Priesthood (Anglican)

Priesthood (Anglican view) refers to the Anglican understanding of the ministry of the presbyter or priest, as set forth in the historic Ordinal attached to the Book of Common Prayer and interpreted by classical Anglican divines of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Within this tradition—often described as the old High Church or Caroline understanding—the priesthood is viewed as a divinely instituted order for the preaching of the Word, the administration of the Sacraments, and the pastoral care of Christ’s flock.

Scriptural and patristic foundation

The Anglican view of priesthood begins from the conviction that the Christian ministry derives from the commission of Christ to His Apostles (John 20:21–23; Matthew 28:19–20) and that this apostolic ministry was continued in the Church through episcopal ordination. The Preface to the Ordinal (1662) affirms that “from the Apostles’ time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ’s Church; Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.”

Anglican divines saw this threefold ministry as both scriptural and catholic. Richard Hooker wrote that “the ministry of the Gospel is an order whereunto none are admitted but by ordination received from a bishop” (Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, V.77.5), and Lancelot Andrewes described the priest as “a messenger, a watchman, and a steward of the mysteries of God.” The priesthood thus stands not as a human office of convenience but as a participation in Christ’s own pastoral and mediatorial ministry.

Nature of the priestly office

According to the Form and Manner of Ordering of Priests in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the Anglican priest is ordained with the laying on of hands by the bishop and receives authority to “preach the Word of God, and to minister the holy Sacraments.” The newly ordained priest is charged:

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 priest’s ministry is therefore twofold:

• Word – to read and expound the Scriptures publicly and privately, to teach the faith, and to “banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines.”
• Sacrament – to consecrate and administer Baptism and the Holy Communion, as well as to bless, absolve, and comfort the faithful.

This dual emphasis—Word and Sacrament—reflects the Reformation settlement of Anglican theology, maintaining the patristic conception of the priest as both preacher and celebrant.

Representative and mediatory character

In the old High Church understanding, the priest is a representative figure who stands both on behalf of the people before God and on behalf of God before the people. Hooker called this “a public function wherein man doth that which otherwise God Himself doth.” Jeremy Taylor described the priesthood as “the visible minister of an invisible grace,” and William Beveridge spoke of it as “a divine commission from Christ, conveyed through His Church, for the perpetuating of His own ministry to the end of the world.”

This representative character, however, is not construed as independent mediation but as a participation in the one priesthood of Christ (Hebrews 7:24). The priest acts in persona Christi, yet always as a steward and servant of the mysteries, not as an additional mediator.

Sacramental authority

In Anglican theology, the efficacy of the Sacraments depends not upon the personal holiness of the minister but upon Christ’s promise and institution. The Article XXVI of the Thirty-Nine Articles affirms that “the unworthiness of the ministers hinders not the effect of the Sacraments.” Nevertheless, ordination confers a real and permanent character: the bishop’s laying on of hands is regarded as an instrument of divine commission.

The Ordinal expresses this in sacramental terms: “Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church of God.” This formula, retained from the 1550 Edwardian Ordinal and continued in 1662, reflects the classical Anglican belief that ordination conveys grace for the ministry, though distinct from the sacerdotalism of later Roman theology.

Relation to episcopacy

Priests in Anglicanism serve under the authority of a bishop, who alone possesses the fullness of the apostolic office. Hooker insisted that “the power to ordain and to govern belongs unto Bishops only” (Laws, VII.11.10). This episcopal subordination safeguards the unity and catholicity of the Church. The Ordinal thus directs that no one “shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful Priest... except he be called, tried, examined, and admitted thereunto by lawful authority, and by public prayer, with imposition of hands by the Bishop.”

Distinction from other orders

Anglicans maintain three distinct orders of ministry:

• Bishops, who oversee and ordain;
• Priests, who preach and administer the sacraments;
• Deacons, who assist in service and charity.

While sharing in the same grace of Holy Orders, each order possesses different functions. The priest is not a “sacrificer” in the Levitical sense but presides over the Eucharistic memorial in which Christ’s one sacrifice is pleaded and proclaimed. As John Cosin wrote, “The priest offereth the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, as minister of Him that is both Priest and Sacrifice.”

Old High Church interpretation

The old High Churchmen of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries emphasized:

• the apostolic continuity of the Anglican priesthood;
• the sacramental reality of ordination;
• and the corporate, representative character of the Church’s ministry.

They resisted both Puritan reductions of ministry to lay preaching and Tractarian developments that blurred the distinction between priest and bishop. For the High Church tradition, the Anglican priesthood was at once catholic and reformed—catholic in origin and sacramental character, reformed in rejecting sacerdotal excess and grounding all authority in Scripture and primitive practice.

Modern Anglican statements

Contemporary Anglican formularies, including the Jerusalem Declaration (2008) and the Reformed Episcopal Church Constitution and Canons, continue to affirm the threefold order of ministry as essential to Anglican identity. The 2019 Book of Common Prayer (Anglican Church in North America) retains the classical ordination charge: “Take thou authority to preach the Word of God, and to minister the Holy Sacraments.”

See also

• Anglican ministry
• Book of Common Prayer
• Ordination of women in the Anglican Communion
• Apostolic succession
• Thirty-Nine Articles
• Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity
• High Church