This coming June, the 217th General Assembly will be considering the long-awaited report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church (PUP). Some left-of-center and right-of-center groups in the church view the report as inadequate in addressing the hot issues before the church, particularly the question of ordination. To be sure, the PUP report affirms some key themes in the Reformed understanding of ordination and vocation, such as mutual self-giving and service, as well as the communal and covenantal nature of God’s call upon the Church and those called to serve in ordained leadership (pp. 19-20, Final Report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church). Even so, the PUP Task Force expresses a great disappointment:
… Scripture does not provide a thoroughly developed theology of ordination, and a theology of ordination has not been clearly and consistently articulated in the development of Reformed and Presbyterian doctrine. (lines 565-567, Final Report)
So serious is the absence of a coherent and consistent articulation of a Reformed understanding of ordination and vocation that the Task Force concluded in the next sentence, “As one might expect, then, ordination has been a source of some confusion and a matter of controversy in our history.” In a guest viewpoint article in The Presbyterian Outlook, Joseph D. Small and Charles A. Wiley of the Office of Theology and Worship observed that a symptom of this tragic confusion is the reality of presbyteries ordaining and recognizing ministers of the Word and Sacrament to almost 90 “authorized ecclesiastical occupational designations”! (see “A Thought Experiment” in The Presbyterian Outlook, October 24, 2005.) What the Theological Task Force does provide to assist discernment and dialogue in this area of ordination and vocation is a footnote reference to the last major churchwide attempt at articulating a theology of ordination.
In 1992, the 204th General Assembly sent to the Church “A Proposal for Considering the Theology and Practice of Ordination to Office in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)” after a special task force studied the issue of ordination for five years and presented its findings and recommendations. The 1992 task force urgently observed that “The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the 1990s needs to arrive at a clear and coherent consensus about ordination — what it means and how it is to be practiced — even though it is neither perfect nor final.” (p. 8, op. cit.). The task force engaged in a study that “set out certain key theological issues and characteristics as categories for understanding the church” and then pointed to biblical, historical, doctrinal, and practical points relating to ordination.
Sadly, however, large parts of the 1992 report did not pass the Assembly, dwarfed by a human sexuality report at that same Assembly, and, now a decade and a half later, we are still left without a consensus on a Reformed understanding of ordination and vocation.
Perhaps we have been seeking theological understanding and theological discovery in an insufficient way. Consider for a moment both the methods and the prescribed recommendations from both the 1992 ordination task force and the 2006 Theological Task Force. Both reports attempted to tackle the confronting issues through discussion and reflection of theological and confessional works, and study papers. And while prayer, Bible study, and worship were certainly central to the work of both task forces, theological inquiry and corporate worship were done as separate “activities.” Theology is here, and worship is over there. It seems that the recommendations of both reports, then and now, reflect that methodology: small groups, congregations, sessions and presbyteries are called to reflect upon theology, to study relevant Bible verses and issues in the report, to dialogue, to share, and yes, to worship, with hope that in two years or so, there will be some consensus or movement towards consensus on the peace, unity, and purity of the Church.
Perhaps a better and more excellent way at developing, articulating, and discovering a theology of ordination is not to treat theology as an enterprise that is outside the worship of the gathered community. Theology is not simply an exercise done when the worship service is completed. Rather, we might begin by recognizing that theology emerges in the midst of the worship of the gathered community.
What do we mean by this? Theology certainly includes the reflection that occurs outside of worship, the activity of critical questioning and seeking to understand the relationships among God, ourselves, and the world. Yet theology in another form–what some have called “primary theology”–transpires in the midst of the worshiping community, when faithful Christians gather to worship God in Word and Sacrament. This, too, is theology: words received from and addressed to God in audible, visible, even edible form. When the gathered community worships, they/we are creating, discovering, and articulating theology — we are doing theology in worship.
A new approach to a theology of ordination might find a beginning here: in the midst of the worshiping community. In particular, perhaps our theology of ordination ought to emerge from consideration of the theology that is enacted at baptism. After all, what we proclaim at baptism is that we have been freed from sin and death, united with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection, and joined to Christ’s ministry of love, peace, and justice. The baptism of all the faithful calls us to discipleship, to “royal priesthood … in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of the One who called you out of darkness into God’s marvelous light.” [1 Peter 2:9]
A few years ago, Craig Barnes suggested a similar connection between baptism and the vocation of the church:
We are confused about many issues, not the least of which is our Christian identity and what it means to be a Presbyterian congregation. … It is my thesis that baptism works best when we link it to a doctrine of vocation, and that baptism thrusts us into an identity that can only be understood in the context of what God has called as God has called into being the church itself.
(“Baptism and the Life of the Church” in The Register of the Company of Pastors, summer 1998/inaugural issue, pp. 42, 45)
This proposal that baptism and vocation belong together coheres with our own claim that baptism and ordination belong together, and that the theology of ordination finds its proper beginning at the baptismal font.
It also echoes a theme of another report to the 217th General Assembly: the report of the Sacraments Work Group, which has spent four years studying the theology and practice of the sacraments in the PC(USA). This group has concluded its work with a report that encourages the church to revitalize its sacramental life. The pastoral letter accompanying the report begins: “We are convinced that a rediscovery of the gift and call of our baptism can transform the church for ministry in the 21st century. We believe that the Christian life, engaged as a life of discipleship springing from baptism, can help to center and unify the church around its foundational calling from the risen Christ, to ‘go and make disciples’.” Out of this conviction, the report invites local churches to engage in practices that deepen baptismal life and discipleship. This presents a significant opportunity to consider a new approach to our theology of ordination as it arises from the waters of baptism.
This is not to discount the value of discernment, study groups, reflection, careful reading, and theological discourse. By no means! We Presbyterians are characterized by our study and theology. But at this moment, we are convinced that what is needed by the church is not simply more talking, more reading, and definitely not more voting — all these will come later, far later.
The PUP task force has affirmed that Christ himself is our peace, unity, and purity. The Sacraments Work Group report underlines the centrality of starting our reflection from the center of our common identity and common calling: at the baptismal font in the gathered community of God’s worshipping people. If we affirm this, then, we should meet Christ where he first meets us and calls us as his disciples. How would our theological conversations change if we began them by remembering and continually remembering our baptism, renewing and continually renewing our baptismal covenant, inviting and continually inviting others to be baptized in the name of the triune God? If we began the work of theology at the baptismal waters, our Presbyterian family might newly encounter together the refreshing work of the Spirit calling us back to die with Christ and to unite with our risen Lord in his ongoing work of righteousness and justice in the world. By the grace of the triune God as it comes to us in baptism, we might yet be re-formed as God’s people, following more faithfully in the steps of the One who calls us all.
Martha Moore-Keish is assistant professor of theology at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga. Neal D. Presa is pastor of Middlesex Church in Middlesex, N.J., and a minister commissioner to the 217th General Assembly (2006). Both are members of the Sacraments Work Group and the Re-Forming Ministry Initiative.
