Why priests?

 My theology of Eucharistic priesthood:

The assembled church is a royal priesthood.

It is God who consecrates.

It is the assembled church who asks God to consecrate.

So what, then, is the role of the person in Holy Orders?

The priest has no super powers. The priest does not consecrate nor does the priest enable the people’s prayers to be heard from God like some sort of holy amplifier. The priest does not add anything to the Eucharist. Indeed, that is precisely the point. The priest’s role in Holy Eucharist is not additive but subtractive. The person in Holy Orders is important not because of what they do, but because of what they do not do. The person in Holy Orders follows the order of the church. The person in Holy Orders does not do those things which the Church has discerned that it does not do. The priest is not an amplifier, but rather a piece of safety equipment. Prayer is powerful, and the priest helps prevent the congregation from doing that which the church has discerned is not pleasing to God. It is not the case that the prayers of the faithful are not powerful enough, but need a priest to amplify them or offer them on the congregation’s behalf. The priest is needed because the prayers of the faithful are indeed very powerful, but directed toward the wrong ends, they can lead us into sin. The role of the priest is to keep us from worshipping wealth, power, ambition, easy comfort, tribalism. The role of the priest is to help direct the prayers of the church toward that which the church has discerned is good and to forestall heresy and idolatry.