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This chapter analyzes the relationship between the sacred and ordination in the New Testament literature through an examination of the offices of apostle, presbyter, deacon, and bishop, arguing that the New Testament does not provide a fully developed theology of ordination for the emerging Christian church. Rather, the references to the ordained presuppose the more extensive theological reflection on holiness and ordination within the Mosaic office of the Pentateuch for background, which indicates that the primary teaching on ordination in biblical literature is in the Hebrew scripture, rather than in the New Testament, requiring a broad view of biblical authority.

This closing chapter is also built around twelve theses: four opening theses on the priesthood of all the baptized and then eight (sometimes more controversial) theses on the ordained ministry. As regards the priesthood of all the faithful, the chapter argues that ‘the triple office of all the baptized and, in particular, their priesthood, possesses a certain priority over the participation in Christ's triple office by those in the ordained ministry’. No one can receive the ministry of the ordained without being previously baptized. In line with what was said about Christ's own priesthood, the chapter states that the priesthood of all the faithful involves them in becoming ‘vulnerable to persecution and lethal hostility’. The institution of ministerial priesthood did not coincide totally with the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, but also involved an earlier call by Jesus and a post‐resurrection commissioning. The chapter then suggests how a structured, threefold leadership of bishops, presbyters or priests, and deacons emerged in the second century. Through the Holy Spirit, Christ continues to call ordained ministers; they do not derive their ministry merely through delegation from the community of the baptized (Thesis 7). The final thesis builds on a tradition that goes back to Augustine: ‘in the celebration of the Eucharist ordained priests are visible signs of the invisible Christ, Priest and Victim or Offerer and Offering, whose unique and sufficient sacrifice, accomplished once and for all in his life, death, and resurrection, continues to be present and operative on behalf of the whole human race’ (Thesis 12).

The criteria for a valid ordination assumed by modern scholars are analyzed here in relation to actual requirements for ordination in the early medieval period. Ordination, according to this earlier understanding, referred to the appointment to any ministry within a particular community for service to that community and was not restricted to the ordination to the diaconate or to the presbyterate. Numerous examples of references to women as ordained according to these criteria, including the surviving ordination rites for women, are then presented. Some of the important implications of this early concept of ordination are explored, particularly the fact that priests were not the only ones assumed to be able to consecrate the bread and wine during Mass.

This chapter presents in detail how the definition of ordination changed in the 11th and 12th century. A law from the 11th‐century reform council of Benevento was interpreted by both canon lawyers and theologians to limit ordination to the ministries of subdeacon, deacon, and priest. At the same time, based on a scriptural commentary attributed to St. Ambrose, canonists and theologians began to argue that women could not be ordained. A debate in both canon law and theology concerning the ordination of women continued until the end of the 12th century. By the 13th century, however, it was assumed in both law and theology that women could not be ordained and indeed had never been ordained.

This chapter examines episcopal almsgiving, the principal sources of which were revenues from imperial subventions, church properties, special collections, and the regular offerings made by the faithful. These offerings, often referred to as first fruits, did not include tithes as they were later understood. Eloquence was essential to the bishop in raising funds for alms which he then distributed with assistance from the deacons. Such alms principally benefited a small number of Christian recipients: widows, their dependent children and other ‘orphans’, and some poorer virgins. While this form of poor relief chiefly took the form of regular distributions of food, some urban churches also founded hostels for the care of the sick destitute.

The leadership of Methodist worship has always involved men and women, lay and clergy, although there have been limitations placed upon certain categories of people at different times. Unordained preachers served Methodism from its beginnings, and laity has always had roles as class leaders, exhorters, stewards, stewardesses, and song leaders. Deaconesses assisted or led in worship to the extent that any layperson could. The principal liturgical ministers were the elders and, to a much more limited extent in terms of sacramental presidency, the deacons. The only distinct liturgical role of the general superintendent or bishop came at services of ordination.

Canon 5 in the Latin text describes a situation in which only one bishop remains in a province, who is unwilling to ordain others to fill the vacancies, so that bishops must be summoned from a neighbouring province to do this. The Latin also presupposes the popular election of bishops, as was still generally observed in the West. This seems also to have been the original sense of the corresponding canon VIa in the Greek text, although the received reading alters the situation described in the Latin, and also reflects the developing Eastern practice of episcopal appointment, as well as ordination, by the bishops of the province. Canon 6 (Greek VIb) reflects a current movement in both the East and the West to control an increase in the numbers of bishops during a period of rapid growth in the number of Christian congregations. Canon 13 (Greek X) provides the earliest known stipulation that no one should be ordained bishop until he has held the offices of reader, deacon, and presbyter, as a series of steps, so that he may be proven worthy of the episcopate.

Canons 1 (Greek I) and 2 (Greek II) prohibit the translation of bishops from one church to another, and canons 18 and 19 (Greek XV) forbid bishops to recruit or to ordain clergy belonging to another church without their own bishop's permission. Canon 3a (Greek IIIa) prohibits any bishop from entering another province unless he is invited to do so by a brother bishop, and canon 3b (Greek IIIb) forbids bishops from other provinces to be called in to arbitrate disputes between bishops. In order to prevent ambitious meddling in other churches that might lead to usurpation by visiting bishops, canon 14 (Greek XI) limits to three weeks, episcopal visits to cities where other bishops are established, and the same limit is imposed by canon 15 (Greek) XII) upon bishops who need to go to other cities where they have properties or other business matters to manage. Because of the problem of presbyters and deacons visiting the city of Thessalonica with the desire of remaining there, canon 20 (Greek XVI) imposes the same three‐week limitation upon them as for bishops visiting foreign churches. Canon 16 (Greek XIII) forbids bishops to receive into communion clergy who have been cast out by their own bishops. Canon 21 (Greek XVII) allows bishops and other clergy persecuted for their faith to remain in cities where they have taken refuge until their cases have been resolved.

The Serdican canons that accord a right of appeal to the bishop of Rome by a bishop who believes himself to have been unfairly judged by his peers have played an important part in the development of papal jurisdictional claims. It is clear, however, that, in according this right of appeal, canon 3c (Greek IIIc) bases the papal prerogative of judgement on ‘the memory of blessed Peter the Apostle’—i.e. the moral authority (auctoritas) of social and civic leadership in Roman society and not on the later concept of jurisdiction. The prerogative attributed to the Roman bishop by this canon, and by canon 7 (Greek V), which repeats and amplifies it, is not for him to decide the case himself but to appoint new judges from among the bishops of the neighbouring province to undertake a new trial. Canon 7 (Greek V) also provides that the appellant may request the Roman bishop to send his own presbyters to participate in the judgement, and canon 4 (Greek IV) grants the protective measure that no other bishop shall be appointed to the see of the appellant until the case has been acted upon by the Roman bishop. Canon 17 (Greek XIV) assures the right of appeal to the neighbouring bishops (the metropolitan of the neighbouring province, according to the Greek) to any presbyter or deacon who has been condemned by his own bishop, and stipulates that his bishop must abide by the decision and that no one shall admit the appellant to communion until his case has been decided.

In response to a general problem in the fourth‐century Church arising from ambitious or unworthy petitions submitted to the imperial court by individual bishops, seven of the Serdican canons are devoted to specifying appropriate causes for petition and for regulating the ways in which they should be presented. Canons 8 (Greek VII) and 10b draw a distinction between self‐seeking petitions, which are condemned, and petitions concerning widows, orphans, those who suffer injustice, and exiles, and stipulates that no bishop shall go to the court unless he is summoned or invited by the emperor. Canon 9a (Greek VIII) directs that the petitions should be delivered to the court by the petitioning bishop's deacon, and canon 9b (Greek IXa) adds that the petitions should first be approved by the metropolitan bishop of the province. Canon 10a (Greek IXb) makes a provision for bishops who have petitions and who are going to Rome that the Roman bishop may examine and send approved petitions to the court. This chapter also considers the development of the office of the metropolitan bishop in the East in the light of the evidence provided by Canon 9b (Greek IXa).

Beginning with a discussion of the need for organized religion, the theology and history behind the different forms of Christian ministry are introduced, including the offices (orders) of bishops, priests, deacons, ministers, and the papacy. The history of the ritual of ordination is discussed, as well as the influence of monasticism on the evolution of Christian ministry.

This chapter discusses the changes in the kind of business transacted by the merchants of the China Coast. Ernest Deacon's story shows how a family with no money earned in the Far East could climb from relatively humble origins to the ranks of squiredom and respectability. It also looks at the different companies in Hong Kong, such as the Dairy Company and the Hong Kong & Wampa Dock Company, and when electricity and the railway arrived in the country.

Liturgy is an essential part of the life of a monastery, and we can hardly feel an interest for the White Monastery without being interested in its liturgical life as well. Unfortunately little remains known about this subject because the liturgical manuscripts, as well as all other manuscripts of this library, have been dismembered, and a liturgical document is interesting only if complete since the structure of the service concerns us more than its contents, which are usually known from elsewhere. This chapter describes the priests' and deacons' books, the liturgical day in the White Monastery, and the contents of the divine service.

The Incorporation chose to describe themselves as ‘the House’, laying claim to their place as one of the building blocks of a godly society, and emphasising their desire for unity and a common purpose for their brethren. Chapter one will look at the internal relationships within this House, both between craft and craft in a composite incorporation, and between freemen and ‘stallangers’, exploring how certain trades became established while others remained tolerated and licensed unfreemen. The internal craft aristocracy and the oligarchic tendency to be selective in allowing access to corporate privileges led to a particular crisis in the 1690s, when the deacon convener of Edinburgh’s fourteen incorporated trades ordered the doors of Mary’s Chapel shut until arbitration could mend the relationship between the two senior trades of Mary’s Chapel, the masons and the wrights. Still, this divided House managed to survive, despite encroachments of unfree craftspeople and internal disputes.

This chapter discusses Deacon Brodie (1880), one of three plays collaboratively composed with his friend W.E. Henley, along with Stevenson’s short story “The Body Snatcher” and his essay “A Chapter on Dreams.” Deacon Brodie is an early treatment of the themes more famously developed in the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886). Thus, Jekyll and Hyde, which owes its origins to the literal dual authorship, becomes a reflection on the fragmentation of the single author, as well as a reflection on the collaborative space of the theater.