Although deceptively simple at the outset, the answers to these questions quickly become complex and even troublesome.  Throughout church history, they have created schism and divided communities.  Yet how we answer these questions forms an essential aspect of denominational identity—they shape our understanding and practice of Christian community, discipleship, and mission.  Over the last three years, the Standing Commission on Ministry Development, at the request of the 1997 General Convention, has listened to and struggled with a variety of answers to these questions proposed by diverse individuals, parishes, dioceses, and other communities within the Episcopal Church with the ultimate goal of articulating a theologically cohesive vision of ministry to guide the revision of Title III Canons.   

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During the second half of the twentieth century, the theological and liturgical recovery of baptism and eucharist has reshaped understandings and practices of ministry. Across the denominational spectrum, Christians placed a renewed emphasis on the ministry of the whole people of God. In the Episcopal Church, the 1979 Prayer Book emphasized the active participation of all baptized persons in worship and the centrality of eucharistic celebration in Christian community.  This liturgical change called all Episcopalians to a deeper understanding of their biblical identity as the body of Christ engaged in God’s mission in and to the world. With this theology embodied in the church’s liturgy—particularly when placed in combination with the 1982 World Council of Churches Faith and Order document, Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry—Episcopalians began to experience baptismal and eucharistic ecclesiology as the context for understanding all Christian ministry. This theological perspective, where it is significantly realized in various forms, is transforming the understanding and living of Christian discipleship in the church and in the world. 

The new emphasis on baptism and eucharist initiated a shift in theological self-understanding in the Episcopal Church. Historically, “liturgy was what clergy did.”[1] Episcopalians generally understood ministry as the parish-based work of a professional clerical class. When the 1979 Prayer Book stressed lay participation in the church within the larger context of God’s work in the world, previous conceptions of ministry were enriched by an enlarged vision of the kingdom of God.[2] The resulting challenge of the 1979 Prayer Book, with its conception of ministry as the work of all God’s people, has created considerable ferment in the church over the last two decades. What do we mean by baptismal ministry? What is the nature and purpose of ordination? How do baptismal and ordained ministry relate to each other within the context of the mission of the whole people of God? In the Episcopal Church, these questions have led to innovations in the theory, structures, and practice of ministry among all the baptized. 

In addition to the liturgical changes within the church, a host of broader theological and cultural concerns have also influenced the practice of ministry in the Episcopal Church. For example, women’s ordination, the charismatic renewal movement, and a growing awareness of living in a post-Christian, post-modern society have brought forth creative new renderings of Anglican tradition regarding ministry. As a result of varying responses to liturgical change and social transformation, the Episcopal Church does not have a singular, definitive theology of ministry. Rather, a number of theologies of ministry operate in our community. This situation is further influenced by historic Anglicanism itself where catholic and reformed strands have been woven together in our understanding of ministry. Although we sometimes romanticize the past and downplay our diverse traditions, Anglicanism has often been marked by ferment and tension—and sometimes conflict and schism—over the nature of ministry. Despite our commitment to comprehension, we have not always maintained “the bonds of unity” amidst creative ferment.[3] Thus Episcopal experience and theological reflection reveal the need to engage in a comprehensive, church-wide discussion to discern the nature, purpose and relationship of baptismal and ordained ministries. 

In 1997, resolutions of General Convention created the Standing Commission on Ministry Development and assigned it the task of organizing and facilitating a discussion in the Episcopal Church on the theology of ministry. This action was conceived as an important aspect of the mandate of Convention to the SCMD: to generate concrete proposals, in conjunction with the Standing Commission on Constitution and Canons, for revisions to or replacement of Title III Canons (“Ministry”) in the next triennium. For the 1998-2000 triennium, a Task Group on the Theology of Baptismal and Ordained Ministry was appointed from the membership of the Commission at large. Its task was to organize a consultative process of theological reflection on baptismal and ordained ministry that would result in a theological statement providing criteria for the canonical revision process. 

Out of the Task Group’s preliminary discussions and research, including consultations with the Presiding Bishop and President of the House of Deputies, theologians, church leaders, other SCMD task groups, and representatives of the Standing Commission on Constitutions and Canons, a discussion-provoking instrument entitled “Thoughts toward a Theology of Ministry in the Episcopal Church” was crafted. This instrument, with a cover letter, was sent to the program planners for the 1999 Provincial Commission on Ministry meetings, with the formal request for program time. Task Group members and staff from the Office of Ministry Development functioned as discussion leaders at the various Commission on Ministry meetings, with responsibility for documenting discussion and feedback on behalf of the full Task Group. The instrument was offered as a focus for discussion in a variety of other meetings as well.[4]

After collating the responses from this church-wide discussion process, including criticisms of points in the original instrument and suggestions for further reflection, the Task Group has prepared several revisions leading to this document, “Toward a Theology of Ministry.” Not conceived of as a definitive theological statement, this paper seeks to reflect contemporary understandings of ministry in the church and is designed to invite reflective discussion in our community as we move toward a common theological understanding of ministry. It will be shared with the wider church through a variety of formats including a special pre-convention mailing and the Episcopal Church web site. The document will be formally presented to the General Convention 2000 for discussion, and, it is hoped, will reflect widely held Episcopal theological ideals that will guide the revision of Title III.