Common Worship: Ordination Services

By Common Worship

Provides the ordination liturgies of the Church of England from The Book of Common Prayer and Common Worship alongside a study guide for these services

• Language: English
• Publisher: Church House Publishing
• Release date: Jul 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9780715122402

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Common Worship

Ordination Services

Study Edition

Church House Publishing

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Published by Church House Publishing

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ISBN 978-0-7151-2130-6

ISBN (for this ePub Edition) 978-0-7151-2240-2

Published 2007 by Church House Publishing

Copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2007

Brief History © Paul Bradshaw 2007

Index © Meg Davies 2007

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, except as stated below, without written permission.

The Ordinal 1662 from The Book of Common Prayer, the rights in which are vested in the Crown, is reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.

The Scripture quotations contained herein are from The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Anglicized Edition, copyright @ 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Common Worship services designed

by Derek Birdsall RDI and John Morgan

Contents

A note on using this Common Worship EPUB edition

Foreword

Introduction by the House of Bishops

The Common Worship Ordination Services

The Ordinal (1662)

A Brief History of Ordination Rites

Commentary by the Liturgical Commission

Celebrating Ordinations: a Practical Guide

Copyright Information

Index of Biblical References

General Index

A note on using this Common Worship EPUB edition

This Common Worship eBook is designed for use on any device able to read EPUB electronic books, such as an iPad using iBooks, or a Nook or Kobo eReader.

The following notes on navigating this publication on an eReader may be helpful, bearing in mind that using a prayer book is likely to be quite different to the experience of reading a novel or similar.

Finding your way around easily

♦  The Contents list contains links to each section of the book.

♦  You can access the Contents list from any section in the book by clicking on the underlined main heading.

♦  You will also find underlined cross-reference links – e.g. from a service to the text of The Lord’s Prayer. Click on the underlined ‘here’ to go to The Lord’s Prayer. When you have finished reading The Lord’s Prayer, press the Back button to return to the section you have just left.

♦  Selecting the Menu will also give you the option to search the text for a particular word or phrase.

Personalizing your Common Worship eBook

♦  You can bookmark particular sections to mark a place to which you want to return (in much the same way as you might use a ribbon in a printed liturgical book). Click on the bookmark icon in the menu bar.

♦  You can also add a note or highlight a particular section with a note, which may be helpful when planning worship or studying. Check the user guide for your device/eReader application for how to do this.

Foreword

The Church of England is the inheritor of the historic Christian doctrinal tradition encapsulated in its formularies and referred to in the Declaration of Assent. This doctrine is expressed in its liturgy; two of the three ‘historic formularies’, in which, according to Canon A 5, the doctrine of the Church of England is in particular to be found, are liturgical texts – The Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662. It is, therefore, above all to the Church of England’s ordination rites (the 1662 Ordinal and the Common Worship Ordination Services approved by the General Synod in 2005 as modern alternatives to it) that one should look for definitive statements of what the Church of England believes about orders and ordination.

This edition of the Common Worship Ordination Services is intended to facilitate study of the texts by all who are interested in what the Church of England teaches, and especially by those who are themselves preparing for ordination. The Liturgical Commission hopes that the book will also serve as a resource for ecumenical dialogue about ministry in the Church.

The book is prefaced by an introduction by the House of Bishops setting out in brief compass the Church of England’s understanding of ordained ministry. In this study edition, the texts of the services are annotated with references to Scripture alongside other authoritative statements of the Church of England – the Canons of the Church of England and the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. The 1662 Ordinal is included in its entirety, for three reasons: first because of its status as one of the three historic formularies, secondly because it remains available for liturgical use, and finally because it is an essential element of the liturgical tradition within which the Common Worship Ordination Services also stand. A brief history of ordination rites and a commentary (based on the original Liturgical Commission report and on the reports of the synodical Revision Committee and the House of Bishops) complete the resources for study. The history and commentary are aids to interpretation of the liturgical texts and do not have the same authoritative status as the liturgical texts themselves.

The final section of the book has a more practical focus. In ‘Celebrating Ordinations: A Practical Guide’ the Liturgical Commission offers guidance for those involved in planning the ordination of deacons and priests according to the Common Worship rites. Some of the contents of this guide are necessarily detailed, but as it serves to illuminate the significance of the rites it should also be of interest to readers who are not themselves preparing for ordination or planning ordination services.

Important as liturgy is as an expression of the doctrine of the Church, the ordination rites are not a unique source for the teaching of the Church of England on orders and ordination. Ministry in the Church has been the subject of extensive ecumenical dialogue, both on a multilateral basis and between the Church of England and other churches or groups of churches. Two such ecumenical texts which have been received with approval by the General Synod of the Church of England are Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (a report by the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches) and the sections of the Final Report of the first Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission concerning Ministry and Ordination.¹ The ordained ministry also features prominently in ecumenical common statements approved by the General Synod, such as the Porvoo Agreement.² Finally, the diaconate, the priesthood and the episcopate have each been the subject of reports produced by working groups as a contribution to debate in the Church of England. These ecumenical and Anglican documents also merit study and discussion.

As each of the Common Worship ordination rites makes clear, the ministry of deacons, priests and bishops can only be understood in the context of the Church – the company of all the baptized whom God forms into a royal priesthood. The ministries of deacon, priest and bishop are given by God to serve that royal priesthood and thereby to enable the Church to live ou t its calling. These ministries also represent to the Church the ministry of Christ. Thus, study of orders and ordination rites points beyond those subjects in two directions – to reflection on the Church as a whole, ‘Christ’s beloved bride, his own flock, bought by the shedding of his blood on the cross’, and on Christ himself, ‘the Apostle and High Priest of our faith and the Shepherd of our souls’.

Book title  Stephen Wakefield

The Rt Revd Stephen Platten, Bishop of Wakefield

Chairman of the Liturgical Commission

1.  Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, Faith and Order Paper no. 111: Geneva, 1982; Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission, The Final Report, London, 1982.

2.  Together in Mission and Ministry. The Porvoo Common Statement with Essays on Church and Ministry in Northern Europe, London, 1993.

Introduction by the House of Bishops

The ministry of the Church is the ministry of Christ, its chief shepherd and high priest. The ordained ministry is Christ’s gift to his Church, and in their life and ministry, bishops, priests and deacons are called to speak in Christ’s name and build up the Church of which he is the head. In this way the whole body of the Church is ordered in faithful response to the Lord’s summons to share his work.

This ordering of the Church’s ministry has been shaped under the guidance of the Holy Spirit through the processes of human history, and the Church of England has maintained the threefold order of bishop, priest and deacon. Within that threefold order, bishops are ordained in historic succession (that is, in intended continuity from the apostles themselves). This is a sign of the Church’s care for continuity in the whole of its life and mission, and reinforces its determination to manifest the abiding characteristics of the Church of the apostles. This is not to deny that other Christian traditions have an authentic concern for apostolicity or that they intend to express apostolic continuity in other ways, but some such sign of apostolic continuity is required for the full, visible unity of the Church.

Holy Orders help shape the Church around Christ’s incarnation and work of redemption, handed on in the apostolic charge. The ministry of deacons is focused in being heralds of the kingdom and in bringing before the servant Church the needs of the world. The ministry of priests (who continue to exercise diaconal ministry) is focused in calling the Church to enter into Christ’s self-offering to the Father, drawing God’s people into a life transformed and sanctified. The ministry of bishops (as they embody the ministry of both deacon and priest) is focused in the apostolic responsibility of proclaiming and guarding the faith, of presiding at the sacraments, of leading the Church’s prayer and of handing on its ministry, as they share with their fellow bishops in their apostolic mission.

The Church’s ordained ministry is apostolic; that is, it is sent to enable the Church to fulfil its vocation to mission, to witness to the resurrection and to preach the good news of salvation in all the world. It keeps the Church faithful to the teaching of the apostles, and finds fresh ways to proclaim and express that apostolic faith as it has been handed on in each generation.

The Church’s ordained ministry is catholic, that is, universal in time and space. The Church of England speaks of ordination to the office and work of bishop, priest or deacon in the Church of God. When an ordained priest presides at the Eucharist and at Baptism, pronounces God’s absolution and blesses God’s people in his name, and when bishops confirm and ordain in a particular place, these are actions not only of a particular local Christian community, but of the whole Church.

The Church’s ordained ministry is holy, set apart for its particular calling. The holiness of life that is required of the Church’s ministers is ‘a wholesome example’ of godly life to the flock of Christ. The Church is so ordered that the Holy Spirit may sanctify our sinful lives and direct our faltering steps, as we are being made ready to come into God’s presence.

The Church’s ordained ministry is one; one with the Church of the apostolic age; one in faith and doctrine; and one in continuous ministry wherever it has been established. In Christ we are all baptized into one body, and the diversity of gifts of the many members of that body is recognized as essential both in building up the body and in ministering to God’s people in his name. The Church’s ordained ministry articulates and serves the Church’s unity.

In each of these aspects of the Church’s ministry, Christ’s mission is the fundamental and unifying reality. Christ’s ministry and mission turn the Church outwards towards the world that God so loved that he sent his only Son. And they prepare the Church for that goal and end of all things, when Christ himself will present to the Father a world made perfect by his work, when all his people share in the joyful communion of love that binds the Father and the Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

The Oaths and the Declaration of Assent

¶    The Oath of Allegiance

I, A B, do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors, according to law: So help me God.

For the circumstances in which this oath is not required to be taken or may be dispensed with, and for the solemn affirmation which may in certain circumstances replace it, see Canon C 13.

¶    The Oath of Canonical Obedience

I, A B, do swear by Almighty God that I will pay true and canonical obedience to the Lord Bishop of C and his successors in all things lawful and honest: So help me God.

For the solemn affirmation which may in certain circumstances replace this oath, see Canon C 14. For the oath of due obedience to the archbishop and to the metropolitical church of the Province taken by those who are to be consecrated bishop, see here.

¶    The Declaration of Assent

Preface

The Church of England is part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, worshipping the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It professes the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds, which faith the Church is called upon to proclaim afresh in each generation. Led by the Holy Spirit, it has borne witness to Christian truth in its historic formularies, the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, The Book of Common Prayer and the Ordering of Bishops, Priests and Deacons. In the declaration you are about to make, will you affirm your loyalty to this inheritance of faith as your inspiration and guidance under God in bringing the grace and truth of Christ to this generation and making Him known to those in your care?

Declaration of Assent

I, A B, do so affirm, and accordingly declare my belief in the faith which is revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds and to which the historic formularies of the Church of England bear witness; and in public prayer and administration of the sacraments, I will use only the forms of service which are authorized or allowed by Canon.

The Common Worship Ordination Services

Contents

A Note on the Annotations

The Ordination of Deacons

The Ordination of Priests, also called Presbyters

The Ordination of Deacons and Priests at the Same Service

The Ordination and Consecration of a Bishop

¶    Authorization

The Common Worship Ordination Services are authorized pursuant to Canon B 2 of the Canons of the Church of England for use until further resolution of the General Synod.

A Note on the Annotations

As this is a study edition of the Ordination Services, rather than one intended for liturgical use, the opportunity has been taken to annotate the text with references to the Bible and also to the Canons of the Church of England and the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. The annotations do not form part of the authorized text.

The best liturgical texts are a fabric woven chiefly from Scripture. In preparing and revising these Ordination Services, the Liturgical Commission and the Revision Committee had Bibles constantly open in front of them. Older generations of liturgical craftsmen carried much of Scripture in their memories and, rather than quote directly, tended to combine and recombine images, phrases and allusions into a rich scriptural tapestry. To help readers who might wish to pick out and follow some of the threads in this fabric, references to Scripture have been included as footnotes. These references can be grouped into three broad categories:

¶    A few point to direct quotation. For example, the greeting with which the bishop opens each service (‘Peace be with you’) is the greeting with which the risen Christ greets his disciples three times in John 20. Similarly, words from the welcome to newly ordained priests – ‘let the word of Christ dwell in you richly’ – are a quotation from Colossians 3.16.

¶    The majority point to scriptural phrases, images or ideas. A single line of liturgical text often draws simultaneously on different points in the Bible, recombining images in ways that constitute in themselves a trajectory of the interpretation of Scripture within the life of the Church. For example, ‘Christ’s own flock, bought by the shedding of his blood on the cross’ draws primarily on Acts 20.28 (‘the flock … that he obtained with the blood of his own Son’), but there are echoes too of 1 Corinthians 6.20 and 7.23 (‘you were bought with a price’) and Hebrews 9.12 (‘with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption’). Again, the petition in the Litany that the clergy may ‘hunger for truth and thirst after righteousness’ is almost a direct quotation from Matthew 5.6, but the beatitude has been reshaped by the memory of John 6.35 and 14.6. Inevitably, it is impossible to list all the possible scriptural allusions or to decide with complete consistency which allusions merit a reference and which echoes are too faint to justify one. What is offered here is a selection which the Liturgical Commission hopes readers will find helpful in stimulating reflection and discussion.

¶    Some references point to the scriptural warrant for a statement, even though the statement does not use the wording of the biblical passage concerned. Such references have been supplied more sparingly, and are confined to points at which the text makes a statement about the duties or responsibilities of a deacon, priest or bishop. For example, the statement that a bishop is to make his home ‘a place of hospitality and welcome’ does not appear in Scripture in those words, but it is made because Titus 1.8 and 1 Timothy 3.2 both say that a bishop ‘must be hospitable’.

No attempt is made in the annotations to distinguish between those references that indicate direct quotation, those that signal allusion and those that offer a scriptural warrant for the statement concerned. These are not hard and fast categories and it has been judged better not to attempt to specify where on the spectrum a particular reference is to be placed.

The text does not only quote or allude to Scripture. There are also references to the Canons of the Church of England and, in one case, to the Thirty-nine Articles. Most of these indicate either direct quotation of a passage (for example, from the Declaration of Assent when it is confirmed that the ordinands have made it) or a phrase, or indicate the canonical basis for a statement (for example, that the bishop is ‘principal minister’ and ‘chief pastor’). There is also less direct allusion; the phrase ‘make Christ known’ echoes the phrase ‘bringing the grace and truth of Christ to this generation and making Him known to those in your care’ in the Declaration of Assent. The references to the Canons and the Articles are, of course, different in status from those to Scripture and this is indicated by the fact that they are included in a sequence of letters (A, B, C, etc.) separate from the numbered footnotes. (In the printed version of this book, they appear in the left- or right-hand margin rather than at the foot of the page.)

The Common Worship Ordination Services also include quotations from and allusions to earlier liturgical texts. Several phrases are drawn or adapted from the 1662 Ordinal, and a great deal of material is retained from the Ordinal in The Alternative Service Book 1980 (ASB). These quotations are not referenced individually, because it is comparatively easy to compare the Common Worship services with those in the 1662 and ASB Ordinals. The 1662 Ordinal is included in this volume (here) to facilitate comparison, and the relationship between the Common Worship ordination prayers and those in the ASB is shown here. A study of the Declarations in the ASB Ordinal, and most particularly the Introduction to the Declarations in the Ordination of Priests, will show that their most memorable phrases have been included at some point in the Common Worship rites (though not necessarily at the same