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Appendix D-3: Statement on Ordination

(Approved by the General Assembly, 1937)

1)     Ordination

It cannot be too strongly emphasised that ordination is not the conferring of a personal status or privilege, but the setting apart of men and women to perform certain functions within the Church to the glory of God. Various kinds of ordination are practised by the Church, differing in meaning in accordance with the different functions in view. Here we are particularly concerned with:

a)     The ordination of elders by the Kirk Session;

b)     The ordination of ministers by the Presbytery;

with the laying on of hands by those already ordained to the ministry. Elders are set apart to exercise spiritual oversight and discipline; ministers, in addition to these functions, to preach the Word and to celebrate the Sacraments. This difference in function constitutes a difference in meaning which is marked by a difference in the external rite.

The ordination of a licentiate, on being appointed as an assistant minister or locum tenens and that of a home missionary , for all of which there is precedent in the practice of the Scottish Church, is identical with the ordination of a minister. It is ordination by the Presbytery with the laying on of hands by those already ordained to the ministry, and it declares the person ordained to be a fit and proper person to preach the Word and to celebrate the Sacraments, and it empowers him or her to do so. This being the case, there can be no question of the reordination of an ordained home missionary, either upon his translation to a Home Mission Station within the bounds of another Presbytery or yet upon his being raised to the full status of the ministry , or of an ordained assistant or locum tenens upon being inducted as a minister into a fully sanctioned charge. Ordination to the ministry is performed once only.

2)     Induction or Appointment

It is most important to note that ordination does not mean an unrestricted right and power to teach the Word and to celebrate the Sacraments for it is the practice of the Church not to ordain until the Church is at the same time prepared to induct the ordinand into a settled charge or to appoint him or her to some more or less clearly defined sphere of work. Induction or appointment is a distinct and separate act which accompanies ordination and at the same time limits the sphere within which the powers conferred by ordination may be exercised.

While the ordination of minister, assistant, locum tenens, and home missionary is identical, their status is different in virtue of the different restrictions placed upon each in the exercise of his or her functions. A minister is restricted by the bounds of his or her parish, and may not without permission exercise ministerial functions outside them. A home missionary is specially restricted, not merely to his parish, but also with respect to the nature of the appointment he is eligible to receive and to the tenure of his appointment – i.e., is restricted by the Home Mission regulations. An assistant or locum tenens is also specially restricted by the terms of his or her appointment.

While an ordained home missionary may petition the General Assembly to remove the special restrictions placed upon him, and while the Assembly clearly has power to do so, it is not under any obligation to do so, for no ordained home missionary may claim as a right the full status of the ministry merely in virtue of his or her ordination.

3)     Seat on Church Courts

The status with respect to the Church Courts of ministers holding these various types of appointment does not depend merely upon ordination, but upon the nature of the appointments held. No minister has a right to a seat in the Church Courts merely in virtue of his or her ordination. So far as ministers are concerned, a seat in Presbytery is normally reserved for those who have an episcopal or moderatorial status. Thus ordained home missionaries licentiates ordained and inducted to a Home Mission Station, ministers holding Home Mission appointments, assistant ministers, and locum tenentes should have no seat in Presbytery except in so far as, being also elders, they may represent the Sessions to which they belong. While it is competent for a Moderator to ask any ordained person of these classes to preside over meetings of the Kirk Session, he or she is under no obligation to do so, and he or she remains responsible to the Presbytery.

NOTE: The reference to Home Mission appointments is no longer relevant. Also locum tenentes in certain circumstances have full seats See Regulation 124(b) and Appendix E-7.