What is Ordination

A prayer from the ordination service in Methodist Church in Singapore will serve to introduce some important insights into the place of the ordained in the ministry of the whole Church:

• We are not ordaining you to ministry; that happened at your baptism.
  


• We are not ordaining you to be a caring person; you are already called to that.
  


• We are not ordaining you to serve the Church in committees, activities, organisation; that is already implied in your membership.
  


• We are not ordaining you to become involved in social issues, ecology, race, politics, revolution, for that is laid upon every Christian.
  


• We are ordaining you to something smaller and less spectacular: to read and interpret those sacred stories of our community, so that they speak a word to people today; to remember and practise rituals and rites of meaning that in their poetry address humanity at the level where change operates; to foster in community through word and sacrament that encounter with truth which will set men and women free to minister as the body of Christ.
  


• We are ordaining you to the ministry of the word and sacraments and pastoral care.
  God grant you grace not to betray but uphold it, not to deny but affirm it, through Jesus Christ our Lord.