‘The ordained priesthood’ in the Canterbury Statement

The Meaning of Ordained Priesthood in Ecumenical Dialogues
In contemporary theology there is no question more difficult, more controversial or more urgent than the meaning of the ordained ministry. The difficulty arises not only from the pastoral aspects of the question but from the different decisions that the Christian churches have made in the course of history to assure that in differing cultural and political circumstances the life of the Gospel be lived meaningfully, Christ’s message preached intelligibly and the saving mission which Christ received from the Father and entrusted to his Apostles be carried out faithfully in the Spirit. The neuralgic question which underlies the meaning of the ordained ministry is that of the apostolicity of the Church. Apostolicity is the technical theological term that grapples with the whole cluster of problems related to the question of how a Christian community may know that its life and message are authentically in continuity with the early churches formed by Jesus’ disciples to carry on Christ’s saving mission.
The meaning of the ordained ministry is most certainly controversial. Each Christian church maintains that it is in living continuity with the early Church and that its witness of sacramental life and preaching makes the person and message of Christ meaningful for today’s world. Yet not all Christian churches are in agreement concerning the most obvious questions about the ordained ministry. The first two world conferences on Faith and Order held at Lausanne in 1927 and Edinburgh in 1937 recognized the need for a “ministry acknowledged in every part of the Church as possessing the sanction of the whole Church.” Such a situation still does not exist. Yet if one may boldly summarize fifty years of ecumenical dialogue on the ordained ministry it would appear that an ecumenical consensus is emerging which would propose that the nature and meaning of the ordained ministry in the whole Christian Church should conform in broad outline to the structure and understanding of the ordained ministry as it existed in the Church at the time of the first four Ecumenical Councils.
As an acknowledged historical leader in the world-wide ecumenical movement, the Episcopal Church has made an outstanding contribution to this emerging consensus. Yet the Episcopal Church has not articulated a confessional statement on the nature of the ordained ministry. The Episcopal Church has consistently proposed that her doctrine and practice is that found in Scripture and taught by the Ecumenical Councils of the undivided Church. From this self-understanding the Episcopal Church has engaged in ecumenical dialogue on the nature of the ordained ministry. The agreed statements, study documents and proposals which have been the fruit of this dialogue do not represent an articulation of a confessional position. What they do represent are informed prudential judgments which officially appointed members of the Episcopal Church deem to be consistent with their Church’s self-understanding of her doctrine and practice.
The Meaning of Ordained Priesthood in the Canterbury Statement
A statement on The Doctrine of the Ministry Agreed by the Anglican - Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), Canterbury, 1973: (Which is now called “International Anglican–Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission” [IARCCUM]) This ecumenical statement do say about priesthood.
Ministry and Ordination, the 1973 Canterbury Statement of ARCIC, deals directly with the question of priesthood. By dealing directly with the question of ordination the Canterbury Statement clarifies a possible major ambiguity; it is very clear from the very introductory words.
1. Our intention has been to seek a deeper understanding of Ministry which is consonant with biblical teaching and with the traditions of our common inheritance, and to express in this document the consensus we have reached. This statement is not designed to be an exhaustive treatment of ministry. It seeks to express our basic agreement in the doctrinal areas that have been the source of controversy between us, in the wider context of our common convictions about the ministry.
14. Ordination denotes entry into this apostolic and God-given ministry, which serves and signifies the unity of the local churches in themselves and with one another. Every individual act of ordination is therefore an expression of the continuing apostolicity and catholicity of the whole Church. Just as the original apostles did not choose themselves but were chosen and commissioned by Jesus, so those who are ordained are called by Christ in the Church and through the Church. Not only is their vocation from Christ but their qualification for exercising such a ministry is the gift of the Spirit: “our sufficiency is from God, who has qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:5-6). This is expressed in ordination, when the bishop prays God to grant the gift of the Holy Spirit and lays hands on the candidate as the outward sign of the gifts bestowed. Because ministry is in and for the community and because ordination is an act in which the whole Church of God is involved, this prayer and laying on of hands takes place within the context of the eucharist.
15. In this sacramental act*, the gift of God is bestowed upon the ministers, with the promise of divine grace for their work and for their sanctification; the ministry of Christ is presented to them as a model for their own; and the Spirit seals those whom he has chosen and consecrated. Just as Christ has united the Church inseparably with himself, and as God calls all the faithful to life-long discipleship, so the gifts and calling of God to the ministers are irrevocable. For this reason, ordination is unrepeatable in both our churches.
*Anglican use of the word ‘sacrament’ with reference to ordination is limited by the distinction drawn in the Thirty-nine Articles (Article XXV) between the two ‘sacraments of the Gospel’ and the ‘five commonly called sacraments," Article XXV does not deny these latter the name “sacrament,” but differentiates between them and the ‘two sacraments ordained by Christ’ described in the catechism as ‘necessary to salvation’ for all men.
16. Both presbyters and deacons are ordained by the bishop. In the ordination of a presbyter the presbyters present join the bishop in the laying on of hands, thus signifying the shared nature of the commission entrusted to them. In the ordination of a new bishop, other bishops lay hands on him, as they request the gift of the Spirit for his ministry and receive him into their ministerial fellowship. Because they are entrusted with the oversight of other churches, this participation in his ordination signifies that this new bishop and his church are within the communion of churches. Moreover, because they are representative of their churches in fidelity to the teaching and mission of the apostles and are members of the episcopal college, their participation also ensures the historical continuity of this church with the apostolic church and of its bishop with the original apostolic ministry. The communion of the churches in mission, faith and holiness, through time and space, is thus symbolized and maintained in the bishop. Here are comprised the essential features of what is meant in our two traditions by ordination in the apostolic succession.
The Canterbury Statement clarifies how the ordained priesthood differs from the priesthood of all believers by showing what ordination means. In ordination the person ordained receives the gift of episcope from the Holy Spirit. This gift, episcope, belongs “to another realm of the gifts of the Spirit” than those gifts received from the Holy Spirit at Baptism. At their ordination priests (and bishops) receive from the Holy Spirit a gift of liturgical episcope which enables them to preside at the eucharistic liturgy. The effective agent of the Holy Spirit in the act of ordaining a presbyter is the bishop joined with his presbyters. Through his membership in the college of bishops the ordaining bishop simultaneously represents the universal Church to his local church and his local church to the universal Church. The presbyters who join with the ordaining bishop in the laying on of hands represent their individual congregations to the local church. In this way presbyteral ordination is an act of the whole (catholic) Church. The Canterbury Statement explicitly relates how the ordination of a bishop is an act of the whole (catholic) Church and how the bestowal of episcope involves the notion of apostolicity in faith and ministry.