How to Ordain a Priest

How to Ordain a Priest
EXODUS 28: 1- 29: 37

I shall shortly have completed forty years teaching in seminary, and a bit longer than this in being a priest and pastor. A few years after I started seminary teaching, I became embarrassed to realize that I no longer believed that within Christian faith there is such a thing as a theology of ordination, a theology of priesthood—or at least that there is a theology that you could call scriptural. It is common in different denominations for there to be just one particular designated person in a congregation who can celebrate Holy Communion and/or preach, or for there to be one “senior pastor” who has ultimate authority and responsibility under God for a congregation. This common practice stands in tension not only with the practice in the New Testament but also with the theological convictions of the New Testament...