Priests
The overwhelming majority of ordained ministers in the Anglican Communion are priests (also called presbyters). Priestly ministry is derived from that of bishops in that they are licensed to a cure of souls by a diocesan or area bishop. The collegiate nature of the presbyterate is acknowledged every time a new priest is ordained as other priests share with the ordaining bishop in the laying on of hands. All priests are entitled to be styled The Reverend and many male priests are called Father. Some senior priests have other titles. Many member churches ordain women to the priesthood. There is as yet no widely used alternative title to "Father" for female priests. Priests traditionally wear a (usually) black cassock and/or clergy shirt - although many now wear clergy shirts in other colours or patterns. In worship, the traditional vesture for Anglican priests is their choir dress of cassock, surplice, academic hood (if one has been awarded) and a black tippet. However, at the Eucharist, the revived pre-Reformation vestments of alb (or cassock-alb), stole, chasuble and occasionally the amice and maniple, are worn in large sections of the Communion. Even in cases where a priest is not presiding at the Eucharist, he or she may wear an alb with a stole.
Read more about this topic: Anglican Orders, Threefold Order
Famous quotes containing the word priests:
“If the barricades went up in our streets and the poor became masters, I think the priests would escape, I fear the gentlemen would; but I believe the gutters would simply be running with the blood of philanthropists.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“Along the avenue of cypresses,
All in their scarlet cloaks and surplices
Of linen, go the chanting choristers,
The priests in gold and black, the villagers. . . .”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Yes, I am a Jew, and when the ancestors of the right honourable gentleman were brutal
savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)