Upstairs, Downstairs: Did Jesus Want a Two Class Church?

Herbert Haag argues for a return to "what Jesus did and taught." Relying on biblical and patristic evidence, he shows that the concept of a separately "ordained" ministry is a late historical development, taking four centuries to emerge in its present form. In the early church, he writes, "the eucharist was solely in the control of the congregation. Why should what was possible then not be possible now?"