Ordination of Priests (1928 BCP)

Ordination of Priests (1928 BCP) is the rite in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer by which a bishop admits candidates to the priesthood. In the 1928 Ordinal, priesthood is not treated as private religious status. It is a public office for preaching, sacramental ministry, discipline, pastoral cure, prayer, and holy example within the Church's ordered common prayer.

Place in the Ordinal

The rite appears under the title "The Form and Manner of Ordering Priests." It follows the Ordinal preface and the form for making deacons, and it is celebrated in the setting of Holy Communion. The opening rubric requires instruction before ordination, so that the congregation hears what office is being conferred and why it matters:

When the day appointed by the Bishop is come, there shall be a Sermon or Exhortation, declaring the Duty and Office of such as come to be admitted Priests; how necessary that Order is in the Church of Christ, and also, how the People ought to esteem them in their Office.

The presentation then places the candidate before bishop and people. A priest presents the ordinands; the bishop asks whether they are apt and meet in learning and godly conversation; the people are invited to object if they know an impediment or notable crime. The rite therefore joins inward vocation to public ecclesial discernment. The ordinand is not self-ordained, and the congregation is not a passive audience.

Prayer and Appointed Lessons

After the Litany, the rite adds a special suffrage for those to be admitted to the order of priests:

That it may please thee to bless these thy servants, now to be admitted to the Order of Priests, and to pour thy grace upon them; that they may duly exercise their Office, to the edifying of thy Church, and the glory of thy holy Name;

The collect interprets priesthood as a gift of the Holy Spirit for doctrine, life, service, and the edification of the Church:

Almighty God, giver of all good things, who by thy Holy Spirit hast appointed divers Orders of Ministers in thy Church; Mercifully behold these thy servants now called to the Office of Priesthood; and so replenish them with the truth of thy Doctrine, and adorn them with innocency of life, that, both by word and good example, they may faithfully serve thee in this Office, to the glory of thy Name, and the edification of thy Church; through the merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen.

The appointed Epistle is Ephesians 4:7-13. It places ordained ministry under the ascended Christ, who gives ministers to the Church "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." The appointed Gospel is Matthew 9:36-38, where Christ sees the scattered multitudes as sheep without a shepherd and commands prayer for labourers in the harvest. The alternative Gospel, John 10:1-16, frames priestly ministry under Christ the Good Shepherd, who knows his sheep and lays down his life for them.

Exhortation and Pastoral Charge

The long exhortation before the examination is one of the strongest pastoral texts in the Prayer Book. It defines priesthood by stewardship rather than privilege:

Ye have in remembrance, into how high a Dignity, and to how weighty an Office and Charge ye are called: that is to say, to be Messengers, Watchmen, and Stewards of the Lord; to teach, and to premonish, to feed and provide for the Lord's family; to seek for Christ's sheep that are dispersed abroad.

The same exhortation grounds the priest's care in Christ's redemption and in the Church's union with him:

For they are the sheep of Christ, which he bought with his death, and for whom he shed his blood. The Church and Congregation whom you must serve, is his Spouse, and his Body.

This language makes the priest's cure of souls accountable to Christ himself. The minister serves people who belong first to the crucified Lord, not to clerical possession or party interest. The exhortation also connects doctrine and life: the priest is to read and learn the Scriptures, frame his own manners and household by them, and become a godly pattern for the people.

Examination of the Ordinands

The examination asks about calling, Scripture, doctrine, sacraments, discipline, correction of error, prayer, study, household example, peace, and obedience. Its central doctrinal question is the Prayer Book form of scriptural sufficiency:

Are you persuaded that the Holy Scriptures contain all Doctrine required as necessary for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ? And are you determined, out of the said Scriptures to instruct the people committed to your charge; and to teach nothing, as necessary to eternal salvation, but that which you shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved by the Scripture?

The following question binds the priest's public ministry to the doctrine, sacraments, and discipline Christ commanded and the Church received:

Will you then give your faithful diligence always so to minister the Doctrine and Sacraments, and the Discipline of Christ, as the Lord hath commanded, and as this Church hath received the same, according to the Commandments of God; so that you may teach the people committed to your Cure and Charge with all diligence to keep and observe the same?

For classical Anglican use, these vows are decisive. Priesthood does not authorize a minister to create new necessary doctrine; it charges him to preach, administer, discipline, and pastor according to Scripture and the Church's received order. For High Church use, the same vows show that sacramental and pastoral authority remains ordered by the Word of God, public prayer, and episcopal oversight.

Laying on of Hands and Delivery of the Bible

After silent prayer and the Veni Creator Spiritus, the bishop and the priests present lay hands on each ordinand. The 1928 American rite prints the older form and an alternative form. The older form says:

Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the Imposition of our hands. Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained. And be thou a faithful Dispenser of the Word of God, and of his holy Sacraments; In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

The alternative form retains the same public authority and sacramental charge while omitting the words on remitting and retaining sins:

Take thou Authority to execute the Office of a Priest in the Church of God, now committed to thee by the Imposition of our hands. And be thou a faithful Dispenser of the Word of God, and of his holy Sacraments; In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

The delivery of the Bible immediately interprets priestly authority as ministry of Word and Sacrament in a lawful cure:

Take thou Authority to preach the Word of God, and to minister the holy Sacraments in the Congregation, where thou shalt be lawfully appointed thereunto.

The rite then continues with the Nicene Creed and the Communion. This is not accidental ceremonial sequencing. The priest is ordained for the Church's Eucharistic and pastoral life, and those ordained receive Communion in the same place where hands were laid upon them.

Relation to the Catechism and Litany

The 1928 Offices of Instruction give a shorter catechetical definition of the priestly office:

The office of a Priest is, to minister to the people committed to his care; to preach the Word of God; to baptize; to celebrate the Holy Communion; and to pronounce Absolution and Blessing in God's Name.

The Litany supplies the same theology in intercessory form. It prays that ordained ministers may understand the Word and embody it:

That it may please thee to illuminate all Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, with true knowledge and understanding of thy Word; and that both by their preaching and living they may set it forth, and show it accordingly;

Together, the Ordinal, Offices of Instruction, and Litany present a consistent Prayer Book account of priesthood: pastoral care, preaching, Baptism, Holy Communion, Absolution, Blessing, disciplined teaching, and holy living belong together.

1662 Continuity and 1928 Revision

The American 1928 rite stands in close continuity with the 1662 English Ordinal. The Church of England's official 1662 text asks the priestly ordinand:

Are you persuaded that the holy Scriptures contain sufficiently all doctrine required of necessity for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ?

The 1928 American form keeps the same doctrinal center while expressing it in the American Prayer Book's style: Scripture contains all doctrine required as necessary for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, and the priest may teach as necessary to salvation only what may be concluded and proved by Scripture.

E. Clowes Chorley, writing soon after the 1928 revision, noted that the American changes in the ordination services were limited but important:

The changes in the Ordination services for deacons and priests are few, but significant.

Chorley was discussing especially the altered question about Scripture in the ordination services. That observation matters because the 1928 Ordinal did not abandon the old Anglican pattern; it clarified the scriptural test in the language of salvation, doctrine, and faith in Christ. The revision is therefore both conservative and doctrinally deliberate.

Doctrinal Status

Article XXXVI, as printed with the American 1928 BCP, gives the Ordinal explicit doctrinal standing:

The Book of Consecration of Bishops, and Ordering of Priests and Deacons, as set forth by the General Convention of this Church in 1792, doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and Ordering; neither hath it any thing that, of itself, is superstitious and ungodly.

The 1928 Ordination of Priests should therefore be read as part of the Prayer Book's doctrinal settlement. It is evangelical in its doctrine of Scripture, catholic in its use of episcopal laying on of hands and the threefold ministry, sacramental in its charge to minister Baptism and Holy Communion, and pastoral in its insistence on preaching, discipline, absolution, blessing, prayer, household example, and care for Christ's sheep.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Ordinal (1928 BCP)
• Ordination of Deacons (1928 BCP)
• Consecration of Bishops (1928 BCP)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• The Litany (1928 BCP)
• Catechism (1928 BCP)
• Occasional Offices (1928 BCP)

External Links

• The Ordinal in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Offices of Instruction in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• The Litany in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Articles of Religion in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• The Ordering of Priests in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
• E. Clowes Chorley, The New American Prayer Book, chapter VII