CANON 18: OF ADMISSION TO THE ORDERS OF BISHOP, PRIEST AND DEACON

Amended by Provincial Synod 2019 

1.   Bishop

[The following are to be taken into account when considering any cleric who is nominated for election to the Order of Bishops or for translation to another Diocese including the Archbishopric:

(a)   The teachings in Acts 6(1-6), 1 Timothy 3:(1-7), the Charge in the Service of Ordination and Consecration of a Bishop and the grounds for objection in Canon 7(2);

(b)   Every priest who is to be consecrated as a bishop shall:

(i)   be at least forty years of age,

(ii)  have at least a bachelor’s degree in Theology or the equivalent,

(iii)  have been ordained and in full time ministry for not less than ten years,

(iv)  be leading (and to have led) a sound Christian spiritual and social life,

(v)  have a good reputation and be a person of integrity,

(vi)  have experience in pastoral ministry,

(vii)  have administrative ability, and

(viii) have received the necessary clearances after searches of the public registers referred to in Canon 4(11)(c)(i).

(c)  any of the requirements of subsections (b)(i), (ii), (iii) or (viii) may be relaxed if this is deemed in writing by the Metropolitan, in consultation with the Metropolitan’s Executive, to be in the best interests of the Diocese .

2.  Priest

(a)  Every Deacon who is to be admitted a Priest shall be fully twenty-four years of age, and

(b)   shall, moreover, have continued in the office of Deacon a whole year at the least (except for reasonable causes it shall otherwise seem good unto the Bishop).

3.  Deacon

(a)   No one shall be admitted as a Deacon except a person who has attained the age of twenty-three years of age unless with a Faculty.

(b)  No Faculty shall be issued except by the Metropolitan, with the consent of a majority of the Diocesan Bishops.

(c)  A Deacon, whose vocation, as far as may be discerned, is to the Permanent Diaconate, shall be a permanent Deacon, and a Deacon intending to seek admission as a Priest shall be a transitional Deacon, subject to written notice of such intention in each case having been given. to the Diocesan Bishop concerned and the Bishop consenting thereto.