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Appendix D-2: Ordination and the Eldership

(Adopted by the General Assembly, 1966)

(For Session read Parish Council where applicable)

One of the reasons for the preparation of this statement on ordination was the need for a clarification of the meaning of the word when used in reference to the office of elder. As the statement has made clear, in strict technical use, the word ‘ordination’ is concerned with the Ministry of Word, Sacraments and Pastoral Oversight. However, over a long period, it has been widely used of a number of other offices in the Church. This has sometimes caused confusion. In the case of the office of elder, the difficulties are complicated because the two offices, though distinct, are yet closely associated in many aspects of the life of the Church. It is necessary therefore to make clear the sense in which the word is used in connection with the eldership.

First, it should be clear that the use of the word ‘ordination’ does not imply that elders are made ministers of the Word and Sacraments. In various ways, in its doctrine, its law and its practice, the understanding of the Church is quite clear, and it is well expressed in the statement approved by the 1963 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland ‘the Eldership is a spiritual office in the Church, concerned with the rule and pastoral oversight of the congregation. It is distinct from, though closely associated with, the Ministry of Word and Sacraments’.

However, the use of the word ‘ordination’ does imply that the Church regards both the ceremony and the office as specially significant, and it is by looking at these that we may best understand the sense in which the word is used.

The ceremony of ordination of elders takes place in the course of a service of public worship. It is preceded by a deliberate process in which certain persons have been approved by the Session (i.e., the minister and elders) and have been elected by the congregation as possessing the gifts fitting them for the office. In the service itself, conducted by the minister, they are solemnly appointed to the office with prayer that the Holy Spirit may enable them to discharge it well. The general conception of the importance of the office in the mind of the Church and in the attitude of those who accept it is such that it is regarded as involving service for life. Elders are therefore ordained once only. If they become members of another congregation, they exercise office only when duly elected and inducted.

The office of the eldership has arisen out of the concern that the Church should be so ordered that the life of the people of God should be marked by holiness as he is holy. It is therefore necessary that there should be processes of oversight (episcope), so that the life of the Church may be guided and ordered. The office of the elder is concerned with this process of government and pastoral oversight. It will be noted that the statement has outlined three main functions of the ministry, in relation to the Word, the Sacraments and Pastoral Oversight. The office of elder developed in the years following the Reformation as the need was felt for representatives of the people, seniors, Church governors commonly called elders, to be associated with the ministers in the administration of the discipline and life of the Church. For us, the authoritative statement of the nature of the office is that contained in The Form of Church Government prepared by the Westminster Assembly in 1645 which in Paragraph I of our Book of Order is acknowledged as generally setting forth the order of government in the Church.

‘Other Church Governors. As there were in the Jewish church elders of the people joined with the priests and Levites in the government of the church; so Christ, who hath instituted government, and governors ecclesiastical in the church, hath furnished some in his church, besides ministers of the word, with gifts for government, and with commission to execute the same when called thereunto, who are to join with the minister in the government of the church. Which officers reformed churches commonly called Elders.’

It is important to note that there were various reasons for the development of this office. There were the reasons of a practical nature, the need for assistance in administration, for exercise of discipline and pastoral care in the Church, for more effective influence in the life of the community. There were also reasons of a theological nature. One of the most important of these was a recovery through the New Testament of an enriched awareness of the Church as the whole people of God, the ‘laos’. Though it concerned individuals, some as leaders and all as members, it concerned a community with a corporate life. There grew the conviction that the nature of its life should make clear its real character as a community, a conviction which emphasised the importance of the group or council. This involved that, in matters concerning discipline and administration, the processes by which decisions were made should themselves manifest the nature of the Church and her life.

From its earliest years, the Christian Church had found the council a structure pattern which clearly reflected the life of the Church as a community, as involving common consultation, deliberation and decision. For example, in the account of the first Council in Jerusalem preserved to us in Acts, Chapter 15, we have an early instance of the distinctive Christian exercise of authority, the Church meeting in council under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and expressing itself: ‘It is the decision of the Holy Spirit, and our decision’. This government by council was seen to be so deeply characteristic of the nature of the Church as to form a basic understanding or principle by which ecclesiastical practice must be tested. Awareness of this produced a deep concern that the processes of Church government should be by councils, with common consultation, deliberation and decision, and with the responsible participation of representatives coming together so that the whole fellowship is involved. It is with regard to this sort of pattern of structure, as related to councils and synods, that the word ‘conciliar’ or ‘synodical’ are used. It has been well said by Dr R. S. Louden:

‘This conciliar government of the Church is not just a chance element, but expressive of the guidance of the Holy Spirit within the Body which has only one King and Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. Accordingly no Church order can be regarded as apostolic which lacks a large synodical element in its government. A true understanding of the corporate life of the church requires its synodical government to be representative of the whole people of God, the whole body of the Christian Fellowship. It must never be allowed to become ministerial deliberation and leadership alone. It is at this point that the real significance of the eldership emerges as an office ensuring the participation of the representative church member in the conciliar government of the Church through its various courts.’ (The True Face of the Kirk, p 40)

Further guidance to the sense in which the word is used may be gained from surveying the various responsibilities of the office. It should be recognised that the office does not exist in other Presbyterian churches precisely as it does in the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand. However, the general responsibilities may be grouped as follows:

 

<typohead type=4>a)     Personal and Pastoral</typohead>

The elder has responsibility for seeking to further the influence of the Gospel amongst the people of the parish. ‘To each elder there is normally assigned a district for the oversight of which the minister is responsible. The elder should assist the minister in the care of the sick, the aged and the needy, and in encouraging those outside to respond to the Gospel and to enter the fellowship of the Church.’ (Church of Scotland, Statement 1963)

 

<typohead type=4>b)     Rule and Administration</typohead>

The elder has responsibility for sharing the work of the Session which is concerned with the oversight of all aspects of the life of the congregation. This is the primary setting of his or her office, the life of the congregation in which the elder is a member, whose people the elder knows and with whose work the elder will be actively concerned in varying ways.

Though elders are spoken of as representatives of the people, it should be noted that their obligation is not simply to give effect to the opinion of the people. They are to ‘bear rule’, i.e., to decide after deliberation, according to their own wisdom and conviction, under the promised guidance of the Holy Spirit.

 

<typohead type=4>c)     Participation in Higher Courts</typohead>

Some elders are appointed to serve in Presbytery and Assemblies from time to time.

The appointment of persons to discharge this sort of function is obviously something which goes very deep in the life of the Church, and this conviction finds expression in the use of the word ‘ordination’.

It has been suggested that it might assist clearer use of the word ordination if it were restricted to its properly strict technical sense in relation to the ministry of the Word and Sacraments. But provided it is clearly borne in mind that the use of the word does not imply that elders are made ministers of the Word and Sacraments, it seems reasonable that the word should be used as expressing convictions outlined above.

This is well summarised in the words of Principal Burleigh:

‘Their office is in a broad sense spiritual and pastoral, distinct from but closely associated with the ministry of Word and Sacraments, and to it they are solemnly set apart with a ceremony not unfittingly termed ‘ordination’ – (Relations between Anglican and Presbyterian Church p 34)