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Perspectives on Vocation and Ordination
Edited by Robert E. Terwilliger and Urban T. Holmes,
The Seabury Press, 815 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017, 1975.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
John Maury Allin
vii
PREFACE
Robert E. Terwilliger and Urban T. Holmes
ix
Part I. What is a Priest?
1. One Anglican View
Robert E, Terwilliger
3
2. Another Anglican View
C. FitzSimons Allison
11
3. An Orthodox Statement
Thomas Hopko
21
4. A Roman Catholic Catechism
Quentin Quesnell
29
Part II. The Priesthood in the Bible and History
5. Priesthood in the History of
Religions
Joseph Kitagawa
45
6. The Priesthood of Christ
Myles M. Bourke
55
7. Priesthood in the New Testament
Louis Weil
63
8. Presbyters in the Early Church
Massey H. Shepherd, Jr
71
9. The Ideal Parson of the Newly Reformed
English Church
Frederica Harris Thompsett
83
10. The Meaning of Ordained Priesthood in
Ecumenical Dialogues
Herbert T. Ryan
91
Part III. Priestly Functions
11. The Priest and the Eucharist
Louis Bouyer
103
12. The Priest as Professional
Frederick H. Borsch
111
13. The Priest as Authority on the World
John M. Gessell
117
14. “Because Beset with Weakness . .
.”
Michael J. Buckley
125
Part IV. The Priestly Vocation Today
15. On Vocation
William B. Green
133
16. Priesthood and the Church as Community
Arthur A. Vogel
141
17. Priestly Character
John Macquarrie
147
18. The Bible, the Nature of the Church,
and the Ordination of Women
Harvey H. Guthrie Jr.
155
19. The Re-ordering of the
Ministry
Michael Marshall
163
20. The Priest as Enchanter
Urban T. Holmes
173
CONTRIBUTORS
183
BIBLIOGRAPHY
187
By the
end of the 1973 General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Louisville, I was
convinced that the grave and potentially divisive issue of the ordination of
women was one of those pastoral, theological and ecumenical problems which
could not be resolved simply by voting. Some desired dramatic action
immediately. Others seemed to be stalling for time, hoping the question would
eventually go away.
I came
to my new responsibility as Presiding Bishop convinced that the Church has the
capacity as a community to resolve correctly and justly such problems when
provided the opportunity and the means. Accordingly, I proposed to the House of
Bishops that the Presiding Bishop-elect initiate a new process which would
provide the membership of the Church, and any others interested, opportunity
and means to share in this problem-solving. The bishops gave unanimous
approval.
The
purpose of the proposed process was to develop throughout the Church a clearer
and more definitive understanding of the doctrine of Christian priesthood and a
valid Christian concept of human sexuality. To secure a resolution of the
ordination question in accord with the faith of the Church, a method was
required to stimulate and enrich thoughtful discussions of priesthood and
sexuality among church people.
The
plan developed was to publish a book of brief essays on each subject.
Representative and qualified authors were to be sought by co-editors who held
differing views on the subjects. Each book was to include an extensive
bibliography. I hoped each book would be a mosaic of written statements, each
contributing to the form, depth, and color of the subject.
A
committee was asked to check out the plan, suggest specific topics and titles
and possible authors, and submit bibliographies. I asked John Goodbody and the
Church Center Communication Staff to coordinate the process. The publishing
services of the Seabury Press were available.
This
book is the first mosaic. It is offered with the prayer that within it and from
it some revealing light will be focused on priesthood. If from this book some
questions receive answers, some answers receive clarifications, and some new
questions are provoked, the purpose will be well served.
This
book is not the official report of a “blue ribbon” committee. It is,
rather, a sharing of understandings, a contribution to a process of community
building, an attempt to clarify the meaning of priesthood and hopefully to
reflect a clearer vision of Jesus, the Great High Priest.
I hope
you will want to share this mosaic with others.
John
Maury Allin
Presiding Bishop
The Episcopal Church
At this moment in
the history of the Church, attention is being focused intensely on the nature
of the Christian ministry. This concern centers particularly on the ministerial
priesthood and the episcopate. The immediate cause of this is, of course, the
debate about the ordination of women. There has also been the long-continuing
“crisis in ministry” with its anguished questions of identity and
personal vocation. The Church has, in consequence, the mandate to explore in
depth a theological issue which has much wider ramifications than the
relationship of sexuality to ordination. This book is a response to that
opportunity in essays which embrace a wide range of related topics.
In
selecting subjects and essayists the two editors have sought to present a
balance of viewpoint, drawing on various traditions and sources. There is, by
intention, considerable disagreement among the authors, since we believe it is
important for the readers to be exposed to many points of view to stimulate
their thinking. In a volume such as this not every essay is directed to the
same audience nor written on the same level. Our intention is that these
contributions should reflect the best in current scholarship, yet at the same
time be intelligible to both priest and layman.
We
think it is important for the readers to understand that the two editors
themselves have differing opinions on the matter of the ordination of women. At
the same time we found a freedom to work together, which combined a natural
collaboration with a kind of independence. Each of us does not necessarily
sponsor every article in the book, but we have found it easy to live in peace
with one another in the presence of this fact. This is, we think, a sign that
it is possible to have a basic difference of opinion and still be in Christian
fellowship within the same Church. We are both committed to a thorough
theological appraisal of the nature of priesthood and its relationship to the
Church, which we think is reflected in this book.
It
should also be clear that in contributing to the volume no author is endorsing
the opinions of his fellow essayists; each article stands by itself. Only the
editors of the book have read all the articles, and the opinions of one person
should not be attributed to anyone else who is part of this study.
In
assembling the essays, we have sought to follow a general outline, which should
become apparent to anyone working through the contents. We have begun with four
essays with distinct points of view on the definition of priesthood. This is
followed by a number of articles on biblical and historical themes related to
the ministerial priesthood. After that is a section that deals with the
functions priests perform, and we conclude with an examination of the priestly
vocation today.
The
reader should keep clear in his mind the difference between ministry and the
priesthood. We do not understand these terms in any sense to be synonymous, and
this volume is directed only toward the issue of priesthood and the related
subject matter of the episcopate. We do not claim that the volume is in any
sense exhaustive of the subject, although we do think it is representative.
Undoubtedly some will criticize it for not having a particular point of view or
group represented among the essayists. We have made a conscientious effort to
draw on both men and women, Anglicans and non-Anglicans who have a particular
interest in the subject of priesthood, people who are in favor of the
ordination of women to the priesthood, and people who are not, and scholars
throughout the United States and elsewhere. Undoubtedly, in a venture of this
kind it is not possible to have everything in proportion; and sometimes the
inability—for good reasons—of some persons to comply with our request
for an essay has upset that balance a bit more. However, we do think that this
volume embodies a fair representation of opinion in the Episcopal Church and
beyond.
We do
hope that the readers of this book will not be Episcopalians only. The essays
represent substantial work, and although they do not in every instance contain
new scholarship, they do make available a valuable summary of considerable
research in the field on the part of distinguished theologians, historians,
biblical and liturgical scholars.
In
conclusion, we would note that while these are times of deep division on some
very basic issues in the life of the Church, they are not times of darkness.
The belief of the two editors is that in such times light often breaks through
the rifts in the unity of the Church of Christ, and we have great hope that a
deeper understanding of the ministry, and particularly of the priesthood, in
the life of the Church will be the result of the struggle in which we are
presently engaged. This book is offered as a contribution to that
understanding.
Robert E. Terwilliger Urban T. Holmes
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