Global Anglican Commentary

Article 7. On the Historic Succession and Ministry

By The Ven. Andrew Brashier

Article 7

We recognise that God has called and gifted bishops, priests and deacons in historic succession to equip all the people of God for their ministry in the world. We uphold the classic Anglican Ordinal as an authoritative standard of clerical orders.

Duccio, ca. 1310, The Eleven Apostles and the Risen Christ in the Upper Room. “Jesus said to them, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.’” ([John 20:21-23](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2020&version=ESV))

Evident Unto All Men — The Historic Succession

How a church is organized, governed, and ministered is a question settled differently by the English Reformers than by the Continental Reformers. Whereas the Continental Reformers abandoned the episcopate (Swedish Lutherans excepted), the English Church was able to retain her episcopacy and give apostolic succession of doctrine and laying on of hands to her ministers. After the Revolutionary War, the American Church identified and distinguished herself from other Protestant bodies by adopting a name reflective of her church government, The Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America. Anglicans are identified by more than merely retaining the episcopacy, but Anglicans are not identified without the episcopacy. For the episcopacy—and the three-fold ministry as a whole—was not hers to reject because “it is evident unto all men diligently reading holy Scripture and ancient Authors, that from the Apostles' time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ’s Church; Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.”1

Further, Anglicans, unlike Roman Catholics, are not identified by communion with a particular see, such as the Archbishop of Canterbury, but are identified by their retention of catholic order and evangelical faith in the ancient and primitive manner of the historic church.2

Faith and Order

Catholic order requires catholic faith. Hence, the Oxford Martyrs Day Communique rightly rejects the Archbishop of Canterbury and other “so-called Instruments of Communion,” because they “have failed to uphold the doctrine and discipline of the Anglican Communion.”3 As previously articulated in the 2008 Jerusalem Statement, “While acknowledging the nature of Canterbury as an historic see, we do not accept that Anglican identity is determined necessarily through recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury.”4 Thus, just as “the Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this realm,” neither does the Archbishop of Canterbury.5 Episcopal governance is not a guarantee of evangelical faith, yet the catholic faith necessitates episcopal governance.

The preamble to the Jerusalem Declaration helpfully reminds us that faith and order are intrinsically related; they are both accounted as matters of doctrine:

“The doctrine of the church is grounded in the Holy Scripture and such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the said Scriptures. In particular, such doctrine is to be found in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal.”6

These three documents are often referred to as the Formularies of the Anglican Tradition.7 Through its inclusion in the Formularies, we come to recognize that order—the Ordinal—is a part of the authoritative doctrine of the Church. For this reason, the Jerusalem Declaration states clearly: “We uphold the classic Anglican Ordinal as an authoritative standard of clerical orders.”8 To maintain the catholic faith, we must maintain catholic order. Let us now turn to the Ordinal to understand what it teaches us about Christ’s doctrine.

Godly Order Within Holy Orders

What use is the three-fold ministry unless qualified candidates are ordained? The Jerusalem Declaration affirms that bishops, priests, and deacons exist “to equip all the people of God for their ministry in the world,” echoing Ephesians 4:12. St. Paul tells us that the ministry is a gift from God, “for building up the body of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:12). Therefore, the ministry is crucial and necessary within the Church “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (Ephesians 4:12-14). Essentially, the ministry is the outworking of the Holy Ghost’s call towards unity in doctrine and mind, all “in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:3). The Lord God calls for unity within His Body, the Church, and the call of ordained ministers is to equip the saints for their own work in Christ, ever united to the head and Great Shepherd of the Church, Jesus (Ephesians 4:4-6).

Christ’s defeat of the dark powers of the earth results in His equipping the saints with the gift of ministry: “Therefore it says, ‘When he ascended on high he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.’” (Ephesians 4:8). The Jerusalem Declaration notes the gift of ministry by stating “God has called and gifted bishops, priests and deacons” to His Church. The Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, each operating within the apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, shepherding, and teaching capacities respective to their office, are Christ’s gifts to his Body. “Laying aside all distractions of the world and the flesh,”9 these men have been set aside through the laying on of hands to equip, empower, embolden, and send the Faithful that they might fulfill their ministry to the world. The limitations of each minister, whether Bishop, Priest, or Deacon, are an inherent function of the Body. The eye cannot say to the foot, “I have no need of you,”10 but rather the eye and foot work together to advance the cause of Christ.

It is important to ensure candidates for ministry have God’s calling and meet the Lord’s qualifications for ministry. The Holy Scriptures, classic Ordinal, Thirty-Nine Articles,11 and Jerusalem Declaration all require a divine calling to the ministry. It is not a right to be asserted nor an office to seize, but is a vocation by which the Holy Ghost hallows the one called through the Bishops’ laying on of hands. God calls those whom He gifts and He gifts those whom He has qualified for the ministry. This calling is of such a serious nature that many church fathers attempted to flee rather than be ordained, albeit unsuccessfully, as in the cases of St. Jerome and St. John Chrysostom.

These qualifications are elucidated within the Holy Scriptures with some minor differences between the orders, but with the following common themes:

Before one would presume as of a right to take hold of an office of the Church, one must consider St. John Chrysostom’s wise words to us:

“For those things which I have already mentioned might easily be performed by many even of those who are under authority, women as well as men; but when one is required to preside over the Church, and to be entrusted with the care of so many souls, the whole female sex must retire before the magnitude of the task, and the majority of men also; and we must bring forward those who to a large extent surpass all others, and soar as much above them in excellence of spirit as Saul overtopped the whole Hebrew nation in bodily stature: or rather far more.”12

It is one thing to have the qualities outlined in Scripture, but another to have the calling of the Holy Ghost, as attested and verified by the Church. Those who have both may enter into the laying on of hands in the historic succession of the Church as properly and lawfully called and ordained into holy orders.13

Therefore, the classic Anglican Ordinal, in its examination of candidates, reminds ordinands that they are called, with “The Lord being my helper,” to fulfil the qualifications to ministry. Candidates to the priesthood are charged by the Bishop in the classic Ordinal to beware and be warned as to the great responsibility that they bear:

“The Church and Congregation whom you must serve, is [Christ’s] spouse and his body. And if it shall happen the same Church, or any member thereof, to take any hurt or hindrance by reason of your negligence, ye know the greatness of the fault, and also the horrible punishment that will ensue. Wherefore consider with yourselves the end of your ministry towards the children of God, towards the spouse and body of Christ; and see that you never cease your labour, your care and diligence, until you have done all that lieth in you, according to your bounden duty, to bring all such as are or shall be committed to your charge, unto that agreement in the faith and knowledge of God, and to that ripeness and perfectness of age in Christ, that there be no place left among you, either for error in religion, or for viciousness in life.”14

Sacred Orders, Ordinary Standard

The classic Ordinal is more than a historical relic; it is a catholic order preserving evangelical faith in practice. It is reaffirmed by the Jerusalem Declaration “as an authoritative standard of clerical orders” for good reason. Namely, to preserve the historic succession of catholic order and evangelical faith. The Ordinal remains relevant, more so now than ever, precisely because it binds the Church to elevate qualified men to office and to measure the worthiness of those in holy orders by the vows undertaken, the Scripture’s requirements, and whether those ordained are teaching the faith once delivered to the flocks entrusted to them.

Let us heartily rejoice in the Ordinal as a measuring rod to see whether our clergy measure up, and a rod of discipline for when clergy go astray.15 The Church is not without wolves in sheep’s clothing;16 therefore, we need the rod of the shepherd’s staff to fight off the wolves outside the flock and those in sheep’s clothing within. May we praise God for reforming the Global Anglican Communion and may we heed God’s Holy Scripture in prayerfully discerning those who are called into holy orders. Finally, let us in all humility realize the ministry is not about clergy, but about clergy fanning the flames of the Holy Ghost within the ministries of the Church and all her members. When we err, let us repent. Where the ministry succeeds, let us rejoice in the Lord, for His mercies endure forever.

  1. Preface to the Ordinal, Book of Common Prayer (1662) ↩︎

  2. For more on this topic, see our previous article “A Note on Schism, Donatism, and Catholicity.” ↩︎

  3. Oxford Martyrs Day Communique, Paragraph 2 ↩︎

  4. Jerusalem Statement: “A Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans” ↩︎

  5. See Article XXXVII, of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion ↩︎

  6. Jerusalem Statement: “A Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans” ↩︎

  7. For our discussions on the other two formularies, see: “Article 4. The Authority of the Thirty-Nine Articles” and “Article 6. Our Sacramental and Liturgical Heritage” ↩︎

  8. Article 7: The Jerusalem Declaration ↩︎

  9. Ordination of a Priest, 2019 Book of Common Prayer, pg. 491. ↩︎

  10. 1 Corinthians 12:21 ↩︎

  11. Article XXIII: “It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public preaching, or ministering the Sacraments in the Congregation, before he be lawfully called, and sent to execute the same. And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and called to this work by men who have public authority given unto them in the Congregation, to call and send Ministers into the Lord’s vineyard.” ↩︎

  12. St. John Chrysostom On the Priesthood, 2:2 ↩︎

  13. “Where, therefore, the gifts of the Lord have been placed, there it behooves us to learn the truth, from those who possess that succession of the Church which is from the apostles, and among whom exists that which is sound and blameless in conduct, as well as that which is unadulterated and incorrupt in speech. For these also preserve this faith of ours in one God who created all things…” St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 4.26.5 ↩︎

  14. The Ordering of Priests, The Ordinal, 1662 Book of Common Prayer ↩︎

  15. Article XXVI: “Nevertheless, it appertaineth to the discipline of the Church, that inquiry be made of evil Ministers, and that they be accused by those that have knowledge of their offences; and finally, being found guilty, by just judgment be deposed.” ↩︎

  16. Acts 20:29 ↩︎