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ORGANIZATIONAL ARRANGEMENT
Roman Catholic Church
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Seventh-day Adventist Church
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The ministerial or hierarchical priesthood of bishops and priests, and the common priesthood [laity] of all the faithful participate, 'each in its own proper way, in the one priesthood of Christ.' While being 'ordered one to another,' they differ essentially.[LG 10 # 2.]...the sacrament of Holy Orders." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Chapter Three, The Sacraments at the Service of Communion, Article 6, Section II, # 1547. http://www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/orders.html#SACRAMENT).
The very differences which the Lord has willed to put between the members of his body serve its unity and mission. For "in the Church there is diversity of ministry but unity of mission. To the apostles and their successors Christ has entrusted the office of teaching, sanctifying and governing in his name and by his power. But the laity...have therefore, in the Church and in the world, their own assignment in the mission of the whole People of God." Finally, "from both groups [hierarchy and laity] there exist Christian faithful who are consecrated to God in their own special manner and serve the salvific mission of the Church through the profession of the evangelical counsels." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Profession of Faith, Section Two, Paragraph 4, #873. http://www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/church4.html#Faithful).
"The term 'laity' is here understood to mean all the faithful except those in Holy Orders and those who belong to a religious state approved by the Church." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Profession of Faith, Section Two, Paragraph 4, Section II, # 897. http://www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/church4.html#LAY).
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"The Seventh-day Adventist Church follows a model of organizational order in the church which is modified from the orders of Roman Catholicism, but it retains the same notions of clerical order which separates the members of the Church into two classes--clergy and laity." (Douglas Devnich, president of the Canadian Union of Seventh-day Adventists, in the Messenger (Official Journal of the Canadian Union Conference), December, 1993, p 2).
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