Ordination and the
Church
by Richard Hong
[8-26-01]
Richard Hong, recently elected as Treasurer of the
Witherspoon Society, is an elder and past moderator of Palisades
Presbytery. He is now enrolled as an Inquirer, and is beginning
his theological studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York.
He holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Princeton University, and lives in
Kinnelon, NJ.
As the debate over the new Amendment A begins to take shape, one of the
central questions is the nature and scope of ordination itself. What is
ordination? What standards apply, and at which governing body levels?
What is ordination?
Ordination is not about elevating a person to a more
exalted status. Ordination is not about someone being more faithful or
more holy than someone else. God help us if we ever develop a theology
of ordination which implies that the ordained are somehow "better
Christians" than those who are not ordained.
"One responsibility of membership in the church
is the election of officers who are ordained to fulfill particular
functions. The existence of these offices in no way diminishes the
importance of the commitment of all members to the total ministry of
the church. These ordained officers differ from other members in
function only." - Book of Order, G-6.0102
Ordination is about the call of individuals who have
specific gifts to exercise those gifts in the performance of specific
tasks. Particular tasks are reserved for persons who have the gifts to
perform those tasks.
Ordination is not something which is either earned or
deserved. The call to ordained ministry is a gift from God.
"All ministry in the Church is a gift from
Jesus Christ. Members and officers alike serve mutually under the
mandate of Christ who is the chief minister of all. His ministry is
the basis of all ministries; the standard for all offices is the
pattern of the one who came 'not to be served but to serve.'"
(Matt. 20:28) - Book of Order, G-6.0101
We do not have the power to confer the gift of
ministry. We do not choose the persons to whom Jesus Christ will give
that gift. Our job is to discern the gifts of ministry within
individuals, and confirm by our concurrence that an individual is called
to a particular ministry. And we must always be mindful of the fact that
throughout the Scriptures, God has consistently surprised us by
conferring the gift of ministry upon persons we would not have expected
to see in God's service.
To bar any class of persons from ministry is to
presuppose that we know the mind of God so well that we can safely
presume that God would never call any person - not one - who is a member
of the barred class. Is there a single homosexual person to whom Jesus
Christ has given the gift of ministry? If so, then our ban is nothing
less than an attempt to thwart the will of God.
Ordination Standards: Uniformity or Anarchy?
Opponents of Amendment A are arguing that "local
option" will create a messy, disorderly, patchwork quilt of
differing standards. But is this really the case? Or perhaps phrased
more accurately, is this any different from the situation we have now?
"Ordination is an act of the whole
church"
That phrase is a quote from G-14.0401 (emphasis
mine):
"Ordination for the office of minister of the
Word and Sacrament is an act of the whole church carried out
by the presbytery, setting apart a person to the ministry of the Word
and Sacrament."
Of course, what does this actually mean? We cannot
really be sure, especially since the Book of Order itself uses different
wording in different places (again, emphasis mine):
"Ordination to the office of minister of the
Word and Sacrament is an act of the presbytery. Ordination to
the offices of elder and deacon is an act of the session, except in
the case of the organization of a new church." - Book of Order,
G-14.0101
So is ordination an act of the whole church or an act
of the presbytery? In reality, it has elements of both. But to say that
it is clearly one or the other ignores the plain text of the Book of
Order. It would be disingenuous to cite one without citing the other.
And nobody seems to have been bothered by this seeming contradiction
before!
There is a tension here, apparently, between some
passages that emphasize the presbytery and other that place greater
weight on the whole church. One passage makes this tension explicit:
"The governing bodies are separate and independent, but have such
mutual relations that the act of one of them is the act of the whole
Church performed by it through the appropriate governing body."
(G-9.0103)
This cannot mean that all governing bodies use exactly
the same criteria in exactly the same way. We know of all sorts of ways
governing bodies take differing, even conflicting actions. Our
representative government treasures this "separate and
independent" status. So the Book of Order must mean that the
fullness of the Spirit can be present in the acts of all governing
bodies, even when they are different and perhaps contradictory, leading
them toward a broader and more complex harmony.
The real question is this: Is ordination something
which is expected to be uniform across our denomination? Not in our
history.
First, let us look at elders, understanding that the
provisions of G-6.0106b apply to all officers, not just ministers.
Consider G-10.0102l, which places this responsibility on the session:
"to instruct, examine, ordain, install, and
welcome into common ministry elders and deacons on their election by
the congregation and to inquire into their faithfulness in fulfilling
their responsibilities."
What national standard exists for the examination of
prospective elders and deacons by the session? None. Does the presbytery
review a session's examination practices? No. Would we want to move
toward a system where the presbytery dictates with increasing
specificity whom a local church may ordain as elders and deacons? Not
likely.
Yet, even though ordination to the office of elder or
deacon is for the whole church, being ordained in one church gives the
person no rights to serve on the session in any other church.
(G-14.0209b states that the moderator shall say to those ordained: "You
are now elders and deacons in the Church of Jesus Christ and for this
congregation.")
The ordination is recognized, but it has no force or
effect within any other congregation in any practical sense. So despite
the fact that there is no uniform practice of preparation or examination
for elders and deacons, the church survives. There is both diversity of
practice in determining who is ordained, and respect for local authority
by not requiring any church to elect someone to office based on that
person's ordained status.
What of ministers? Here the situation is equally
diverse. Presbyteries are granted wide latitude in preparing ministers
for ordination. Consider this section from the Book of Order:
"If the inquirer's or candidate's presbytery
judges that there are good and sufficient reasons why certain of the
educational requirements of G-14.0310b(2) or b(3) should not be met by
an inquirer or candidate, it shall make an exception only by
three-fourths vote of the members of presbytery present. A full
account of the reasons for such an exception shall be included in the
minutes of presbytery and shall be communicated to the presbytery to
which the inquirer or candidate may be transferred. (G-14.0311 and
G-14.0314) The successful completion of the course of study specified
in such an exception shall fulfill the requirements of G-14.0310b(2)
or b(3)." - Book of Order, G-14.0313a
In case you don't have your Book of Order handy for
looking up those references to other sections, G-14.0310b(2) and (3) are
the sections which require a candidate to have attended college and
seminary. In other words, the above section permits a presbytery (albeit
by three-fourths vote) to ordain someone to the office of Minister of
Word and Sacrament who did not attend seminary!
Diversity in ordination practices, even of this
magnitude, is an integral part of our understanding of what it means to
be Presbyterian. In fact, the idea that presbyteries are naturally
expected to have differing standards for minister members is a reason
why the following rule exists:
"The presbytery, through its appropriate
committee, shall examine each minister or candidate who seeks
membership in it on his or her Christian faith and views in theology,
the Sacraments, and the government of this church..." - Book of
Order, G-11.0402
Why would presbyteries be required
to examine every minister seeking membership on his/her faith, theology,
Sacraments and polity if there was not an implicit understanding that
our standards regarding these essentials may differ from presbytery to
presbytery?
While there are standardized examinations for
candidates, these are developed and administered by the Presbyteries'
Cooperative Committee on Examinations for Candidates, whose very name
reflects our understanding that examination is done by presbyteries.
Examination readers are elected by presbyteries (G-11.0103m), not higher
governing bodies. Finally, G-14.0313b permits presbyteries to develop
alternate means of examining candidates who fail the standardized exams.
In summary, we are a church which respects diversity
as a part of our expression of unity. In ordination decisions, this is
demonstrated as respect for the ordination decisions made by other
presbyteries or other congregations, while retaining the right to apply
our own standards before permitting someone to exercise his/her office
within our jurisdiction.
Amendment B seriously eroded this doctrine of mutual
respect and freedom for our governing bodies as it pertained to
ordination. Amendment A will restore that freedom.
