Ordination Within the United Methodist Church
Broadly speaking, to ordain is "to invest with ministerial or priestly authority." (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language)
As it is currently constituted, the United Methodist Church uses four words for this act: license, commission, ordain and consecrate. Local pastors are licensed. Among those commissioned and ordained are deacons and elders (presbyters). Bishops are elders consecrated for service as superintendents, who nonetheless remain elders. The Discipline groups local pastors, deacons and elders together in Chapter Two of Part VI, The Ministry of the Ordained. Bishops are found in Chapter Three, The Superintendency.
Although the United Methodist Church uses the language of deacons, presbyters, and bishops, these clergy orders operate differently in Methodism than they do in churches more aligned with the historic forms of the episcopacy.
Bishops
This difference starts with the bishop, who is simply an elder chosen for a supervisory function in the church. Much of the authority in Methodism lies not in the bishop but in the members of the Annual Conference and the clergy who serve on the Board of Ordained Ministry.
Historically, the central function of the bishop has been to appoint clergy to their stations or circuits within our itinerant system. Throughout our history, if you ask a Methodist what bishops do, this is the answer you likely get. Another term for bishop is "General Superintendent."
As time passed, United Methodist bishops have taken on many additional administrative responsibilities within and beyond the General Church. It also easy - and common - to blur the distinctions between our system and the Catholic system. Many of our bishops are taking on the trappings of the monarchical episcopacy without fulfilling the role of the historic episcopacy. Crosiers and purple clergy shirts are increasingly common. I'm just waiting for mitres to appear.
United Methodist bishops, however, just don't function in the same way as they do in churches built on the catholic model. Our Discipline has a great deal to say about bishops as transformational leaders and very little to say about bishops upholding and defending the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Their primary role is to propel the institution into the future, not to anchor the church or to keep it rooted in the apostolic faith. Furthermore, our offices of elder and deacon do not flow from the bishop, nor do parishes form around a bishop. It is not our bishops who are successors to Christ and the apostles; it is the whole church.
Licensed Pastors
There is no hierarchy of ministry within the United Methodist Church; there are only different roles (he said with a straight face). That is, though, actually what the Discipline asserts.
¶ 131. The Unity of Ministry in Christ — There is but one ministry in Christ, but there are diverse gifts and evidences of God’s grace in the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:4-16). The ministry of all Christians is complementary. No ministry is subservient to another.
Nevertheless, at the other end of the continuum from the bishops are the licensed local pastors. Although they are not ordained, the ministry of licensed pastors is described in Chapter Two of Part VI of the Discipline, The Ministry of the Ordained.
Licensed pastors have taken part in a discernment process known as candidacy, been examined by a district committee on ministry and completed a minimum of training in order to be eligible for appointment. Licensed pastors must eventually complete a curriculum known as Course of Study (or have a Master of Divinity).
Licensed local pastors do not itinerate. Their license must be renewed year after year. When licensed pastors are no longer appointed by the bishop, its as if they had never been members of the clergy. They have no clergy status; they are simply members of the laity.
Licensed pastors have limited authority when it comes to participating in the governance of the annual conference. Those who serve until retirement age may be recognized as retired local pastors. "Recognized" is the key word; no authority accompanies that recognition.
Licensed pastors who stick around for a number of years, complete all the training requirements and reach age 40 can become associate members of the conference, meaning that they do participate in the itinerant system, have security of appointment and have limited authority to help govern the annual conference. Retired associate members retain their license to perform ministry in the church where they hold membership.
Licensed pastors are increasingly important within the church. They serve appointments, often in a part-time status, where congregations are unable to afford the services of a full-time elder. The economic demands of supporting a full-time elder are daunting.
More importantly, local pastors don't easily lose their roots as ordinary members of the church. They have not spent so much time in the cocoon of the academic-institutional church that they have forgotten who they are. In a denomination that is prone to elitism, local pastors help us keep things real.
Licensed ministry within the United Methodist Church is clearly functional, not ontological; it makes no pretense of being anything else. The license is literally a piece of paper; no laying on of hands or sacerdotal formulas are required. A positive vote by the clergy executive session is all that is necessary.
Licensed clergy have all the ministerial authority of an ordained elder, even if they don't have all the governing power. That authority comes on a piece of paper that can be granted and withdrawn at will.
Deacons and Elders
Over the years, Methodism has had a plethora of titles for laity and clergy authorized to perform some form of ministry in its name. Prominent among them have been the historical orders of bishop, presbyter (elder) and deacon. Rex Matthew's Ministerial Orders and Sacramental Authority provides a good overview of clergy orders from 1784 to 2016.
In 1996, the United Methodist Church created the order of permanent, ordained deacon. As of 2012, deacons are ordained to word, service, compassion, and justice in the community and the congregation. Prior to 1996, the deacon's ordination was a transitional stage for probationary members of the conference on the way to becoming elders in full connection. The kinds of ministries permanent deacons perform vary widely.
Elders and deacons now both begin as provisional members of the conference and are set apart through the laying on of hands in a service known as commissioning. After successfully completing their residencies as provisional members, they are ordained in a second laying on of hands.
Elders differ from local pastors administratively; elders are subject to being moved from one appointment to another at the direction of the bishop. In Methodist language, they itinerate. Elders in full connection are guaranteed an appointment and have full authority to vote on all matters before the annual conference.
Ordained elders in full connection, commissioned provisional elders and licensed pastors all have the same sacerdotal authority to baptize, preside at communion and solemnize marriages within their appointment settings. They are both "pastors" with the same ministerial responsibilities.
¶ 339. Definition of a Pastor. A pastor is an ordained elder, probationary (transitional) deacon, associate member, provisional elder, or local pastor approved by vote of the clergy session and may be appointed by the bishop to be in charge of a station, circuit, cooperative parish, extension ministry, ecumenical shared ministry, or to a church of another denomination, or on the staff of one such appointment.
¶ 340. Responsibilities and Duties of Elders and Licensed Pastors — 1. The responsibilities of elders are derived from the authority given in ordination. Elders have a fourfold ministry of Word, Sacrament, Order, and Service 2. Licensed pastors share with the elders the responsibilities and duties of a pastor for this fourfold ministry, within the context of their appointment.
Ordained elders, theoretically, are free to exercise this ministry at any place at any time, even in places unconnected with their appointment (except within the setting of another pastor's appointment, without their permission). I'm not sure that this distinction makes much practical difference.
Rex Matthews sums up the current United Methodist system well when he says, "Sacramental authority flows from episcopal appointment (or annual conference authorization), as well as, or instead of, ordination."
Furthermore, the church affirms that both ordained and licensed pastors have both been called and gifted by God for their ministries.
¶ 301.2. Within the church community, there are persons whose gifts, evidence of God’s grace, and promise of future usefulness are affirmed by the community, and who respond to God’s call by offering themselves in leadership as set-apart ministers, ordained and licensed (¶ 302). Individuals discern God’s call as they relate with God and their communities, and the Church guides and confirms those callings. Calls — and the discernment and confirmation of them — are gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Other than matters of employment and governance, then, what distinguishes those licensed from those ordained by the laying on of hands?
Ordination "is a gift from God to the church," says ¶ 303. "In ordination, the church affirms and continues the apostolic ministry through persons empowered by the Holy Spirit," As we have seen, nearly the same is said of licensing. Only the word "apostolic" differentiates the two. We will return to that word in a moment.
For both deacons and elders, ordination is theoretically a lifetime commitment. The authorities granted, however, don't necessarily exist for a lifetime. The authorities of ordained clergy on temporary leaves of absence are severely curtailed. The same is true for those who receive "honorable location" (essentially a permanent leave of absence). For those who surrender their ministerial credentials, it is as if they had never been ordained. Again, authority flows from appointment, not ordination. The sole exception to this rule is for those who retire.
Contrast this with the Catholic understanding of ordination, which it considers a sacrament. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says,
As in the case of Baptism and Confirmation this share in Christ's office is granted once for all. The sacrament of Holy Orders, like the other two, confers an indelible spiritual character and cannot be repeated or conferred temporarily. It is true that someone validly ordained can, for a just reason, be discharged from the obligations and functions linked to ordination, or can be forbidden to exercise them; but he cannot become a layman again in the strict sense, because the character imprinted by ordination is for ever. The vocation and mission received on the day of his ordination mark him permanently. (¶ 1582-1583)
The Discipline (¶ 303.5) also states that ordination is not repeatable, but not because an indelible character is conferred in the act. The practice is simply "in keeping with ancient Christian teaching and our Wesleyan tradition."
The most visible apostolic component of ordination is the laying on of hands. The Discipline describes the meaning of this act within our connection.
¶ 302. The early church, through the laying on of hands, set apart persons with responsibility to preach, to teach, to administer the sacraments, to nurture, to heal, to gather the community in worship, and to send them forth in witness. The church also set apart other persons to care for the physical needs of others, reflecting the concerns for the people of the world. In the New Testament (Acts 6), we see the apostles identifying and authorizing persons to a ministry of service. These functions, though set apart, were never separate from the ministry of the whole people of God. Paul states (Ephesians 4:1-12) that different gifts and ministries are given to all persons. The Wesleyan tradition has, from the beginning, encouraged a culture of call and a community of discernment, which affirms and supports the ministry of all Christians and identifies and authorizes persons into ministries of the ordained.
The laying on of hands, affirms the church's belief that God has called the candidate into the ministry of the ordained. It authorizes those identified as elders and deacons to perform certain functions in the church and assigns them those responsibilities.
In the United Methodist ordinal, the laying on of hands is simultaneously accompanied by an invocation of the Holy Spirit. Contrast with the Roman Catholic practice, in which the laying on of hands takes place in silence. Although the Catholic ritual contains many prayers for those ordained, and although ordination takes place with the consent of the people and with the participation of other priests, it is the bishop's touch itself which conveys the gift required. As one Catholic author puts it, "This very simple though impressive action, unaccompanied by prayer or chant, is called the essential matter of the sacrament. It signifies that the power of the priesthood is conferred by the bishop imposing hands on the candidate, transmitting to the latter the power which the bishop himself has received from Christ through the apostles and their successors."
Even though United Methodist ordination appears superficially similar, the current United Methodist ordinal takes exactly the opposite approach in interpreting it.
Because the vows of ordination are specifications of our common baptismal covenant, both the processes leading to ordination and full conference membership and the ritual of ordination include the active participation of all of the baptized. The processes of ordination typically begin with a local congregation’s discernment of God’s call to individuals for service as ordained leaders, continue with support and scrutiny as they prepare for this work, and are ratified by the clergy session in electing them to the office and work of an elder or deacon. The service of ordination celebrates and seeks the Spirit’s power to enact what we have together discerned as the baptized.
Consequently, the bishop's role is seen very differently.
In the traditional version of the Ordinal provided here (page 16), the bishop, as the presiding minister in the annual conference and as a general superintendent of the whole church, speaks the words and the people make the prayer their own by audibly saying, “Amen.” In the alternative version (page 36), the voice of the whole people is more actively involved, while it remains clear the bishop functions as the presider who prompts the response and action of the people.
The bishop presides, but ordination is an act of the whole church. In the laying on of hands, bishop's don't convey the power or authority that they received at their episcopal consecration. Instead, they act as representatives of the church and under authorities granted them by the Book of Discipline. The act itself conveys authority and the church prays for God's power. The church in faith believes that God grants what it asks, and in that sense, it may be said that ordination effects what it signifies.
