Anglican ministry

The Anglican ministry is both the leadership and agency of Christian service in the Anglican Communion. Ministry commonly refers to the office of ordained clergy: the threefold order of bishops, priests and deacons. Anglican ministry includes many laypeople who devote themselves to the ministry of the church, either individually or in lower/assisting offices such as lector, acolyte, sub-deacon, Eucharistic minister, cantor, musicians, parish secretary or assistant, warden, vestry member, etc. Ultimately, all baptised members of the church are considered to partake in the ministry of the Body of Christ.

Each of the provinces of the Anglican Communion has a high degree of independence from the other provinces, and each of them have slightly different structures for ministry, mission and governance. However, personal leadership is always vested in a member of the clergy (a bishop at provincial and diocesan levels), and a priest (often termed a rector or vicar at the parish level) and consensus derived by synodical government. At different levels of the church's structure, laity, clergy (priests and deacons) and bishops meet together with prayer to deliberate over church governance. These gatherings are variously called conferences, synods, conventions, convocations, councils, chapters and vestries.

The effect of Henry VIII's Act in Restraint of Appeals (24 Hen. 8. c. 12) and first Act of Supremacy (26 Hen. 8. c. 1) was to establish royal authority in all matters spiritual and temporal, even assigning the power of ecclesiastical visitation over the Church in the English Realm. Queen Elizabeth I, while declining the title of Supreme Head, was declared to be "Supreme Governor of this realm ... as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal". Thus, although the Church of England was regarded in the sixteenth century as a church of the Reformation, it nonetheless maintained the historic church structure, including the maintenance of the threefold order of the ministry, with bishops, consecrated in apostolic succession, ordaining deacons, and priests.

In Anglican sacramental theology, certain ministerial functions can only be performed by individuals ordained into one or more of the three holy orders. There are two kinds of ministers in this sense. The ordinary minister of a sacrament has both the spiritual power to perform the sacrament (i.e. a valid sacrament) and the legal authority to perform the sacrament (i.e. a licit sacrament). An extraordinary minister has the spiritual power but may only perform the sacrament in certain special instances under canon law (i.e. emergencies). If a person who is neither an ordinary nor an extraordinary minister attempts to perform a sacrament, no preternatural effect happens (i.e. the putative sacrament is not merely illicit, but invalid).

In the Anglican Communion, the following are ministers of the sacraments ("clergy" refers to either a deacon, priest, or bishop):

The churches of the Anglican Communion maintain the historical episcopate, which ordains clergy into the three orders of deacon, priest and bishop.

Bishops provide the leadership for the Anglican Communion and the Church of England in accordance with episcopal polity. The Anglican sacramental theology of the episcopate can be found in the Church of England’s Ordination Services. “Bishops are ordained to be shepherds of Christ’s flock and guardians of the faith of the apostles, proclaiming the gospel of God’s kingdom and leading his people in mission.” The service continues in the Liturgy of Ordination to describe Bishops as “principal ministers of word and sacrament, stewards of the mysteries of God” they are to “preside over the ordination of deacons and priests, and join together in the ordination of bishops.” Moreover the rite describes Bishop’s as the church’s “chief pastors”. The principal consecrator continues with the prayer of consecration praying that the ordinand may be “bishop in the ministry of the gospel of Christ, the Apostle and High Priest of our faith” after the laying on of hands with the accompanying words “Send down the Holy Spirit on your servant N for the office and work of a bishop in your Church.” The principal consecrating Bishop continues with the prayer saying “Through your Spirit, heavenly Father, fill this your servant with the grace and power which you gave to your apostles.” After the prayer of consecration, the newly ordained Bishop is presented with the episcopal ring, pectoral cross and crozier.

All bishops, constituting a worldwide College of Bishops, are considered to be equal in orders. However, bishops have a variety of different responsibilities, and in these some bishops are more senior than others. All bishops, of diocesan rank and below, are styled the Right Reverend; more senior bishops and archbishops are styled as the Most Reverend. Most bishops oversee a diocese, some are consecrated to assist diocesan bishops in large or busy dioceses, and some are relieved of diocesan responsibilities so they can minister more widely (especially primates who concentrate on leading a member church of the Communion).