Presbyters Sentence Examples

In episcopacy the supreme authority is a diocesan bishop; in congregationalism it is the members of the congregation assembled in church meeting; in Presbyterianism it is a church council composed of representative presbyters.

There are deacons in Presbyterianism inferior in rank to presbyters, their duties being regarded as non-spiritual.

But it shall not be so among you."From the foregoing outline it will be seen that Presbyterianism may be said to consist in the government of the Church by representative assemblies composed of the two classe s of presbyters, ministers and elders, and so p ?'

It is consistent with this view to argue the absolute parity of ministers and elders, conceding to all presbyters" equal right to teach, to rule, to administer the sacraments, to take part in the ordination of ministers, and to preside in church courts."The practice of the Presbyterian churches of the present day is in accord with the first-named theory.

In the initial stages of the Apostolic Church it was no doubt sufficient to have a plurality of presbyters with absolutely similar duties and powers.

Latimer and Hooper maintained that Bishops and presbyters were identical; and Pilkington, bishop of Durham, and Bishop Jewel were of the same mind.

In the Reformed Church (far the more numerous of the two bodies) each parish has a council of presbyters, consisting of the pastor and lay-members elected by the congregation.

There the nineteen bishops and twenty-four presbyters, from all parts of Spain, but chiefly from the south, assembled, probably at the instigation of Hosius of Cordova, but under the presidency of Felix of Accis, with a view to restoring order and discipline in the church.

The bishop has acquired control of the sacraments, presbyters and deacons acting only under his orders; the episcopate appears as a unit, bishops being bound to respect one another's disciplinary decrees.

The orders of the ministry are bishops, presbyters, deacons.

A further complication was added when, in 375, Vitalius, one of Meletius's presbyters, was consecrated bishop by the heretical bishop Apollinaris of Laodicea.

The tenth canon tolerates the marriages of deacons who previous to ordination had reserved the right to take a wife; the thirteenth forbids chorepiscopi to ordain presbyters or deacons; the eighteenth safeguards the right of the people in objecting to the appointment of a bishop whom they do not wish.

He wished to get rid of the bishops without making presbyters masters of the state.

At first this local ministry was twofold, consisting of presbyters or bishops and deacons.

Out of the twofold grew the threefold ministry, so that each local church was governed by one episcopus surrounded by a council of presbyters.

Even when introduced, the monarchical episcopate was not thought necessary for the ordination of other bishops or presbyters.

St Jerome (Ep. 1 4 6) tells us that as late as the middle of the 3rd century the presbyters of Alexandria, when the see was vacant, used to elect one of their own number and without any further ordination set him in the episcopal office.

These are 46 presbyters, 7 deacons, 7 subdeacons, 42 acolytes, 52 exorcists and readers, together with doorkeepers.

First comes the order of presbyters or elders.

The bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, on the other hand, derive their orders from Thomas Coke, a presbyter of the Church of England, who in 1784 was ordained by John Wesley, assisted by two other presbyters, "superintendent" of the Methodist Society in America.

Certainly the stage of development is an early one, as is shown, e.g., by the prominence of prophets, and the need that was felt for the vindication of the position of the bishops and deacons (there is no mention at all of presbyters); moreover, there is no reference to a canon of Scripture (though the written Gospel is expressly mentioned) or to a creed.

But as the idea that bishops were successors of the apostles came to prevail, presbyters, though sharing in the deliberations, gradually ceased to share in the voting; while synods insensibly acquired more and more coercive control over the churches of the area represented.

A less likely view is that the " angels " are the human representatives of the churches, the bishops or chief presbyters.

There were then neither dioceses nor parishes in Ireland and Celtic Scotland; and by the Columbite rule the bishops themselves, although they ordained the clergy, were subject to the jurisdiction of the abbots of Iona, who, like the founder of the order, were only presbyters.

Where there were one bishop and a number of presbyters and deacons in a church, the presbyters constituted the bishop's council, and the deacons his assistants in the management of the finances and charities and in the conduct of the services.

So long as each church had its own bishop the presbyters constituted simply his council, but with the growth of diocesan episcopacy it became the custom to put each congregation under the care of a particular presbyter, who performed within it most of the pastoral duties formerly discharged by the bishop himself.

The presbyters, however, were not independent officers.

But in the English Bible the presbyters of the New Testament are called " elders," not " priests "; the latter name is reserved for ministers of pre-Christian religions, the Semitic a '?"

The idea that presbyters and bishops are priests and the successors of the Old Testament priesthood first appears in full force in the writings of Cyprian, and here it is not the notion of priestly mediation but that of priestly power which is insisted on.

The moment of transition is clearly marked in the Didache, where the charismatic ministry of " apostles and prophets " is beginning to give place to permanent local officials of the Church, bishops, presbyters and deacons.

The letter in question was occasioned by a dispute in the church of Corinth, which had led to the ejection of several presbyters from their office.

Nothing is known of the cause of the discontent; no moral offence is charged against the presbyters, and their dismissal is regarded by Clement as high-handed and unjustifiable, and as a revolt of the younger members of the community against the elder.

At the head stood the teachers (" the sons of meekness," Mani himself and his successors); then follow the administrators (" the sons of knowledge," the bishops); then the elders (" the sons of understanding," the presbyters); the electi (" the sons of mystery"); and finally the auditores (" the sons of insight").

For years the controversy may have been fermenting in the college of presbyters at Alexandria.

According to the general supposition, the negotiations which led to the excommunication of Arius and his followers among the presbyters and deacons took place in 318 or 319, but there are good reasons for assigning the outbreak of the controversy to the time following the overthrow of Licinius by Constantine, i.e.

They must be learned presbyters at least thirty years of age, born in lawful wedlock, and of good life and behaviour.

In the 2nd century the patriarchal element in the organization was merged in the administrative, and the presbyters 1 Diss.

It is true that presbyters are not mentioned in the genuine Epistles of St Paul, but there are hints that similar officers existed in some of the churches founded by the apostle.

If too, as seems most probable, bishops and presbyters were practically identical, there is of course a specific reference to them in Phil.

Neither is there prima facie ground for objecting to the statements with regard to the presbyters of Jerusalem.

Scholars of such opposite schools of thought as Schmiedel 3 and Lindsay 4 maintain that the epistle contains the most explicit references to presbyters of the official type.

Blessed are those presbyters who have gone before.

Presbyters are found in Jerusalem from primitive times.

There is far less controversy with regard to the later history of the presbyters.

The first trace of this is to be found in the Epistles of Ignatius which prove that by the year 115 "the three orders" as they were afterwards called - bishop, presbyters and deacons - already existed, not indeed universally, but in a large proportion of the churches.

The presbyters occupied an intermediate position between the bishop and the deacons.

The Didache knows nothing of the presbyters; bishops and deacons are mentioned, but there is no reference to the second order.

The sources of the Apostolic Canons (which date between 140-180) lay down the rule that even the smallest community of Christians, though it contain only twelve members, must have its bishop and its presbyters.

The presbyters formed the governing body of the church.

The right to baptize and celebrate the communion was delegated to them by the bishop.5 In the fourth stage we find the presbyters, like the bishops, becoming endowed with special sacerdotal powers and functions.

With the rise of the diocesan bishops the position of the presbyters became more important.

Fordun, in the 14th century, supposed that the clergy, before Palladius, were presbyters or monks.

As Hector Boece, " that pillar of falsehood," dubbed these presbyters " Culdees," " the pure Culdee," a blameless presbyterian, almost prehistoric, has been claimed as the ancestor of Scottish presbyterianism; and episcopacy has been regarded as a deplorable innovation.

At Rome he tried to gain acceptance for them in the college of presbyters and in the church; indeed he had previously made similar attempts in Asia Minor.

Rigorous asceticism, the rejection of the Old Testament, and the recognition of the " new God " remained common to all Marcionites, who, moreover, like the Catholics, lived together in close communities ruled by bishops and presbyters (although their constitution was originally very loose, and sought to avoid every appearance of " legality ").

Special attention is given to the ecclesiastical "widows" (3 seq.) and to presbyters (17 seq.).

Their functions varied in different times and places, and by some it has been held that they were originally only presbyters.

On the 2nd of May 373, having consecrated one of his presbyters as his successor, he died quietly in his own house.

The bishop appears to rank far above the presbyters (more conspicuously so, for example, than in the Canons of Hippolytus), and the presbyters are still divided into two classes, those who are more learned and those who are of mature age.

They speak of the ordination of bishops (the so-called Clementine Liturgy is that which is directed to be used at the consecration of a bishop, cc. 5-15), of presbyters, deacons, deaconesses, subdeacons and lectors, and then pass on to confessors, virgins, widows and exorcists; after which follows a series of canons on various subjects, and liturgical formulae.

Bishops were to be elected by the presbyters of the district.

This innovation was not introduced without a struggle, ecclesiastical dignity being regarded as inconsistent with the higher spiritual life, but, before the close of the 5th century, at least in the East, abbots seem almost universally to have become deacons, if not presbyters.

Later canons continued this restriction; and although in outlying parts of Christendom deacons claimed the right, the official churches accorded it to presbyters alone and none but bishops could perform the confirmation or seal.

The office appears as early as the 4th century as that of the priest who presided over the presbyters of the diocese and assisted the bishop in matters of public worship, much as the archdeacon helped him in administrative affairs.

He can hardly have been born very long after 130, for later on he frequently mentions having met certain Christian presbyters who had actually seen John, the disciple of our Lord.

Scattered congregations or churches within the parochia were served by itinerant presbyters.

Towards the close of the 4th century it had become usual for the bishop to appoint resident presbyters to defined districts or territories, to which the term "parish" came gradually to be applied (see also Diocese).

But this is not the sum total of the societies that are governed by presbyters.

He reads the Bible also, and deduces that there should be no bishops, but only presbyters.

Or it may be described as denying (i) that the apostolic office is perpetual and should still exist in the Christian Church; (2) that all church power should be vested in the clergy; (3) that each congregation should be independent of all the rest; and as asserting (r) that the people ought to have a substantial part in the government of the Church; (2) that presbyters, i.e.

That while the New Testament recognizes but one order of presbyters there are in this order two degrees or classes, known as teaching elders and ruling elders.

After the time of the Apostles, we find this criminal jurisdiction exercised by the bishops individually over their respective " subjects " - doubtless with the advice of their presbyters according to the precept of St Ignatius (c. i io).

The other subjects are Marriage (yabaK aoyos), Continence, the Duties of Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons and Widows, Prophecy, the Soul, the Transmigration of the Soul and the Devil, Angels, the Origin of the World, First Principles and the Divinity of the Logos, Allegorical Interpretations of Statements made with regard to God's anger and similar affections, the Unity of the Church, and the Resurrection.

It has indeed been maintained by eminent scholars, chiefly by Hatch and Harnack, that the word episcopus was given originally to the chief officer of a club or a confraternity, so that the episcopus was a financial officer, whereas the presbyters regulated the discipline.

Independents acknowledge the two orders of presbyters and deacons, and differ from the Calvinistic presbyterians chiefly in this, that with them the church is complete in each single congregation, which is subject to no control of presbytery or synod.

They have no special powers of order, being presbyters, and their legal status is admittedly merely that of officials of the territorial sovereign in his capacity as head of the territorial church (see Superintendent).