From the Editor
In this special section of the Texas Episcopalian you will find many articles about the different orders of ministry. In our Book of Common Prayer, there is a Catechism (845-862)which provides us with an outline of the faith. It is a simple format, laid out in a question and answer format. In one section, it identifies the ministers of the Church.
"The ministers of the Church are lay persons, bishops, priests and deacons." Page 855
You will see from the articles included here that while bishops, priests and deacons are recognizable by their particular vestments at a given time, lay people minister in everything from flip-flops to tuxedos. Some may be called to more defined ministries of priest, deacon or bishop but everyone is first a lay person. Our baptismal promises require us to live out that calling all day, every day.
Confirmation is a mature commitment to Christ, whereas you may have been baptized as an infant.
"When I do confirmations I tell the class one of the things I am doing when I say the prayer of the church over them, is simply setting them apart, empowering them for Lay Ministry," said Bishop Rayford High, one of two bishops in our diocese who assist the diocesan bishop. "For me, the laity of the Church is not one of the more important elements of the life and ministry of the Church, it is, in many ways the most important. Without the laity, the work of Christ to the world would be almost impossible to do," Bishop High said. "As a parish priest for 32 years, I witnessed the laity carry the Gospel out to the world and I continue to see this. At one of the sessions of the Kairos prison ministry weekends, the speaker asks the inmates "Who is the Church?" and in a booming, loud voice they respond joyfully "We are the Church!"
So find yourself among the following pages. You may be engaged in ministry in your congregation already, you may minister to friends and colleagues and just didn’t think about it as ministry before now. You may be called to do other, more particular ministries. Opportunities to deepen your relationship with Christ and with one another abound.
Carol E. Barnwell, editor
