In the early 1500s, the Protestant leader, Martin Luther, coined the phrase "the priesthood of all believers" to emphasize the role of all Christians--lay people as well as ordained priests--in the Church's ministry. Two hundred years later, English Quakers insisted that religious authority and spiritual leadership should be exercised not by ordained ministers or clergy but by every member of the community. And more recently, Unitarian Universalists have embraced the concept of "shared ministry" in which spiritual leadership is vested not only in the ordained minister who is called to serve a UU congregation but in every member of the congregation--that all of us are called to be ministers and everybody is is a minister whether they're ordained or not.  

Presenter: Rev. John Saxon

Service Leader: Dave McCracken