Ordination to Ministry

Holy Orders is the rite by which a person is ordained to the ordered ministry of the church, as bishop, priest (presbyter) or deacon, through the laying on of hands by a bishop and the prayer of consecration. The threefold ministry is attested from the early second century, and the churches that understand ministry sacramentally teach that ordination confers a permanent character and the authority to perform functions reserved to the ordained, above all, for a priest or bishop, to preside at the Eucharist.

Apostolic succession, the continuity of bishops understood as reaching back to the apostles through an unbroken chain of ordinations, is central to the Catholic, Orthodox and some other traditions' understanding of the rite's validity. The Reformation divided Christians sharply over it: many Protestant churches reconceived ordination as the church's setting apart of a minister of word and sacrament rather than the conferral of a priestly character, and the traditions differ, sometimes deeply, over who may be ordained.