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Appendix D-4: Ordination and the Ministry of Word and Sacraments
(Adopted by the General Assembly, 1966)
A) If we are to find an answer to the question, ‘What happens at ordination?’ we shall not do so by concentrating on what mayor may not take place at the moment when a minister is being ordained, but rather by attempting to clarify the nature of the ‘ministry’ to which the ordinand is admitted by this act. For that is what the act of ordination is – admission to the Ministry of Word and Sacraments in the Christian Church.
The terms ‘ministry’ and ‘ordination’ have come to be somewhat technical terms in Church usage: but it is worth keeping in mind the fact that neither word is originally or exclusively ecclesiastical in its range of meaning. ‘Minister’ and ‘ministry’ can be used to refer to a post in secular government and its sphere of responsibility, while ‘destiny’ or ‘fate’ can be said to ‘ordain’ this or that state of affairs. Without attempting an exhaustive study of these words, we may say that the primary meaning of ‘minister’ is ‘one who serves, in the sense both of one who carries out the will of another, and of one who gives aid and care to another’. ‘Ordain’ means to establish, confirm, commission, usually in some solemn, definitive and immutable way, as by decree. These more general meanings influence Christian usage, with, of course, decisively important nuances.
B) The Bible is, in large part, the literature of a people who understand themselves to be chosen by God to serve His purpose for mankind. The very existence of Israel and the Church as a whole is the result of God’s gracious election in which His merciful love for lost mankind is made manifest. Israel is elect as God’s beloved people, but at the same time commissioned as the vehicle of that love to all people, and the Church inherits this situation in the new form given to it by the appearance of Jesus Christ. Israel and the Church are ‘ordained’ as communities, to serve the will of God in relation to all mankind. But already within Israel, certain individuals and groups participate in the nation’s election in special ways. The Prophets are the spokesmen of God, both calling and recalling Israel to her proper role; the Priests are the teaching guardians of the religious heritage, responsible for the cultus, through which God’s forgiving relation to His people is mediated; the Kings dispense justice (Solomon) and are the shepherds and guardians (David) of the nation’s life. Kings and Priests are solemnly anointed or otherwise set apart for their role; the great Prophets are regularly portrayed as directly claimed by God (Is. 6: 1-8; Jer. 1: 4-10).
Similarly the New Testament sees the Church as a whole to be God’s chosen vessel (e.g. I Pet. 2: 9-10); but at the same time it recognises particular forms of ministry within the body (e.g., I Cor. 12: 27-29). It can hardly be said however, that the New Testament presents us with a single and simple ‘pattern of the ministry’. One of the results of historical-critical study is a clearer view of the fluid situation with regard to the ministry in the early Church. In the Pauline letters, for example, we find reflected a spontaneous, multiform, ‘charismatic’ ministry. The Pastoral epistles reflect a more or less clearly defined institution; and other parts of the New Testament exhibit still other approaches to the ministry.
This fluid situation can be understood and turned to good account when we recognise that for the New Testament the Primary Minister is Jesus Christ the Lord Himself. He is the Prophet, Priest and King, Who, as the One crucified and risen once for all, is effectively present in the power of the Spirit. This primacy and priority of His original and ever present ministry can hardly be over-emphasised. Against this background we may go on to suggest that the Pastorals emphasise, perhaps in face of a chaos of connecting claims to ‘spiritual gifts’, the value of wholesome order – Christ makes Himself known through His ministers duly called and acknowledged within the Church; in the ‘charismatic’ ministries the freedom and varied fruits of His presence are reflected; in the Johannine literature it is His inalienable authority and His power which are defended.
These various elements in the New Testament set up a creative tension in the life of the subsequent Church, and prevent us from ‘reading off’, as from a blueprint, any particular form of the ministry. We are able, however, to make two important affirmations:
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First, a ministry has ever been, and is, Christ’s gift to the Church. Though in the New Testament the ministry takes an almost bewildering variety of forms, and though the New Testament itself contains elements which sharply warn against a ministry which would substitute itself for Christ, the continued provision of a ministry in the Church is clearly in accordance with the nature of the Church as we see it in the New Testament.
Secondly, however, the role of the ministry in the Church is to serve Christ alone. He provides the Church with a ‘special ministry’ in order to safeguard, in a particular and necessary way, His own sovereignty over the Church’s life. By means of this distinction within the Church between the ‘special ministry’ on the one hand and the whole ministering fellowship on the other, the reality of Christ’s Headship over the Church is attested.
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In the act of ordination, i.e., in recognising and perpetuating the ministry, the Church is acknowledging that she cannot be the Church at all unless she is addressed, cleansed, guarded and ruled by Him Who alone is her Head, her Lord, the Source of her life. She is confessing her submission to, and dependence upon One to Whom she is always responsible, and without Whom she is but a counterfeit Church. She is acknowledging that Christ has never left Himself without witnesses in her history, and is accepting that same gift for today. And in ordaining to the ministry in His name, she prays for those ordained that, by the Holy Spirit, they may like the Apostles, ‘be with Him’ (Mk. 3: 14), and speak to nourish and discipline her in His name.
C) Thus while there is a sense in which we may usefully speak of the ‘ordination’ of all the members of God’s people in Baptism to the Church’s evangelical and pastoral task, this must not be confused with the peculiar nature of ordination to the ministry. The welcome rediscovery of the ‘ministry of the laity’ vital as it is for the renewal of the Church, should not be allowed to obscure the situation. If today the distinction between the ‘membership’ and the ‘ministry’ is unclear, this is due not only to a dramatic ‘upgrading’ of the lay person’s role but also to a failure on the part of the ministry to attend to its essential and unique responsibility in relation to the Church’s life and witness in the world. The Church and the world need lay people fully conscious of their commission as Christ’s witnesses; but these same lay people need the ordained ministry if they are adequately to be nourished and disciplined in the discharge of that commission.
D) What, then, is the peculiar task laid on the ministry, and recognised in the act of ordination? In the Reformed Churches this has been characteristically defined in terms of the Word of God. Ordinands have been admitted to the Ministry of the Word, the Sacraments and Pastoral Oversight (the last includes ‘discipline’ or ‘rule’). The fact that the ‘Word’ is placed first is no accident, for it is an indication of the specially Reformed understanding of what is vital to the continued life of God’s people. The ministry is by no means an expression of democratic Church leadership; it is not a sacramental priesthood; it is not an autocratically governing hierarchy. The ministry is appointed to bear Christ’s forgiveness and reconciliation and His government and discipline, all of which are valid only insofar as they are based and rooted in the Word of the Gospel. It is in the Gospel that Jesus Christ effectively discloses Himself as Truth, Reconciliation, and the Author of ordered human freedom. The ministry is ordained to make this Gospel its primary pre-occupation for the sake of the Church and her mission. The ministry is commissioned to be responsible for the genuineness of the Gospel in its contemporary form, for its effectiveness in the life of the Church and the World, and for the ‘style of life’ which it elicits from those addressed by it.
E) In the light of the foregoing, we are in a position to indicate the outlines of an answer to our question, ‘What happens in ordination?’
i) In ordination the Church herself acknowledges that Christ, the Head of the Church, ordains that there shall be a ministry to speak, act and govern in His name. She confesses her need of the ministry , knowing that she does not live from her own resources, but from Him, ‘clothed in His Gospel’.
ii) By the act of ordination the Church recognises that Christ has called the ordinand to be His minister. Before a person is ordained to the ministry, the Church tests his or her call:
a) By a period of probation and training;
b) By waiting for his or her call to be confirmed by a call from the Church to exercise his or her ministry in a particular sphere.
A person is ordained once only; the ministry to which he or she is ordained is not one which the minister can take up or leave according to his or her interests or preferences but is for the whole of his or her life, although the minister may be legitimately discharged from the functions of the ministry for good and serious reasons.
iii) The ordinand is admitted by the laying on of hands to a fellowship continuous with that of the Apostles. The ordinand’s attention, and that of the Church which ordains him or her, is directed to the necessity of ‘continuing in the Apostles’ fellowship and teaching, the breaking of bread and the prayers’ (Acts 2: 42). It is the same Gospel, the same fellowship, the same faith that the ministry is committed to maintain. Those who are already ministers admit a person to the ministry when the Church is satisfied that God has called him or her and that he or she can be entrusted with the Gospel.
iv) The Church ordains in the setting of a solemn act of worship. The whole occasion reaches its climax in the prayer of ordination in which the grace of the Holy Spirit is sought in these or other suitable words of like meaning: Send down the Holy Spirit upon this Thy servant whom we, in Thy name, and in obedience to Thy most blessed will, do now, by the laying on of our hands, ordain and appoint to the office of the Holy Ministry in Thy Church, committing unto him (or her) authority to dispense Thy Word and Sacraments, and to bear rule in Thy flock’.
v) The ordinand is added to the ministry, i.e., he or she becomes a member of a fellowship which together is responsible for the guardianship of the Gospel. The ministry is not a mere collection of more or less gifted individuals, but a group with shared responsibilities.
vi) The Word, the Sacraments, and Pastoral Oversight: The minister of the Word, Sacraments and Pastoral Oversight is engaged on a task of such a character that he or she is marked by it. The minister is no longer his or her own, but bound to the service of Christ and the Church. The minister is a person of God, of whom much is expected by his or her fellow members and so he or she must conduct him/herself. The study of God’s Word, a disciplined life of prayer and pursuit of the theological learning of the minister’s time, as well as unaffected Christian example, must be the minister’s evident concern.
a) The peculiar responsibility which the ordinand now is focused in the task of the interpretation of Holy Scripture, of bringing the Christian message to contemporary expression. This is no light task, but a full-time and lifetime preoccupation. It involves understanding the Bible, attending to the history of its interpretation in the Church, and openness to the contemporary world, always in dependence on the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit, so that the Gospel can be tellingly expressed there.
b) The ordinand is given the responsibility of administering the sacraments which are inseparably related to the Gospel and its communication, and therefore to the ministry of the Word. The sacraments are signs and pledges of the effectiveness of the Christian message – Baptism of Christ’s power through the Gospel to establish the Church and individuals as members of it, the Lord’s Supper of His power to maintain and fulfil that life.
c) The ordinand is admitted to a fellowship which exercises pastoral oversight. The authority involved in such oversight is not a possession of the ministry, for it is solely the authority of the Gospel itself and of Christ Who thus discloses Himself. It may not be arrogated by any individual or group. But it is, for this very reason, real authority by virtue of which the ministry exercises rule and discipline within the Church. The ministry is responsible for the Church’s ‘style of life’ in the world, whether it is appropriate to the Gospel. Such authority rests upon continuing reference to Christ Himself, as He makes Himself known in the dialogue with Holy Scripture.
vii) The ordinand is admitted to a fellowship responsible for the guardianship of the Gospel – a guardianship which must express itself in freshness and adaptability as the Church is led by Christ to do new things. The minister has not only the task of protecting the Church and the Gospel from error, but also, and particularly, the task of initiating creative trends in the Church’s witness.
viii) The ordinand is admitted to the ministry which stands, as part of the whole Church under the authority and judgement of the very message which it is the ministry’s task to guard and communicate. It is Jesus Christ, not the ministry, Who is the Head of the Church. Just as it is important that there should be clear signs within the Church of the independence of the ministry, so there should also be clear signs of the unity of the ministry with the Church. That the ministry has its place within the Church is signified by the decision to ordain belonging to the elders and ministers together in Presbytery .That the ministry is also a gift of Christ to the Church is signified by the consequent admission to the ministry through the laying on of hands of those already ordained to the ministry.
ix) In ordination it is the Church’s intention to admit the ordinand to the ministry of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church; but in fact a person is authorised to minister within the bounds of a particular communion. While the Church is divided, ordination lays a special responsibility upon the ministry to ‘cherish a spirit of kinship to all the followers of the Lord’.