Dear Friends,
I love getting questions about all matters Episcopal. Someone asked me recently about the ordination of priests in the Episcopal Church. Great question! Priestly ordination takes place with the Bishop consecrating the person to priesthood by the laying on of hands and a prayer of consecration.
Priests are called to the following:
• Work as pastor, priest, and teacher, together with your bishop and fellow priests, and to take a share in the councils of the Church.
• Proclaim by word and deed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and fashion one’s life within its precepts.
• Love and serve the people among whom you work, caring alike for young and old, strong and weak, rich and poor.
• Preach, declare God’s forgiveness, pronounce God’s blessing, to share in the administration of Holy Baptism and in the celebration of the mysteries of Christ’s Body and Blood, and to perform the other ministrations
entrusted to you.
• In all, to nourish Christ’s people from the riches of Christ’s grace and strengthen them to glorify God in this life and in the life to come.
Priests vow to:
• Acknowledge that they are truly called by God to and God’s Church to be a priest and commit oneself to this trust and responsibility. Respect and be guided by the pastoral
direction and leadership of your bishop.
• Be diligent in the reading and study of the Holy Scriptures, and in seeking the knowledge of such things as may make you a stronger and more able minister of Christ.
• Endeavor to minister the Word of God and the sacraments of the New Covenant, that the reconciling love of Christ may be known and received.
• Undertake to be a faithful pastor to all whom you are called to serve, laboring together with them and with your fellow ministers to build up the family of God. Pattern one’s life in accordance with the teachings of Christ.
• Persevere in prayer, asking for God’s grace for self and others, offering all labors to God, through the mediation of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Find more information on the ordination of a priest in the Book of Common Prayer beginning on page 525.
Ramona+
