Does Ordination Matter?

In my Intro to Christian Ministry class we’ve often discussed the special status, if any, an ordained Christian experiences against a member of the laity. Does a minister experience a special call, or is it just a different call? Does the call to be a minister require one to be a ‘super-apostle,’ like those for whom Paul warns the Corinthians? Do ministers receive a special grace? Do ministers possess a special sacramental authority for churches that uphold apostolic succession and the consecration of the Eucharist? All these questions are important and must be answered, but those answers will likely vary from tradition to tradition.

Two nights ago I attended an event for the AEHS (Anglican-Episcopal House of Studies) here at Duke Divinity School. The Assistant Bishop for the diocese of North Carolina administered communion, we had dinner, and held a forum concerning the Lambeth Conference held once every ten years by the Anglican Communion in England. After a lengthy discussion concerning the hopes and fears of the Church, I discovered that the Anglican Church, represented by a faith in apostolic succession and a strong ecclesiology, had very little power to address the current problems assailing the Church. What does this say of ecclesiastical authority? What good, if any, is such nominal leadership?

With the erosion of authority in our nation, this problem is one the Church must address. We are so used to having opinions, feeling entitled to what we believe, and enforcing those beliefs on others that we no longer question our own authority. There is no humility in the laity, at least pertaining to submission to Church authority. We critique Sunday sermons and ignore our own Scriptures. We explain away textual difficulties we feel demand too much of us, while we belligerently hurl other portions of Scripture against those we believe deserving of judgment. Can ordained ministers even participate in a community such as this one? We spend our lives submitting to the specialists in our culture, from doctors to lawyers. Yet when it comes to theology, we feel like we know it all, or at least know it well enough to ignore anything we find threatening or unsettling. I do not believe pastors should view themselves as specialists, but what good are three years of seminary training and subsequent years of Church experience if no one respects the education?

All of this I find discouraging and somewhat frightening. As the Church spirals into relativistic Unitarianism, in practice if not in name, and individual members elevate their own doctrine and theology, what will be left of the Orthodox Church? The tradition of the Church will persevere with or without contemporary recognition. Perhaps the question of pastoral authority can only be answered by encountering the secularized world of American religion. Regardless, the Church must act with authority whether or not the culture accepts it; otherwise, the secularization of the Church will only result in heterodoxy.