Baptist Ministers Historically Unpaid

Recently, I began reading Religious Revolutionaries by Robert C. Fuller. Its a simplified history of religion in America. Fuller does an excellent job of simplifying and presenting the development of religion in America in an easy to read, yet logically organized manner. Best of all, the book includes little bits of American religious trivia, like the Pilgrims stealing food and crafts from local natives. One bit of trivia that surfaces in chapter 3, Sectarian Heyday, is:

"Baptists often paid their ministers nothing at all."

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. Living deep in the Baptist Bible Belt as I do and reading all the Baptist blog discussions on the proper selection and hiring of ministers, this long forgotten fact seemed almost like heresy. Baptist ministers were unpaid! Shocking!

Fuller informs us:

"Baptists and Methodists, on the other hand, relied upon clergy who were 'of the people.' They characteristically had little education, received little or no pay, and spoke in plain but forceful language."

Fuller follows a bit later with:

"Baptist ministers typically earned their living just like other members of the congregation six days a week and then voluntarily preached on the Sabbath."

Fuller then explains that this low overhead is what made the expansion of Baptists and Methodists through the frontier possible. I believe this has implications on the recent discussions among Baptists regarding their problem of declining baptisms and and shrinking membership. Just as a paid clergy was a drag on the early American Anglican and Congregationalist churches and led to their decline as majority denominations, so too the modern Baptist tradition of a paid clergy seems to be hampering Baptist evangelism and contributing to that denominations decline.

Personally, I have long seen a professional, paid clergy as somewhat unbiblical. Never in the New Testament do I ever find search committees, minister interviews, or mention of salaries. Nor do I ever find discussion of the same among the early Ante-Nicean Christians in the centuries that follow.

If any CAS readers are aware of any Baptist, or other Christian, apologetics for a paid clergy, please comment below. I particularly would be interested in the proof texts that support the modern Tradition of a paid clergy.

Source: Religious Revolutionaries

Ordination Prayer for Women Deacons Differs

Finalmente! At long last, I have had the "Ah ha!" moment and can now explain and prove the difference in male and female deacons from the early Church. The answer lies within the two different prayers found within the existing Orthodox faith. God bless the poster on the troparion to Saint Phoebe the Deaconess on the Peter Akinola blog and for commenter 7 for pointing to anastasis.org.uk .

ORDER FOR THE ORDINATION OF A WOMAN DEACON

Holy and All-powerful God, through the birth in flesh of your Only-begotten Son and our God from a Virgin you sanctified woman, and granted not only to men but also to women the grace and visitation of the Holy Spirit. Now, Master, look upon this servant of yours also, call her to the work of your service and send down upon her the rich gift of your Holy Spirit. Guard her in your Orthodox faith in a blameless way of life in accordance with what is well pleasing to you, as she fulfils her ministry at every moment.

ORDER FOR THE ORDINATION OF A DEACON

Lord, our God, by your foreknowledge you send down the gift of your Holy Spirit upon those who are appointed by your inscrutable power to become ministers and to assist in the service of your most pure Mysteries.

Did you spot the difference? Only the male deacon is ordained to minister and to assist in the Eucharist (pure Mysteries). Female deacons are ordained to the work of service, which does NOT include the Eucharist. This difference in ordination prayers aligns the two groups of deacons perfectly with the historic position of deacons within the Church. The work of service for female deacons consisted largely of assisting female converts during baptism. (Early Christians were naked during baptism, just like modern day Copts are naked during baptism.)

The Roman Catholic Womenpriests have devoted considerable space to providing the ordination rite for Deaconesses and to their comparison to the ordination of male deacons. On first glance, the presence of an ordination rite for women deacons and a comparison chart showing "identical" rites seems to be prima facia evidence for the sacramental ordination of women deacons. Except, the writer of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests text omitted mentioning that the ordination prayers are distinctly and sacramentally different between male and female deacons. This omission may be either accidental or deliberate. We'll have to take the more charitable stance and assume that this was accidental. If accidental, then the comparison table will eventually be corrected to mention the difference in ordination prayeer.

So, it doesn't matter one iota that an ordination rite exists or how similar the two ordinations rites are or even how many icons of Phoebe depict her wearing a deacons stole, there was and still is a major difference in the ordination rites of male and female deacons.

Source: ORDER FOR THE ORDINATION OF A WOMAN DEACON

How to Identify A Faux Ordination

As many Christians, Muslims, agnostics, theists and atheists, particularly those among the press, are having difficulty identifying Catholic ordinations from faux ordinations, I have assembled a small chart to facilitate in rapid identification of Catholic ordinations from faux ordinations with a high probability of success.

Marks	Catholic	Faux
Location	Catholic church	boat, retreat
Deity	God	God/de
Vessels	precious metals	glass
Bishop	male	female
Priests	male	female
Deacons	male	female
Candidates	male	female
Guests	nuns	former nuns

So, the next time you read a story about a Catholic ordination, just check your copy of the chart. Before long, your identification skills will improve and you will no longer need a chart.

Former Nuns Host Womenpriests' "Ordination"

On Sunday, July 22, 2007, the Immaculate Heart Community, a group of former Catholic nuns, hosted a gathering of members and guests of Roman Catholic Womenpriests (RCWP) at the community's La Casa de Maria on Bosque Road outside of Santa Barbara, California. An "ordination" ceremony took place at about 3:41 p.m. that afternoon. One woman was "ordained" a priest. Two other women were "ordained" deacons.

While Santa Barbara Independent reporter Martha Sadler and photographer Paul Wellman were sworn to secrecy as to the ceremony's location, Catholic bloggers quickly recognized the retreat center, which has hosted past women's ordination events, such as the Conversation and Celebration of Women Called held last year on Saturday, February 18, 2006.

The newspaper account reported that the women "are part of a movement from within the Roman Catholic Church". However, that is not the case as the women and their hosts have in fact separated from the Catholic Church by their actions. Canon law is clear that ex communication automatically occurs for the candidates, presiders, and many of the attendees. Formal notification by the Church is not required.

Additional "ordinations" are planned for today, July 28, in Portland, Oregon and on Sunday, August 12, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

While women's ordination is a popular modern heresy, the Catholic Church has definitively decided the matter for Catholics. Pope John Paul II declared in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis in 1994; "I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful."

We have previously discussed the lack of valid matter, and thus the lack of a valid sacrament, in the case of women's ordination. However, as an apologist I'd be curious as to what authority these women claim that the Bishop of Rome and the Church find lacking for themselves. Ladies?

Source: Santa Barbara Independent

Womenpriests Plan Womens' Ordination

Looks like the annual ordination of women as "priests" is on. Several sources state that this Sunday, May 27th, an ordination ceremony will take place in Toronto, Canada at a secret undisclosed church of unknown denomination. Anyone vaguely familiar with the Catholic Church at Rome knows that these women are not bishops and priests of the Roman Church as women are not valid matter for ordination.

I had an online discussion with a non-Catholic feminist professor of women studies once. She, like the womenpriests, made the old arguements regarding the church being sexist, archaic, unfair, but never once did she ever consider the sacramental nature of ordination. She seemed suprised and dumb founded when I explained the concept to her.

Every sacrament has valid physical matter associated with it.

Water is the only valid matter for conducting baptisms. No Christian church uses milk, beer, wine, or orange juice. Just because you don't have a pool of water doesn't mean that a vat of beer can be used for baptismal immersions. Beer is not valid matter. Scripture and the early Church fathers are quite clear on water being the only valid matter for baptism.

Unleavened bread and wine are the only valid matter for communion. While some Christian churches stray and use grape juice, grape juice is no more valid matter than using Moon Pies with Nehi Grape Soda chasers. Neither are milk and cookies valid matter for communion.

A man and a women are the only valid matter for marriage. Not two men nor two women. I'm all for two men, or two women, living together as brother and brother, or sister and sister, and caring for each other. God calls us all to love one another as he has loved us. But, same sex pairings are not valid matter for marriage.

Olive oil is the only valid matter for annointings. Not light motor oil or baby oil. Neither are shortening, lard or any other "oily" substance valid matter for annointing.

Thus we come to the sacrament of ordination. The scripture and early Church clearly indicate that only baptised males are valid matter. While this requirement eliminates women from ordination, it also eliminates two-thirds of all men, or more. Two billion men are automatically excluded due to lack of baptism. The pool of valid matter is thus limited to about 17% of the world's population. Add in a requirement to be Catholic, in the case of the Church at Rome, and the pool shrinks down to about 8% or less. Factor in discerning "the call", psychlogical and academic suitability, and the pool continues to shrink well below the 5% level.

Now I'm sure that if, like the Womenpriets, one is a member of the 83% to 97% of the world population that isn't valid or suitable for ordination, and that's something I aspired to, I too would feel discriminated against, that the rules were unfair, and more. However, no law or sense of injustice can convert invalid matter into valid matter for ordination.

So, our fine and devout women may lay hands on each other as much as they like, but their ordinations are no more valid than a baptism with milk or a communion with grape juice.

May God bless these women and grant them the grace to see the errors in their "ordinations."

69,000 Evangelists Wanted

Wanted immediately! 69,000 Catholic Americans, aged 14 years and older, to begin evangelizing to Americans.

The recently formed John Paul II Society of Evangelists is actively seeking Catholics to begin evangelization projects across America. With America being about 1/4 Catholic, the society calculates that 69,000 evangelists would result in about one million adult conversions to the Catholic faith each year. That would be a ten-fold increase over the present average of 100,000 adults who enter the Catholic faith each year.

The society further estimates that if every American Catholic would lead one non-Catholic American into the Catholic faith each and every year, then America would be about 100% Catholic in just 3 years! Just in time for the 2012 Presidential election.

Southern Baptists had trouble baptising one million in one year recently. It will be interesting to see how the Catholics do at a similar goal.

Source: John Paul II Society of Evangelists

eSword - The Confession of Patrick of Ireland

This morning I was listening to the weekly podcast of The Journey Home with Marcus Grodi. Marcus was interviewing Patty Bonds, sister of well-known reformed apologist Dr. James R. White. Patty mentioned that around Saint Patrick's Day one year she decided to read up on Patrick and found Patrick's Confession online. After reading The Confession of Patrick, Patty decided to read the fathers of the early church before 250 A.D.. Based on her study of the early Church and scripture, Patty decided to move from the Baptist faith to the Catholic faith.

Well, when I heard this testimony, I stopped and looked up The Confession of Patrick. I wanted to see this powerful document that would have this effect on Christians like Patty Bonds.

The Confession of Patrick was easy to find and there were dozens of translations to be found. Mericfully, Patrick believed in brevity. The Confession is extremely short in comparison to Justin Martyr's First Apology.

Patrick's opening paragraphs set the tone for his Confession:

I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many, had for father the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a priest, of the settlement [vicus] of Bannavem Taburniae; he had a small villa nearby where I was taken captive. I was at that time about sixteen years of age. I did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our deserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our priests who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought down on us the fury of his being and scattered us among many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where I, in my smallness, am now to be found among foreigners.

2 And there the Lord opened my mind to an awareness of my unbelief, in order that, even so late, I might remember my transgressions and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God, who had regard for my insignificance and pitied my youth and ignorance. And he watched over me before I knew him, and before I learned sense or even distinguished between good and evil, and he protected me, and consoled me as a father would his son.

The Confession of Patrick

When I got home this evening, I quickly copied and edited The Confession of Patrick in eSword as a topic file. The zipped esword topic file is available for download in my eSnips eSword account.

Source: The Journey Home podcast (RSS/XML)

Campus Ministry to Close for Summer

One of the saddest events in May, for me, is the end of the Spring school semester. That means an end to the local campus ministry program until late August. Three long summer months without the mid-week fellowship that reinforces me and gets me through my week. Three months without the opportunity to come together with fellow Christians to hear and discuss the Word. Most importantly, the world loses the spiritual effects of twice-weekly group prayer for those three months.

Sponsored by a local church, the ministry serves the needs of a diverse range of students and beliefs: Baptists, Catholics, Methodists, Episcopalians, and independent Christians. Meetings start with a brief liturgy of the Word. An opening prayer, Bible readings, petitions, the Lord's Prayer, and grace. A modest meal is shared among assembled believers.

This Thursday is the last meeting. A elderly minister has agreed to visit and hold a worship service for our group, complete with Communion. Signs have been approved and posted to area bulletin boards. There is excitement beneath the surface of papers due and exams to be taken.

For the three graduates in our ministry group and the thousands of similar students graduating shortly...

Lord, hear our prayer. Amen