Services for Ordinations

During the reformation of the sixteenth century, when many other national churches in Europe were not doing so, the Church of England, the ecclesia Anglicana, carefully and intentionally maintained what is called the “Threefold” or “Apostolic” Ministry. The three orders of bishop, priest (from presbyter) and deacon is a vital part of the Apostolic Succession retained by the Anglican Way. One earlier book bound together with the traditional Book of Common Prayer was the Ordinal. It was not included as a subordinate part of the BCP because it stands alone as an Anglican Formulary in and of itself. This approach is maintained among most of the Anglican national churches even today. The preface to the Ordinal is an official, objective statement of Anglican belief and cannot be overstressed when considering the historic Anglican doctrine of the ministry.

The 1979 Prayer Book replaced the Ordinal with “Episcopal Services” and placed it between the “Pastoral Offices” and the Psalter. Thus it becomes a subordinate part of the Prayer Book. This introduces inconsistency and confusion with respect to the purpose and execution of services. Confirmation is an “Episcopal Service” to be performed only by a bishop and yet it has been removed from “Episcopal Services” to “Pastoral Offices.” One hopes this is not indicative of innovations yet to come.

The long-standing Anglican tradition of treating the Ordinal as a separate formulary, still in common use among the various Anglican national churches, has been set aside in order to conform the services of ordination to the theoretical construct behind the entire 1979 Book. Instead of a formulary, it becomes “such services as have been approved by authority in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.” And it is remains thus regardless of what the rest of the Anglican Communion or the rest of the Christian Church has done or is doing.

There are more innovations found within these “Episcopal Services”.

1. In all three services masculine nouns and pronouns are italicized to allow their replacement by feminine equivalents.
2. The structure is based on primitive services prior to the maturity accomplished through the General Councils.
3. Dynamic Equivalency was used to render the acclamations, greetings, Creeds, and Scriptures from the originals.
4. Emphasis on the spiritual vocation to the cure of souls has been reduced in deference to “peace and justice” issues prominent in the 1960’s
5. There is no provision for ordinands with a preference for the traditional language of prayer and spirituality used in all previous Ordinals.

The 1974 ordinations of women were illegal but retroactively legitimized by the General Convention of 1976. This made possible the changes in the ordination services in the 1979 Prayer Book.

The traditional Christian doctrine of rights is, “what God has not commanded in Scripture can not be made a right.” The secular doctrine of rights is organized around a model of conflict in which one person has to seize his or her rights from another. This is considered natural action and called justifiable civil disobedience. To calm opposition to this innovation, a “period of reception” was established. This was to allow the process to continue until its failure or success was discerned to be the will of God. As women priests were eventually forced on parishes and pledges of acceptance were required of traditional clergy, this “period of reception” was unofficially ended. This technique has proven so effective it is now being used in other areas such as homosexuality. The absurdity of the process is the assumption that God might some day retroactively approve of their actions just as did the 1973 and 1976 General Conventions. The formulary of the 1979 Prayer Book makes experimentation in faith and practice an established principle in the Episcopal Church with limitless consequences.

The application of dynamic equivalency to the Ordination Oath was more dynamic than equivalent. “I solemnly declare that I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation; and I do solemnly engage to conform to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Episcopal Church.” This lacks a pledge to conformity of the faith historically required at every ordination. When this is combined with the minimalistic blessing, “Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” the oath becomes a dynamic pledge to follow the TEC interpretation in all of the above.

The traditional “Apostolic Blessing” is “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.” There is no confusion about the functions or titles of the Three Divine Persons. The Blessed Trinity has been the Church’s Faith from the beginning, and if the people of the first century could understand it with faith and joy, the people of the twenty-first century ought to be able to understand it without “dynamic equivalency.”

This unclear reference to the Blessed Trinity at the beginning of the ordination service becomes a contradiction to the oath of conformity to Word of Scripture. This contradiction or devaluation of the traditional faith is a part of the ever changing doctrine, discipline, and worship that the ordinand must also swear to uphold. The ordinand begins ministry having to decide whether to place his allegiance upon the Word of Holy Scripture or the murky and varying teachings of the 1979 Prayer Book.

At an ordination there is a special opportunity for the meaning of the traditional “And with your spirit” to be made plain. The new minister, having just received the gift of the Holy Spirit for his ordained ministry, turns and greets the people by saying “The Lord be with you,” acknowledging in this way that true worship is only possible by the presence and by the grace of the Lord God. The people respond, “And with your spirit,” affirming and celebrating with the new minister the gift of the Holy Spirit now at work in him for ministry. This lovely act of Christian mutual recognition and support is more than it appears to be. It is also a joint statement by the clergy and the laity of the way in which the authority of holy orders resides in God the Holy Spirit, and not in any human capacity or merit.

In the traditional examination by the Bishop, the ordinand is invited to stop the proceedings if he has a shred of doubt that he is called to these obligations. The Bishop warns, “The Church and Congregation whom you must serve, is his [Christ’s] Spouse, and his Body. And if it shall happen that the same Church, or any Member thereof, do take any hurt or hindrance by reason of your negligence, ye know the greatness of the fault, and also the horrible punishment that will ensue.”

The Bishop using the 1979 Prayer Book asks, “Will you be ready, with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away from the Church all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God’s Word?” and “Will you be diligent in Prayers, and in reading the Holy Scriptures, and in such studies as help to the knowledge of the same, laying aside the study of the world and the flesh?” While there is inherently nothing wrong with this question, it fails to require the same spiritual and moral heights of the historic Ordinal.

At the best, whatever the merits of the new ordination rites, “Episcopal Services” must be called an experimental replacement for the Ordinal. Neither the “Episcopal Services,” nor the 1979 Prayer Book can stand as a formulary of the Anglican Way. A true formulary cannot be open-ended in doctrine or careless in its statements of essential dogmatic truths. Nor can a true formulary set aside the duty of the Church’s ministry to defend the people of the Church from false doctrine and to preserve the complete Gospel for those yet to be saved.

For more details, read “Neither Orthodoxy Nor A Formulary” by The Rev. Dr. Peter Toon, M.A., D.Phil.

and The Rev. Louis Tarsitano

(Preservation Press of the Prayer Book Society of the USA 2004