Mike's musings

Equality and an ordained priesthood

• Genuine question: Thinking of Sally's post about standing with the people during the covenant, and the fact that you were standing behind the altar - how do you reconcile this 'equality for all' to the idea of an ordained priesthood?

The answer, I think, is that I believe that there's an assumption of equality with regard s to salvation. That doesn't mean that I don't believe there's anything special about an ordained priesthood. Or even that I don't believe that there's nothing ontologically different about an ordained priesthood. But that doesn't mean that I believe that there's anything ontologically special about the human beings (read "sinners") who are ordained as priests.

To explain somewhat, I'm very aware that priests are sinners, because we are all - as humans - sinners. But what it means to be ordained priest is to accept a charge from God - through the church - and to accept the responsibility and authority (mainly the former) that this brings. The ability to perform the duties of a priest is a charism (or set of charisms) no different in many ways from many other charisms. And it is, of course, God-given. The acceptance of the vocation to priesthood, both by the man or woman accepting it, and by the Church, is a huge responsibility. The ordination is the acceptance of this charge by the person ordained and by the Church, and the sacrament through which God endows it, is something special. But the person accepting it is, and remains, and human, a sinner, and equal with all those other humans around him and her.

Labels: priest, theology

# posted by MikeCamel @ 8:44 pm