Sacrament
of Holy Orders
The ordination of a deacon
The Greek words used for ordination are cheirotonia and cheirothesia,
both of which mean "the laying on of hands." Members of
the major orders of
the clergy—bishop, priest, and deacon—are
ordained during the Divine Liturgy by the bishop, who is usually assisted by several
priests. According to Orthodox teaching, the process of ordination begins
with the local congregation;
but the bishop alone, who acts in the name of the universal Church, can
complete the action. The ordination itself for those entering the major orders
takes place within the altar.
Those who are placed into the minor orders (subdeacon, reader, and in some traditions, chanters) are done so by cheirothesia,
which also means "laying on of hands," but has come to be a
technically distinct term from cheirotonia,
which is used only for the major orders. Cheirothesia is
not regarded as part of the Holy Mystery of ordination. The ordination for
those entering the minor orders takes place within the nave of the church.
It is the conviction of the Orthodox that Christ is the only
priest, pastor and teacher of the Christian Church. He alone guides and
rules his people. He alone forgives sins and offers communion with God, his
Father.
It is also the Orthodox conviction that Christ has not
abandoned his people, but that he remains with his Church as it’s living
and unique head. Christ remains present and active in the Church through
his Holy Spirit.
The sacrament of holy orders in the Christian Church is the
objective guarantee of the perpetual presence of Christ with his people.
The bishops, priests, and deacons of the Church have no other function or
service than to manifest the presence and action of Christ to his people.
In this sense, the clergy do not act in behalf of Christ or instead of
Christ as though he himself were absent. They are neither vicars of Christ,
nor substitutes for neither Christ nor representatives of Christ.
Christ is present now, always and forever in his Church. The
sacramental ministry of the Church—the bishops, priests, and
deacons—receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to manifest Christ in the
Spirit to men. Thus, through His chosen ministers, Christ exercises and
realizes His unique and exclusive function as priest, perpetually offering
Himself as the perfect sacrifice to the Father on behalf of His human
brothers and sisters. Through His ministers in the Church, Christ also acts
as teacher, Himself proclaiming the divine words of the Father to men. He
acts as the good shepherd, the one pastor who guides His flock. He acts as
the forgiver and healer, remitting sins and curing the ills of
men—physical, mental and spiritual. He acts as bishop, overseeing the
community which He has gathered for Himself (1 Pet 2.25). He acts as deacon
(which means servant or minister) for He alone is the suffering servant of
the Father Who has come “not to be served, but to serve, and to give His
life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20.28).
The sacrament of holy orders takes its name from the fact
that the bishops, priests and deacons give order to the Church. They
guarantee the continuity and unity of the Church from age to age and from
place to place from the time of Christ and the apostles until the
establishment of God’s Kingdom in eternity.
As the apostles received the special gift of God to go forth
and to make Christ present to men in all of the manifold aspects of his
person and work, so the clergy of the Church receive the gift of God’s
Spirit to maintain and to manifest Christ’s presence and action in the
churches.
It is the doctrine of the Church that the clergy must strive
to fulfill the grace given to them with the gift of the “laying on of
hands” in the most perfect way possible. But it is also the doctrine of the
Church that the reality and effectiveness of the sacraments of the Church
ministered by the clergy do not depend upon the personal virtue of the
ministers, but upon the presence of Christ who acts in his Church by the
Holy Spirit.
Bishops
The bishops are the leading members of the clergy in the
sense that they have the responsibility and the service of maintaining the
unity of the Church throughout the world by insuring the truth and unity of
the faith and practice of their respective churches with all of the others.
Thus, the bishops represent their particular churches or dioceses to the
other churches or dioceses, just as they represent the Universal Church to
their own particular priests, deacons, and people.
In the Orthodox Church, the office of bishop is the leading
Church ministry. The word bishop (episkopos, in
Greek) means overseer. Each of the bishops has exactly the same service to
perform. No bishop is “over any other bishop in the Church” and, indeed,
the bishop himself is not “over” his church, hut is himself within and of
the Church as one of its members. He is the one who is responsible and
answerable before God and man for the life of his particular church
community.
All bishops of the Orthodox Church are bishops of a
particular geographical territory called a diocese. They usually receive
their title from the main city in the territory. A bishop of the chief city
of a region which has within it other bishops with their own particular
dioceses is usually called the metropolitan or archbishop. “Metropolitan”
merely means “bishop of the metropolis,” the main city. The title of
archbishop means “leading bishop” of an area, but sometimes the title is
given to certain bishops for personal or honorary reasons. The title of
patriarch belongs to the bishop of the capitol city of a region containing
other metropolitanates and dioceses. Today this
usually means a national church.
When the bishops of an area meet in council, as they must do
periodically according to Church Law, the metropolitan presides; or in the
case of a large territory or national church, the patriarch. Once again,
however, it must be clearly understood that sacramentally all bishops are
identical and equal. None is “higher” than the others as far as their
sacramental position is concerned; none is “over” the others as far as
their life in the Church is concerned.
In purely human and practical matters, the metropolitans and
patriarchs guide and preside over areas greater than their own particular
dioceses, but they are not superior or more powerful as far as their
bishop’s office is concerned. No bishop in Orthodoxy is considered
infallible. None has any “powers” over or apart from his priests, deacons
and people or the other bishops. All are servants of Christ and the Church.
Since the sixth century it has been the rule in the Orthodox
Church that the bishops be single men or widowers. They are also usually in
at least the first degree of monastic orders.
Priests
The priests of the Church, also called presbyters, are those
who assist the bishop in his work. In the present day, the priests normally
exercise the function of pastors of the local churches or parishes, a function
which was normally done by the bishops in early times. The priests head the
local congregations of Christians. They preside at the celebration of the
liturgy. They teach, preach, counsel and exercise the ministries of
forgiveness and healing.
The priests in the Church are assigned by the bishop and
belong to the specific congregations which they serve. No one receives the
gift of the priesthood personally or individually. Apart from his bishop
and his own particular parish community, the priest has no “powers” and,
indeed, no services to perform. Thus, on the altar table of each Christian
community headed by the priest as pastor, there is the cloth called the
antimension signed by the bishop which is the permission to the community
to gather and to act as the Church of God. Without the antimension, the
priest and his people cannot function legitimately, and the actions of the
assembly cannot be considered as being authentically “of the Church.”
In the Orthodox Church a married man may be ordained to the
priesthood. His marriage, however, must be the first for both him and his
wife, and he may not remarry and continue in his ministry if his wife
should die. If a single man is ordained, he may not marry and retain his
service.
Deacons
The deacons of the Church originally assisted the bishops in
good deeds and works of charity. In recent centuries the diaconate has
become almost exclusively a liturgical function in which the deacons assist
at the celebration of the divine liturgy and other Church services. In more
recent times, the diaconate has been extended to many as a permanent
position for full or part-time service to the work of the Church. In the
office of deacon, the men may now not only assist the priest and bishop in
liturgical services, but will often head educational programs and youth
groups, do hospital visitation and missionary work and conduct projects of
social welfare. In these cases the deacons are not necessarily taken from
the professional schools of theology, but are chosen directly from the
local parish community. The Church’s rules about marriage are the same for
the deacons as they are for the priests.
In addition to the bishops, priests and deacons who comprise
the central ordained ministries in the Church, the Orthodox tradition also
has special blessings for the particular ministries of sub-deacons and
readers. In the early church there were also special prayers and blessings
for other Church ministries such as exorcists, doorkeepers, deaconesses,
and lay-preachers; the latter still function in some churches today. Also
in most churches today there are special ceremonies of blessing and
installation of lay workers in the Church such as members of the parish
council, catechists, choir singers and leaders of various organizations and
projects.
Source:
http://orthodoxwiki.org/Ordination
http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith7105
https://oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/worship/the-sacraments/holy-orders
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