The Embertide collects, episcopal order, and the Laudian vision

This being an Ember Week, the Embertide collects should be "said every day" at Mattins and Evensong, "for those that are to be admitted into Holy Orders":

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who hast purchased to thyself an universal Church by the precious blood of thy dear Son: Mercifully look upon the same, and at this time so guide and govern the minds of thy servants the Bishops and Pastors of thy flock, that they may lay hands suddenly on no man, but faithfully and wisely make choice of fit persons to serve in the sacred Ministry of thy Church. And to those which shall be ordained to any holy function give thy grace and heavenly benediction; that both by their life and doctrine they may set forth thy glory, and set forward the salvation of all men; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Or this.

Almighty God, the giver of all good gifts, who of thy divine providence hast appointed divers Orders in thy Church: Give thy grace, we humbly beseech thee, to all those who are to be called to any office and administration in the same; and so replenish them with the truth of thy doctrine, and endue them with innocency of life, that they may faithfully serve before thee, to the glory of thy great Name, and the benefit of thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

It may be that for some contemporary Anglicans these prayers sound much too Reformed - "sacred Ministry ... function ... office and administration". They are, however, thoroughly Laudian.  Procter and Frere note that both prayers were added at the revision of 1662.  The first was from Cosin's Collection of Private Devotions (1627), the second from Laud's 1637 Scottish Prayer Book.  And, of course, both were added to enrich the observance of the ancient Ember Days, the rubric requiring that they are said each day of the Ember Weeks.

There is an obvious contrast between the understanding of ordained ministry set forth in these prayers and that of the Council of Trent.  For example, Trent's Canon on 'The Sacrament of Order' opens with the words "sacrifice and priesthood" - words entirely absent from the Prayer Book's Embertide prayers.  Does this mean that the prayers then fall short of a catholic doctrine of orders? 

In fact, the prayers are deeply patristic.  'Life and doctrine' - the phrase used in the first prayer and echoed in the second - summarises the dual focus of both Ambrose's On the Duties of the Clergy and Chrysostom's On the Priesthood.  Ambrose quotes the Apostle Paul to Titus: "Speak the things which become sound doctrine". Chrysostom urges, "let him not be unskilled in the knowledge and accurate statement of doctrine". 

Similarly, 'office' is the term used consistently by Ambrose and Chrysostom - for example, "in our office" (Ambrose), "the clerical office" (Chrysostom).  As for the phrase "sacred Ministry" in the first prayer, it is a term used by Ambrose, and reflected in Chrysostom's "so high a ministry".  

Regarding the use of 'function' - and its contrast with the Tridentine emphasis on indelible character bestowed by Orders - it is worth noting how it captures the patristic understanding summarised by the Anglican-Orthodox 2006 Cyprus Agreement, The Church of the Triune God:

Bishops and presbyters do not possess an indelible mark as if ordination were a magical seal granting them personal power to celebrate the Eucharist or any other liturgical action, apart from the ecclesial body.

We are not aware that the theory of an indelible mark conferred by ordination can be found in patristic teaching. 

'Function' captures this patristic emphasis on ordained ministry as, in the words of the Cyprus Agreement, an "order of service".

Finally, the second prayer's declaration that "divine providence hast appointed divers Orders in thy Church" is, of course, rooted in the patristic understanding of the Preface to the Ordinal:

from the Apostles' time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church; Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.

The use of "divine providence" also expressed Hooker's view that for episcopacy to be of divine origin, explicit institution by Christ was not required.  Thus while Hooker recognises that "episcopal authority" was exercised in the apostolic Church "before that difference of name and title took place", he also refers to episcopacy as "the Ordinance of God" (LEP VII.5.2) .  The evidence from the patristic witnesses, he says, is explicit:

That so the ancient Fathers did think of Episcopal Regiment, that they held this order as a thing received from the blessed Apostles themselves, and authorized even from heaven (VII.5.3).

The use of "divine providence" in the second Embertide collect, therefore, reflects a rich Hookerian understanding of how God's purposes for the Church were unfolded in the emergence of the threefold order, avoiding historically brittle claims while yet affirming a theologically robust vision of episcopal order and of the Church sharing in the divine life. As Hooker puts it, quoting Cyprian:

It was the general received persuasion of the ancient Christian world, that Ecclesia est in Episcopo (VII.5.2).

Related to this, we should also note that the term 'Bishops and Pastors' in the first prayer is a reference to the one order of bishops, echoing the collect of in the form of consecrating a bishop - "to all Bishops, the Pastors of thy Church". In other words, the prayer clearly states that it is bishops who are the ministers of ordination.

These two Embertide collects, then, are a wonderful expression of the deeply patristic nature of the Laudian vision. That they are given to us in the BCP to shape our praying during Ember Weeks, roots and grounds the Anglican understanding of orders - precisely because these collects avoid the terminology of Trent - in the teaching and practice of the patristic churches.