Catechesis Notes for the Week — Ordination to the Office of the Holy Ministry. This week marks a milestone in our congregation as Pastor-elect Brennick Christiansen is ordained to the Office of the Holy Ministry. “Ordination takes place at the beginning of a man’s service in the Office of the Holy Ministry, after he has received a divine call. The rite takes place in the Divine Service of the Church, after the sermon and before the Lord’s Supper. It involves both clergy, who lay their hands on the head of the ordinand, conferring upon him the promise of the Holy Spirit through the Word, and the laity, who witness his confession and the laying on of hands, and join in prayer on his behalf. The address to the congregation and candidate for ordination defines the nature of the office and how it is that this man has come to be ordained. The minister-elect promises that the administration of his office will conform to the apostolic and prophetic Scriptures, and to the ecumenical creeds and confessions of the Lutheran Church because they are in agreement with the one Scriptural faith. This is called confessional subscription. His ordination vows also require him to do the work of the ministry, to keep the seal of the confessional absolute, and to adorn the Office of the Holy Ministry with a holy life. A minister is called by God through the Church…According to apostolic tradition, the laying on of hands by fellow ministers of the Word is the way that a man is placed into the Office of the Ministry (1 Timothy 4:14; 1 Timothy 5:22). The Word of God carries the promise of the Holy Spirit. Every minister who administers his office according to the mandates of Christ has the promise of the Holy Spirit. It is customary that fellow ministers each lay their hands on the head of the ordinand and speak a word or blessing from the Scriptures, thereby conveying the promise of the Holy Spirit to the man being ordained into the Office of the Ministry…The minister’s stole represents the yoke of the Office of the Holy Ministry that has been conferred upon him. The chasuble, emblematic of the sufferings of Christ, is the traditional vestment worn by the ordained minister who presides at the Lord’s Supper. A man is ordained to the Office of the Holy Ministry in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. The congregation in which he is ordained receives him on behalf of the whole Church.” – Excerpted from Lutheran Catechesis, p. 162ff.CP220619