"The widespread
decline of Christian belief and practice in the Western world has
both reduced the number of clergy and ordinalds, and increased
soul-searching among those that there are."
Whilst the clergy's
traditional roles in education, counseling, social welfare and
marriage guidance h ave been taken over by teachers, doctors,
psychiatrist and social workers, inside the church, the ordained
ministry has also been under attack. The campaign for the
ministry of the laity and the reevalence of the Charismatic Movement
has made the assumption of exclusive rights for the clergy much more
problematic. Do the clergy have any distinctive role at all?
How did the belief arise that they do and can this be grounded in
Scripture?
Elders in EveryCity
explores the emergence and function of the ordained ministry against
the background of First Century Judaism, and draws our important
lessons for today's church. With chapters on the original
Presbyter-Bishop, the development from Jewish Presbyter to Christian
Presbyter-Bishop, the emergence of episcopacy, the ordained ministry
and the sacrements, this timely historical survey will be welcomed
by clergy, ordinands and historians of the New Testmanent and Early
Church.
