Albany Via Media

May 24, 2010

In his recent letter, Fr. Hartt responded to my earlier letter asking about the indelibility of orders.

Every priest I have ever encountered who used the phrase “indelibility of orders” used it because they believed in it. Not just believed in it, but took it for granted to such an extent that the indelibility of clerical orders was used as a foundation for arguments on all sorts of other subjects. I expected that any response to my earlier letter would be a response defending the indelibility of orders. Indeed, I expected shock at the very idea that some Anglican theologians might deny the indelibility of orders.

So Fr. Hartt surprised me, simply because he didn't immediately defend the indelibility of orders in his recent letter. As I read his letter, I realized that he was addressing a different subject than I had been. His letter discussed the validity of orders in particular churches. He summarized the Roman Catholic Church's rationale for rejecting the validity of Anglican Orders, and for accepting the orders of the Easter Orthodox Church. He then went on to ask whether orders in The Episcopal Church depend for their validity on our connection with the Anglican Communion.

That's an interesting question, especially when we consider the history of The Episcopal Church after the United States gained independence from England. At that point the remnants of the Church of England in the United States had no bishops — only priests and deacons who had been ordained by English bishops. I have never heard anyone suggest that the orders of those early churchmen became invalid once their tie to the English church was broken. The episcopate was restored to the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America when Samuel Seabury of Connecticut was consecrated by bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Perhaps we should declare ourselves members of the worldwide Scottish Communion, defined by being in communion with the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Personally, I believe that whether we are members of the Anglican Communion, of the hypothetical Scottish Communion, or simply of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, the orders of The Episcopal Church are and will remain valid.

Allison de Kanel