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Show LOCAL MINISTERS I TO BE ordained; l Laying on of Hands -at St. John's Sunday. Some Information About Ordination Service. Next Sunday at It a m an oidina-tion oidina-tion service will be held in St .John's chinch when the Itev Paul .tones and the ftev. D. K Johnson will bo ordained ordain-ed priests. The Ith-ht Itev. F. S. Spalding, liislinp of Salt Lake, will perform the ceremony and the Itev It. Uicwstcr, cf St Mark's, of Salt Lake, 1 will present the candidates for ordination. ordin-ation. This Is the lirst time such a service has been held in St. John's church, and besides being interesting and Important Im-portant in itself. It confers on Mr. Jones and Mr. .lohusgn, who are In charge of St John's chinch, full ministerial min-isterial authoiltv The servu-e.whlch is open to the public, will be in accordance accor-dance with the regular ordination ser vice found in the P.ook of Common Pr.iver which is used by the Chinch of Kngland and the Kplscopal church ' In America. I In speaking to the Itexerend gentlemen gentle-men to be ordained next Sund.iv, Tim P.Ki'unt.tcAN was olfered the following follow-ing interesting Information concern- j lng the ordination service: , History Of Service. I "This service has a long and Inter-1 Inter-1 estlng history in which two important features are prominent. These two features are 'The Laying onjof Hands' and 'Tne Holy Communion ' There Is no record of a complete form of ordination or-dination service from the time of Christ's ascension to the year .Tit A. I)., but thcro Is plenty of evidence that when the early Christian church ordained Its oilicers, the laying on of hands wjs the important ceremony. Inferences to such a ceremony are found scattered profusely throughout! the New Testament and this custom j Is known to play a part in the rellgl-1 ous services of the Jews prior to the' Christian era, hence the antiquity of i such a custom is well established, i Thejaylng on of hands signified? of course, that the person ordained ic-cclvcd ic-cclvcd the Holy Spirit to exercise some special function in the church. Very Early Origin. After the year .'(25 dcllnitc praycis, psalms and religious ceremonies gathered gath-ered about and decame a part of the central ceremony of the laying on of hands in the case of church ordinations. ordina-tions. The most Important addition was the service of the Holy Communion, Commun-ion, or the Kucharlst, as it was commonly com-monly knowu, which service from the rirst formed the chief act of Christian worship. Tims the Christians at an early date dignified the ordination service ser-vice by making the Holy Communion a conspicuous element. Then for a thousand years this ordination service was made more and more complex by the addition of lesser rites and ceremonies cere-monies till at the time of tho Information Infor-mation it was elaborate Indeed. When the Ilngllsh chinch decided to have its public worsliip conducted In a language lan-guage everyone could understand, It tianslated and Improved on the old Latin services, the impoitant and vital vi-tal parts of which wero retained, of course, together with the many of the lesser iltes and details which wcio edifying ed-ifying and Instiuctlve. Consequently the ordination service as it stands today to-day in the Kngllsh and American Prayer books Is essentially one and tho same with tho service used for so mauy centuries, and still cmphasles the laving on of hands and the Holy Communion services. A People's Service. it ought to be poihtcd out In addition, ad-dition, that the Ordination Service Is tho people's scrvlco; for Instance, tho candidates for ordlnatlou aro examined examin-ed by tho Ulshop In the presenco of tho assembled congregation and furthermore further-more the Ulshop requests of the peoplo that they shall speak out if they know of aay reason why tho can-nldatcs can-nldatcs should not be ordained. All Ihls very naturally suggests the qucs-tl6n, qucs-tl6n, how docs tlie nolicopal church regard it's ministry? In tho tlrst place this church considers Its minis-(Conpluded minis-(Conpluded oti last pJge.) qn ! In iiipiiiKi inliMWwmawMNWOyiWj Ordinations. leis and olllcers properly ordained only If tho ordaining mlnistcis, that is, the lllsliops autl other clergy, liae themselves been properly ordained. This can mean but one thing tho church believes that since the apostles has been an unbroken line of ordinv tlons by the laving on of hands. This Hue of unbtoken minlstiy Involves three distinct otllceis.Hlshops, Priests and Deacons, named In the order ol their authoiltv. This historical succession suc-cession of olllcers the Episcopal church shares with the Orthodox Greek church and the Roman Catholic church. Hut though she considers It very Important that her ministers should be like so-many links in the long Miccession of propel Iv ordained church olllcers, this church does not look on them as a distinct caste or class by themselves, like the Koman Catholic church. For the Episcopal church, and this Is the second important im-portant feature in the way the. Kpbcopal minlstiy is regarded, recog-nles recog-nles and declares the Priesthood of all Christians, as St. Peter says " ye are an holi urlesthood"(l Peter 'J:8) hence the priest In this church Is not separated from the people hut is their representative and by ordination sums up in himself the functions and duties w hlch belong to all Christ iaus alike. Fiom this it may be seen that besides be-sides having an historic ministry dating dat-ing from apostolic tlmes.thls church amis to make its ministry a democratic democra-tic and representative Institution. |