Elder (Methodist)
Elder (Methodist)
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Elder (Methodist)

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Elder (Methodist)

An elder, in many Methodist churches, is an ordained minister that has the responsibilities to preach and teach, preside at the celebration of the sacraments, administer the church through pastoral guidance, and lead the congregations under their care in service ministry to the world.

The office of elder, then, is what most people tend to think of as the pastoral, priestly, clergy office within the church. In some of the denominations within Methodism that use the title, ordination to this office is open to both men and women, including the Global Methodist Church, United Methodist Church, Free Methodist Church, Bible Methodist Connection of Churches, and Evangelical Methodist Church. In other denominations such as the Primitive Methodist Church, Evangelical Methodist Church of America, Fundamental Methodist Conference, Evangelical Wesleyan Church, and Southern Methodist Church, only men are ordained as elders.

Methodist denominations that have "a threefold ministry of deacons, elders, and bishops" include the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Free Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church, among other denominations represented in the World Methodist Council.

"Elder" is an English translation of the Greek word Presbuteros (Greek: πρεσβύτερος), found in the New Testament. The word is also commonly transliterated as "presbyter". The office or "order" of presbyter is one of three orders of the traditional Christian priesthood, along with deacon and bishop. The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, in the ordination rite, supplanted the Book of Common Prayer's term "priest" for "elder", although the rest of the liturgy remained the same.

The Discipline of the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection states that:

An elder is a preacher of the gospel, fully invested with all the functions of the Christian ministry. An elder is constituted such by election of the Connection, and by the laying on of the hands of some of the elders, and prayer. The president of the Connection shall lead the service unless the Connection orders otherwise and appoints some other person in his stead. ... It is the duty of an elder to preach the gospel, to administer baptism and the Lord’s Supper, to perform all parts of divine worship, and to solemnize the rite of matrimony.

The Book of Discipline of the Free Methodist Church states that:

Election to elder’s orders constitutes the acknowledgement of the annual conference that the person so elected has met all the biblical (1 Timothy 3, Titus 1) and ecclesiastical requirements to serve as an overseer in the church. Only an ordained elder may serve as a ministerial delegate to General Conference, a conference superintendent or a bishop.

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