Ordination Process Introduction

A study group consisting of members of the Committee on Holy Orders (COHO), the Standing Committee and resource people of the Diocese of Maine has prepared this handbook. COHO is grateful to those dioceses whose ordination handbooks have contributed ideas and wordings to this one. Among them are the Dioceses of Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, Chicago, and Massachusetts.

This handbook is designed to assist both:

1. persons who believe they may be called to ordained ministry and
2. individuals who will be called to assist them as the Church discerns that call.

Within the framework of the Canons of the Episcopal Church, this handbook describes the steps taken in the process toward ordination. The first step that you will take is to complete the Diocesan discernment processes. It is the intent of the Diocese, with faith, trust and candor, to assist all baptized persons to hear and test calls to ministry within their congregation and community. After this crucial first step, the larger community of the Church will join your journey and also hear and test any call. This "larger community" is embodied in the persons of the Bishop of Maine, COHO and the Standing Committee.

We are grateful that you are responding to a possible call to serve God as a Deacon or Priest. No matter how the discernment process turns out for you, this process of hearing a call confirms that you are called to committed service as an essential member of the Body of Christ. All the people who enter this process with you will give of their time, energy and prayer to help you discover just what this call is about.

Even if your sense of call is clear and strong, we hope you will remember that this process is about discernment in community. This will help you stay open to those tough questions and challenges that this journey will ask of you.

It is up to you to use this process well. It is your job to know the process, ask questions, clear up confusion, and get help from the many sources mentioned in this handbook. We know that this process seems long, cumbersome and costly. We promise our best efforts to prevent unnecessary obstacles and unexpected delays; but we know that real hardships happen. We urge you to practice faithfulness and use this time to foster a continuing conversion into a life with Christ.

Committee on Holy Orders
April 2005