Comparative Theology
Clergy and Ministry
Orders of ministry, titles, vesture, celibacy and the ordination of women
The ordained ministry is among the most divided questions in ecumenical dialogue. It bears on fundamental ecclesiology: what constitutes the Church, who is authorised to speak and act in Christ’s name, and whether apostolic succession conditions the validity of ministry.
Orders of ministry compared
| Tradition | Orders | Apostolic succession | Ordination |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roman Catholic | Three sacramental degrees: diaconate, presbyterate, episcopate, with the pope as bishop of Rome. Subdiaconate and minor orders were suppressed in 1972. | Indispensable. The bishop must be ordained within an unbroken succession from the apostles; this conditions sacramental validity. | The sacrament of Order, imprinting an indelible character. In the Latin rite, celibate men; in the Eastern rites, married before the diaconate. |
| Orthodox | Three degrees. Reader and subdeacon are minor, non-sacramental orders. Bishops are necessarily monastic and therefore celibate. | Essential and unquestioned. Episcopal succession is the spine of Orthodox ecclesiology. | A mystery conferred by the bishop. A priest may be married, but only before ordination to the diaconate. |
| Anglican | Three historic orders: deacon, priest, bishop. The Anglican Communion claims apostolic succession, contested by Rome in Apostolicae Curae (1896). | Affirmed in principle, though the Henrician rupture and the Edwardine reforms raise the question of effective continuity. | Episcopal ordination by the laying on of hands. Most provinces now ordain women to all three orders, a point that deeply divides the Communion. |
| Lutheran | Variable. Many churches retain three orders. The episcopate is not a sacramentally distinct order from the presbyterate in confessional Lutheran theology. | Not required for validity. For Luther, apostolic succession is a human institution; lawful ordination suffices. The Porvoo Agreement (1996) established mutual recognition with the Anglican churches. | An ecclesiastical rather than a sacramental act in strict Lutheran doctrine. Women are ordained in almost all Lutheran churches. |
| Reformed | Four offices (Calvin, Institutes IV.3): pastor, doctor, elder and deacon. No episcopate distinct from the presbyterate; ministers are of equal rank. | Rejected. Apostolic succession in the Roman sense is a human construction; the Church’s apostolicity lies in fidelity to apostolic doctrine, not in a chain of ordinations. | An ecclesiastical act performed by the college of ministers and elders. Women are ordained in most Reformed churches. |
| Baptist and evangelical | Commonly pastor and deacon, understood functionally. Congregational ecclesiology makes the local assembly the final authority. | Not pertinent. Hebrews knows one high priest, Christ; all believers are priests (1 Pet 2:9). | Recognition by the local congregation of a calling and of gifts, generally without sacramental construal. |
Titles and hierarchy
| Title | Tradition | Function and authority |
|---|---|---|
| Pope | Roman Catholic | Bishop of Rome, successor of Peter, vicar of Christ. Universal jurisdictional primacy; infallible ex cathedra since Vatican I (1870). Elected by the conclave of cardinals. |
| Patriarch | Orthodox and Eastern Catholic | Bishop of a major apostolic see. The ancient patriarchates are Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, with Moscow added later. The Ecumenical Patriarch holds a primacy of honour without jurisdiction. |
| Metropolitan or archbishop | Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican | Bishop of a metropolitan see overseeing an ecclesiastical province. In Orthodoxy the rank stands above that of a diocesan bishop. |
| Bishop | Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, some Lutheran | Successor of the apostles, head of a diocese. In Catholicism the bishop alone confers Order and confirmation. |
| Superintendent | Lutheran, Germany and Scandinavia | The functional equivalent of a bishop where the episcopal title was abandoned. The Nordic churches retain the title and claim the succession. |
| Moderator | Reformed and Presbyterian | The elected and rotating president of a synod or assembly, not a permanent hierarchical rank. In the Company of Pastors and Deacons of Geneva the Moderator is elected annually from among pastors and, since 1998, deacons. |
Priest, pastor and presbyter
The Catholic and Orthodox priest (sacerdos) shares instrumentally in the priesthood of Christ and celebrates the Eucharist in persona Christi. Protestants avoid the term precisely because the universal priesthood of believers (1 Pet 2:9) renders a sacrificing ministerial priesthood superfluous. The Reformed and Lutheran pastor is the shepherd of the congregation, preacher of the Word and administrator of the sacraments, differing from the laity by function and commission rather than by any ontological character.
Deacons
In Catholicism and Orthodoxy the diaconate is a sacramental order; since Vatican II the Latin Church has restored the permanent diaconate, open to married men. In the Reformed tradition the deacon exercises a ministry of social and pastoral service. In Geneva, deacons have been full members of the Company of Pastors since 1998, when it was formally renamed the Company of Pastors and Deacons; Maurice Gardiol became the first deacon to serve as Moderator in July of that year.
Liturgical vesture
| Vestment | Description | Traditions | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alb | A long white robe worn beneath the other vestments | Catholic, Orthodox (στιχάριον), Anglican, Lutheran | Baptismal whiteness and the purity of Christ |
| Stole | A band worn over the shoulders, differently arranged for priest and deacon | Catholic, Orthodox (epitrachelion and orarion), Anglican, Lutheran | The yoke of Christ and the authority of ministry |
| Chasuble | The outer sleeveless vestment worn for the Eucharist | Catholic, high-church Anglican and Lutheran | The charity of Christ covering all |
| Liturgical colours | White for feasts, violet for penitence, red for martyrdom and the Spirit, green for ordinary time, rose at mid-Advent and mid-Lent | Catholic, Anglican, largely Lutheran | Correspondence with the seasons and mysteries of the year |
Byzantine vesture
The Byzantine rite employs vestments of considerable symbolic richness: the φαιλόνιον or phelonion, a conical chasuble; the ἐπιτραχήλιον or epitrachelion, a doubled stole; the ὠμοφόριον or omophorion, the episcopal pallium figuring the lost sheep; and the mitre, a gilded episcopal crown. The bishop also blesses with the dikerion and trikerion, candlesticks of two and three branches. The whole conveys a liturgical splendour that expresses the eschatological presence of the Kingdom.
The black gown and the Geneva bands
Calvin abolished liturgical ornament as papal display. The Reformed ministerial garment is the black academic gown, inherited from the university, worn with two white linen bands, the Beffchen or Geneva bands. Their origin is academic: they mark the preacher of the Word and the doctor rather than the sacrificing priest. Lutheranism, more conservative than Zurich or Geneva in liturgical matters, often retained the chasuble and surplice, while contemporary evangelical churches tend to dispense with distinctive vesture altogether.
Celibacy and the ordination of women
Clerical celibacy
| Tradition | Rule | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Catholic, Latin rite | Celibacy obligatory for priests and bishops | Ecclesiastical discipline rather than dogma: total availability for God and the Church, and an eschatological sign. No scriptural text imposes it; 1 Tim 3:2 assumes the bishop is “the husband of one wife.” Married former Protestant ministers may be ordained by dispensation, and permanent deacons may be married. |
| Eastern Catholic | Priests may be married before ordination; bishops are celibate | The apostolic rule shared with Orthodoxy, retained in the churches in communion with Rome. |
| Orthodox | Priests and deacons may be married before ordination to the diaconate; bishops are monastics or widowers | The Council in Trullo (692) directs that marriage be contracted before ordination to the diaconate; canon 5 of Nicaea (325) stands behind the practice. |
| Protestant | Marriage is free, neither imposed nor forbidden | Luther held obligatory celibacy to be a human law contrary to creation (Gen 2:18) and a mark of apostasy (1 Tim 4:3). He married the former nun Katharina von Bora in 1525. |
The ordination of women
| Tradition | Position | Grounds | Key date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catholic | Not possible; the teaching is held definitive | John Paul II, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994): the Church has no authority whatever to confer priestly ordination on women. Christ chose only men; the tradition is universal and constant. The CDF declared the doctrine definitive in 1995. | 1994 |
| Orthodox | Not possible | The apostolic tradition knows no women priests or bishops. The Theotokos, higher than all the saints, was not ordained. The restoration of the female diaconate is under active discussion. | 2016, Alexandria and Constantinople |
| Anglican | Practised in most provinces | No sufficient theological ground excludes women. The christological argument that the priest represents a male Christ is judged inadequate: the priest represents Christ, not his sex. Baptism transcends gender (Gal 3:28). | 1974 in the United States; 1992 in England; first woman bishop in England, 2015 |
| Lutheran | Practised almost universally | Gal 3:28. The Pauline restrictions (1 Tim 2:12; 1 Cor 14:34) are read as contextual rather than universally normative. | Sweden, 1958 |
| Reformed | Practised in the great majority of churches | The same grounds, joined to the universal priesthood and a functional rather than ontologically gendered account of ministry. | Vaud, 1966; Geneva, 1968 |
| Evangelical | Divided between complementarians and egalitarians | Complementarians (Grudem, Piper) read 1 Tim 2:12 and 1 Cor 14:34 as normative. Egalitarians (Fee, Wright) read them as contextual. The debate remains unresolved. | Ongoing |
The theology of ministry
Luther and the universal priesthood
Luther distinguishes carefully between the universal priesthood of all the baptised and the ordained pastoral ministry of those whom the Church calls and commissions for public preaching and sacramental administration. Both are necessary, but the second confers no superior ontological dignity: the pastor is not another kind of Christian.
Calvin and the fourfold office
Calvin (Institutes IV.3) identifies four permanent offices in the New Testament Church: the pastor, for preaching and sacraments; the doctor, for theological instruction; the elder, for government and discipline; and the deacon, for the care of the poor. Monarchical episcopacy is not a distinct New Testament office: bishops and presbyters are of one rank. This fourfold structure underlies the presbyterian and synodal polity of the Reformed churches.
The Lima document (1982)
Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, issued by the Faith and Order Commission at Lima in 1982, remains the most significant ecumenical text of the twentieth century on ministry. It proposes convergence on four points: ordained ministry as service to the whole community; the threefold pattern of bishop, presbyter and deacon as an ancient and widely attested form; ordination as prayer with the laying on of hands, involving an ἐπίκλησις; and apostolic succession understood primarily as the faithful transmission of the gospel rather than necessarily as an unbroken episcopal chain. No full agreement was reached on the mutual recognition of ministries.
Bibliography
- Calvin, John. Institutes IV.3 (1559). LCC 21.
- Luther, Martin. To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520). LW 44.
- Faith and Order Commission. Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry. Geneva: WCC, 1982.
- John Paul II. Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. Vatican City, 1994.
- Torrance, Thomas F. Royal Priesthood. 2nd ed. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1993.
- Ware, Kallistos. The Orthodox Church. 2nd ed. London: Penguin, 1993.
Quiz — Clergy and Ministry
What are the four offices Calvin identifies in Institutes IV.3?
- Bishop, priest, deacon and subdeacon
- Pastor, doctor, elder and deacon
- Moderator, pastor, elder and catechist
- Apostle, prophet, evangelist and pastor
Calvin, Institutes IV.3; Genevan Ecclesiastical Ordinances (1541)