Ordination

Ordination

Ordination (cheirotonia, meaning “laying on of hands”) is the sacred mystery through which bishops, priests, and deacons receive the grace of the Holy Spirit to fulfill their ministerial service within the Church. Through ordination, the Church’s apostolic ministry is preserved and made present in every generation.

This act is performed exclusively by bishops and confers a permanent spiritual authority and responsibility. It is firmly rooted in the New Testament witness, where the laying on of hands transmits grace, authority, and continuity of service within the Body of Christ.

Ordination is inseparable from apostolic succession, the unbroken chain of episcopal ordinations tracing directly back to the Apostles themselves. Through this succession, the Church safeguards the purity of doctrine, the validity of the sacraments, and the unity of ecclesial life.

This continuity ensures that the Church does not devolve into private authority or innovation. Only those ordained within this apostolic lineage may ordain others or preside at the Eucharist, preserving the Church as a visible, ordered, and sacramental body rather than a self-appointed association.

St. Clement of Rome, writing at the close of the first century, bears clear witness to this apostolic understanding. In his First Epistle to the Corinthians, he explains that the Apostles consciously established succession to prevent disorder and rivalry within the Church.

“Our apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this reason, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry.”

For the early Church, ordination was not an administrative appointment but a sacramental transmission of grace and authority. Through apostolic succession, the Church remains the same Church founded by Christ, governed by the Spirit, and safeguarded from division and doctrinal corruption.