PECUSA BCP 1789's Office of the Institution of Ministers and the means of grace
The theological significance of the Institution Office is wonderfully captured by Draw Near With Faith:
for it is in the life of the parish that most Christians are joined to Christ in baptism, nourished at the Table, and strengthened in the Christian life. Generally speaking, if we are to be saved, it is not otherwise than through (as an instrument) the life of the parish and the ministrations of its priest.
There is an echo here of 'A Prayer for the Clergy and People', with its intimation that it is in the ordinary life of the parish that God "workest great marvels". The petition for the congregation in the Prayer for the Church Militant - "that with meek heart and due reverence, they may hear and receive thy holy Word; truly serving thee in holiness and righteousness all the days of their life" - similarly points to the ministrations of the parish as the ordinary means of salvation.
In this way the PECUSA 1789 'Office of the Institution of Ministers into Parishes or Churches' embodies a central aspect of the Anglican experience: the centrality of the parish. It is in the parish the Word of God is preached and the Sacraments duly ministered. It is in the parish that we are called to be "in love and charity with [our] neighbours". It is in the parish that we are absolved and blessed. It is in the parish that we are buried at life's end "in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life". And it is in the parish that we will be prayerfully commemorated with "all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear".
What, then, of the episcopal office? As the 1789 rite demonstrates, the office of bishop ensures that the minister in the parish has episcopal orders and is, after Article 23, "lawfully called and sent":
we do fully Confide, our License and authority to perform the Office of a Priest, in the Parish [or Church] of E. And also hereby do institute you into said Parish, [or Church,] possessed of full power to perform every Act of sacerdotal Function among the People in the same; you continuing in communion with us, and complying with the rubrics and canons of the Church, and with such lawful directions as you shall at any time receive from us.
The confirmation of episcopal orders ensures that the ministry of Word and Sacrament in the parish stands (as the Preface to the Ordinal states) in continuity with the Apostolic order. As for the canonical and legal assurances provided by the bishop in the institution rite, these declare that the bishop, minister, and parish are bound by responsibilities towards each other, their respective rights both protected and limited in order to serve the church's communion, peace, and unity.
Regarding the ministry of the presbyter, the 1789 rite might raise some eyebrows with its references to the "sacerdotal function" of the priest. This, however, should not be read as an early expression of later Anglo-Catholic understanding of ministerial priesthood and eucharistic sacrifice. There was a long tradition of Laudian and Old High commentators describing the office and work of the priest in non-eucharistic contexts as 'sacerdotal' in nature.
George Herbert in The Country Parson states that "the Countrey Parson, when he is to read divine services", comes before "the heavenly altar". Sparrow, noting the rubric requiring the Minister to stand for the versicles and response, understands this to be an expression of the priestly office, for "the Ministers of the Gospel are appointed by God to offer up the sacrifices of prayers and praises of the Church for the people".
The same understanding of the sacerdotal nature of the presbyter's ministry was also seen in Jeremy Taylor:
it is the dispensing all those rites and ministries by which heaven is opened: and that is, the word and baptism at the first, and ever after, the holy sacrament of the supper of the Lord, and all the parts of the bishops’ and priests' advocation and intercession in holy prayers and offices.
That the 1789 rite emerges from this tradition of thought is evident by the fact that it does not in any way single out the administering of the Holy Communion as the chief expression of the sacerdotal office. As one of the prayers offered for the newly-instituted cleric states:
Be graciously pleased to bless the ministry and service of him who is now appointed to offer the sacrifices of prayer and praise to thee in this house, which is called by thy Name.
The "Instituted Minister" is also directed to pray in this manner:
to make me instrumental in promoting the salvation of the people now committed to my charge, grant that I may faithfully administer thy holy Sacraments, and by my life and doctrine set forth thy true and lively Word. Be ever with me in the performance of all the duties of my ministry ...
And, of course, there is the title of the rite: 'An office of the Institution of Ministers'. This reflects both 1662's practice of using the terms 'priest' and 'minister' interchangeably and Laudian custom. Jeremy Taylor's Communion Office, published during the Protectorate, used 'Minister' throughout, in place of 'Priest'. Likewise, his 1661 Rules and Advice to his clergy was entirely couched in in the language of 'Minister', used 50 times to 1 use of 'Priest'. The same pattern is seen in Cosin's 1662 Visitation Articles: 30 uses of 'Minister', 1 of 'Priest'.
'Minister', in other words, is no theologically inferior term either in the Prayer Book or the Laudian tradition. It does, however, qualify and balance sacerdotal language, ensuring that the ministry of the presbyter is understood to be a pastoral, teaching, and sacramental ministry within the parish, neither set over nor a caste apart from "the Congregation of Christ's flock". As Cranmer put it, in words which have fundamentally shaped the Anglican pastoral experience over centuries:
the difference that is between the priest and the layman in this matter is only in the ministration; that the priest, as a common minister of the Church, doth minister and distribute the Lord’s Supper unto others, and others receive it at his hands. But the very Supper itself was by Christ instituted and given to the whole Church, not to be offered and eaten of the priest for other men, but by him to be delivered to all that would duly ask it ... And this nothing diminisheth the estimation and dignity of priesthood and other ministers of the Church, but advanceth and highly commandeth their ministration.
The title of the 1789 rite, therefore, captures an understanding of ordained ministry essential to the Anglican experience: the parish priest is the minister, serving the congregation in Word and Sacrament, "to teach, and to premonish, to feed and provide for the Lord's family".
Draw Near With Faith rightly comments:
The American prayer book tradition here does something genuinely new, and I think quite beautiful.
It was indeed a "genuinely new" liturgical expression of an understanding and experience of ordained ministry deeply rooted in the Anglican tradition. It would give rise to similar rites, as, for example, in the Church of Ireland BCP 1926. Unlike ordinations in a cathedral or bishop's chapel, here were rites for a parish receiving its minister. At this point I would gently push back against Draw Near With Faith's view that it is a rite "your average layperson may well never experience". In the Irish Anglican context, laypeople are much more likely to have encountered a minister's institution than an ordination. This only adds to the importance of such rites of institution, for they are considerably more likely to shape the laity's understanding of ordained ministry than ordinations which most laity will not have witnessed.
(The photograph is of Old Wye Church, Maryland.)
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