luther and his writings. In the second part, it analyzes the Lutheran confessional writings collected in The Book of Concord. In the third part, it refers to the contemporary Lutheran discussion in the forum of the Lutheran World Federation and the resulting documents.

The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation (the Lausanne Movement), representing global Evangelicalism, is becoming an increasingly important place for the conceptualisation of Christian social teaching. An analysis of the movement’s four international conferences, held in 1971, 1989, 2010, and 2024, shows a clear development in the scope and significance of systematic social thought within Evangelical theology. It is important because, until recently, Evangelicalism did not develop systematic social teaching, concentrating rather on evangelisation. In answering the question about the reasons for this development, it can be assumed that it is the result of the Christian mission encountering the social, cultural, political, and economic conditions of the places to which it is directed. Evangelical theologians are increasingly mindful that evangelisation also requires solid instruments to shape the social environment. One such instrument is systematic social teaching, which links the Christian mission with the quest for a more just and peaceful society that opposes poverty and exclusion.

The article aims to present the social teaching of the Evangelical Churches as formulated by the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation, with special emphasis on the four core documents of the movement: the Lausanne Covenant, the Manila Manifesto, the Cape Town Commitment, and the Seoul Statement. Literary analysis is the primary method employed in this article.

The article focuses on the issue of the theologically educated laity and the growth in their number and of their role since the 20th century. It shows their peculiar role: they are not mere substitutes for the lack of clerical theologians, they have specific missions. The lay theologians can also reflect theologically on the contemporary Church and the world from different standpoints than the clerics and thus enrich the development of theology as a discipline and of the Church and contribute to the announcement of the Gospel in the contemporary world.

The role of the laity in the Church has been changing over the previous century. An important impetus for change was the Second Vatican Council. Local churches in different countries implemented the Council’s provisions to varying degrees. Poland had special systemic conditions because of the communist rule. The Primate of the Polish Church Stefan Wyszyński led a bold and consistent effort to renew the face of the Church and increase its moral and social role. He implemented the model of the folk Church, based on traditional forms of religiosity, respect for the hierarchy, and a clear division of roles between the clergy and the laity, where there was no room for dialogue. The Primate’s programme of rebuilding the Church centred around the idea of the Great Novena preparing the entire nation for the festive celebration of the millennium of Poland’s baptism. At the same time, it was a great national examination of conscience, aimed at individual and communal struggle against sin and the restoration of the moral authority of the Church as the spiritual guide of all Poles. At the same time, however, a second trend appeared and developed in the Polish Church, consciously and directly referring to the conciliar teaching on the role of the laity in the Church. This current used new forms of pastoral work, different from the traditional forms of piety, activating the laity to a greater extent, preferring dialogue over leadership, and aimed at deepening religious awareness by spreading knowledge and encouraging the intellectual development of faith (fides quaerens intellectum). An important precursor and creator of this trend was Rev. Franciszek Blachnicki, founder of the Light-Life Movement, also known as the Oasis of the Living Church. A characteristic feature of Polish post-conciliar religiosity was the complementary coexistence of these two currents, which, thanks to their rather radical differences, were able to encompass with their influence the vast majority of the nation.

Review of the book.

Piotr Nowak: Kształcenie teologiczne w Zjednoczonym Kościele Ewangelicznym (1948–1988) [Theological Education in the United Evangelical Church (1948–1988)] Warszawa: Wyższa Szkoła Teologiczno-Społeczna w Warszawie, 2024

Ekumenizm jako dialog oraz spotkanie religii i kultur. Wokół teologii ekumenicznej ks. prof. Józefa Budniaka [Ecumenism as dialogue and the meeting of religions and cultures. Around the ecumenical theology of Rev. Prof. Józef Budniak]. Eds. W. Świątkiewicz, A. Kasperek. Katowice: Studio NOA, 2022