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75. The institutional development and understanding of episkopé have been described with different emphases. The BEM document sees episkopé as a function of episcopal ministry and identifies it with pastoral oversight (cf. nos. 21, 23, 29). The ensuing ecumenical discussion led to a more differentiated discernment of the notion of oversight. However, the understanding of episkopé has been determined, to a large extent, by the function of spiritual oversight by bishops or superintendents. Episkopé in this tradition is therefore primarily identified with the ministry of oversight.

76. In a broader sense, and corresponding with former documents of the CPCE,⁶³ the understanding of episkopé emphasises the tasks of pastoral oversight as well as spiritual leadership and governance within the church. In some CPCE churches the function of episkopé is more directly exercised by personal ministries of oversight than in others. However, in all churches of CPCE, leadership is in a broad sense carried out by synods and synod-appointed bodies (with the participation of both ordained and non-ordained persons)⁶⁴ in close interaction with ministers appointed especially for the service of oversight. This reflects the fact that the “order of ministries” (cf. nos. 38seqq.), instituted to serve the ministry of all Christians, is broader than the ministry of word and sacraments.

77. There is broad agreement among Christian churches that episkopé has to be exercised at the same time in personal, collegial and communal ways.⁶⁵ However, the ways in which these three dimensions are interrelated vary considerably. Most Protestant church orders maintain a balance between the personal and the communal element of episkopé by means of regulated interaction between ministers of episkopé and synodical forms of church governance at local and regional levels. Synodical structures are maintained by representative bodies such as parish councils, presbyteries and synods on different levels, in which ordained and non-ordained persons work together. Personal ministry of oversight is one element within the whole of episkopé in the life of the church. It is maintained locally by parish ministers and regionally by deans, superintendents, bishops and church presidents. Within the whole of episkopé the overseeing task of those who share the ministry of episkopé at regional and local levels is to bear continuous witness to the fact that the church, also institutionally, has the gospel as its determining criterion. As members of the body of Christ and sharing in the ministry of the whole people of God, ordained and non-ordained baptised persons are enabled to take part together in the whole sphere of episkopé.

78. The models of interrelating personal and synodical services of episkopé at regional level, and of distributing authority between them, vary considerably among the churches of the CPCE. Bishops and presidents are in some cases selected by synods, conferences or church councils, in others by the ministers in their dioceses, together with a representative number of church council members. Thus the electorate always includes a large number of non-ordained persons.⁶⁶ Generally in the CPCE churches, bishops and presidents are not appointed only by ordained ministers or by other bishops alone. Also, he or she does not exercise his/her episkopé independently of synods or conferences.

79. Thus the models converge among the churches of the CPCE by the fact that they emphasise the shared responsibility of ordained and non-ordained persons in the episkopé. This convergence is especially important in relation to the questions emerging from the existing agreements with Anglican churches (such as Meissen, Porvoo and Reuilly) concerning the understanding of episkopé (cf. Resource Material, ch. 4.2.7) and the implementation of these agreements among CPCE churches. The Reformation understanding of church unity maintains that the witness of the gospel in word and sacraments in the church is entrusted to the whole people of God, and is upheld in the church’s public worship by a specially called ministry, which includes the service of episkopé. This ministry is not a guarantee for the unity and faith of the church, but serves the church in its calling to adhere to the apostolic truth and remain united with Christ in faith.

¹¹CJC, p. 123 (I.3.2).

¹²Meissen no. 3 = Reuilly no. 18. Nearly the same formulations also in the Porvoo Common Statement no. 18.

¹³Evangelising: Protestant Perspectives for the Churches in Europe, Vienna 2007, p. 11 (no. 2.1).

¹⁴“The proclamation of the gospel and the offer of saving fellowship are entrusted to the congregation as a whole and to its members who through baptism are called to witness Christ and to serve each other and the world and who through faith have a share in Christ’s priestly office of intercession” (Tampere Theses 2).

¹⁵Cf. BEM, Ministry, no. 17; NMC, nos. 19, 84; God’s Reign and our Unity, no. 60 (Growth in Agreement II, p. 131). Cf. also Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, no. 10. – The terminological and theological problems with this concept are discussed in the Resource Material, nos. 29 seqq.

¹⁶Cf. BEM, Ministry, nos. 5, 32; NMC, no. 83.

¹⁷Cf. Resource Material, no. 32.

¹⁸See 1 Cor 12+13; Rom 12:1–8; 1 Tim 4:14; 2 Tim 1:6. Cf. Resource Material, nos. 2–3.

¹⁹The term “order of ministries”, introduced by the The Church of Jesus Christ (cf. Resource Material, fn. 78–80), does not mean a divinely instituted and normative structure such as the “threefold ministry” according to Roman Catholic and Orthodox understanding (cf. Resource Material, nos. 42, 50), but only a changeable order which secures that the three basic ministries are fulfilled.

²⁰Cf. Barmen Declaration IV (as quoted in Resource Material, no. 50). See also Resource Material, no. 51.

²¹CJC, ch. I.3.3.1 (p. 125).

²²Cf. Neuendettelsau Theses I.3 C.

²³We leave aside the dispute within Lutheranism as to whether the “ministerium” (German: “Predigtamt”) according to CA V is a service of preaching in the church which pertains to all Christians (thus VELKD, Ordnungsgemäß berufen, ch. 2, fn. 11; ch. 3.4), or whether it is to be identified with the ministry of public preaching and the administration of the sacraments according to CA XIV (thus Lund Statement, no. 18). In any case, the particular ministry of word and sacraments is highlighted in Lutheranism.

²⁴When the Tampere Theses were formulated, only the Lutheran and the Reformed traditions belonged to the CPCE. But the statement is also valid for the Methodist tradition.

²⁵In using this term, the Tampere Theses follow the use suggested by the Lima document. Irrespective of the difficulty of this term, the statement is in any case valid for the ministry of word and sacraments, which is conferred by ordination in all churches of CPCE.

²⁶Cf. CA VII; Genevan Confession 1536, no. 18; Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles, Art. 19; John Wesley, Methodist Articles of Faith, Art. 13; LA 2.

²⁷As stated by Tampere Thesis 1, “the whole congregation and not just the ordained ministry have the responsibility for the proclamation of the word and for the right use of the sacraments. The ordained ministry in itself alone does not guarantee the true being of the church but remains subordinate to the word of God.” (cf. Neuendettelsau Theses I.3.C).

²⁸Neuendettelsau Theses I.3.C.

²⁹The latter question is dealt with in the project Training for the ordained ministry in the churches of CPCE (see below).

³⁰See below no. 66 and Resource Material, ch. 2.5.

³¹Cf. Neuendettelsau Theses I.3.C: “– The word constitutes the ministry, not vice versa. – The ministry serves word and faith. – It is there to serve the justification of sinners, not the justification of the church nor the status quo. – The ministry is connected with the apostolic continuity and unity of the church, its freedom and its love.”

³²Tampere Theses 2.

³³Cf. Tampere Theses 4: “The service of the word embraces also the service of the sacraments. The sacraments make visible the same gospel through which, as in the preaching of the living word of God, Christ himself is present in the church and the world. In preaching the word and administering the sacraments which together constitute the ministry, the reality of the church as Christ’s body is renewed, her shared life fortified and her apostolic mission perceived.” Cf. also Lund Statement, no. 22.

³⁴CJC, ch. I.3.3.3 (p. 127).

³⁵Cf. Diakonia in Context: Transformation, Reconciliation, Empowerment. LWF 2009, p. 29: “The practice of diakonia, its ethos of inclusiveness and the mutual sharing of resources [has its] basis is the experience of God’s grace and the gift of belonging to the communion created by God’s grace.”

³⁶The Diaconal Ministry in the Mission of the Church, LWF Studies 2006, p. 86.

³⁷Cf. Lund Statement, no. 39; FSPC, Ordination, ch. 5.3.3.

³⁸Eldership in the Reformed Churches Today. Report of an International Consultation held at John Knox Centre in Geneva from August 26–31, 1990, ed. Lukas Vischer, Geneva 1991, p. 5, 9 (Studies from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches 22), p. 14.

³⁹Ibid.

⁴⁰Cf. CJC, ch. I.2.5.4 (p. 101).

⁴¹Cf. Neuendettelsau Theses I.2; NMC, no. 87. Further explanation is given in the Resource Material, nos. 2–16.

⁴²BEM, Ministry, no. 19 already conceded the “considerable changes” that this order underwent.

⁴³For the fourfold order cf. the Genevan Ordonnances Ecclésiastiques 1541/61 (Reformierte Bekenntnisschriften vol. 1.2, Neukirchen-Vluyn 2006, p. 246). Following Calvin, Institutio IV.3.4 and Confessio Gallicana XXIX, pastors and teachers are mostly seen as equivalent, so that a threefold structure is the consequence.

⁴⁴This encouragement does not apply to the United Methodist Church where elders are ministers of word and sacraments.

⁴⁵Cf. BEM, Ministry, no. 18.

⁴⁶The Lutheran Church in Poland and the Brethren Church in the Czech Republic exclude the ordination of women. The Lutheran Church in Latvia and the Silesian Lutheran Church in the Czech Republic have for some time deferred the ordination of women.

⁴⁷Cf. Resource Material, no. 55.

⁴⁸Neuendettelsau Theses II.5.

⁴⁹Cf. the result of the dialogue between the CPCE and the European Baptist Federation: “The Beginning of Christian Life and the Nature of the Church,” IV.8: “The acknowledgement of each other’s integrity self-evidently also includes the question of ordained ministers. For as long as we do not have a full recognition of ministry in a doctrinal sense, we nevertheless encourage the ensuring, the enabling and the widening of a reciprocal acceptance of ministry in practical and pastoral ways at local, national or trans-national levels” (Leuenberg Documents 9, Frankfurt a. M. 2005, p. 27–28). This declaration could be made although a large part of the Baptist federations of Europe do not practice the ordination of women.

⁵⁰Cf. Resource Material, ch. 4.2.4, esp. no. 60.

⁵¹Cf. Neuendettelsau Theses II.9.

⁵²Cf. FSPC, Ordination, p. 57/58.

⁵³Cf. above, no. 50 and 57; recommendation no. 4; Resource Material, no. 62.

⁵⁴In the sense of BEM, see above no. 56.

⁵⁵The VELKD has, in its 2006 document “Ordnungsgemäß berufen” (see fn. 2), established a distinction between, on the one hand, ordination for pastoral ministry with all responsibilities and, on the other hand, Beauftragung (commissioning) for pastoral ministry limited mainly to the preaching and administration of the sacraments in one congregation. The understanding is that “Beauftragung” is in fact to be considered as ordination in a proper theological sense (based on CA XIV), even if it is designated with a different term. For other churches, ordained local ministries are defined by terms of employment, specifying limited areas and lengths of service, and not by limitations in the interpretation of the ordained ministry that would call for a designation other than ordination. It is important that all churches in the CPCE safeguard an integral understanding of ordination, and that, therefore, reordination is not required if a person in local ministry later becomes qualified for, and is appointed to, a regular pastoral ministry (Pfarramt).

⁵⁶Cf. the relevant argument in: The Faith and Order Advisory Group of the Church of England: The Mission and Ministry of the Whole Church. Biblical, Theological and Contemporary Perspectives, 2007, p. 67 (seqq.).

⁵⁷Lund Statement, no. 55.

⁵⁸Ordination by ordained persons corresponds to the Reformation tradition and ensures ecumenical compatibility (cf. FSPC, Ordination, p. 70).

⁵⁹In the Methodist tradition ordinations take place at the Annual Conference which represents both the local and the world-wide church.

⁶⁰NMC, no. 91.

⁶¹In their dialogue with Anglican churches, the Lutheran and Reformed churches of France state together in the Reuilly Common Statement: “We believe that a ministry of oversight (episkope), exercised in personal, collegial and communal ways, at all levels of the church’s life, is necessary to witness and to safeguard the unity and apostolicity of the church.” (no. 31.i; cf. Meissen A 4).

⁶²The Neuendettelsau Theses put it this way: “The churches of the Reformation […] understand the ‘service of episkopé’ exclusively as a service to the unity of the church, not as an office [Amt] over the church, but as a service [Dienst] in the church.” (I.1.D).

⁶³Cf. the first sentence of the chapter on “The Service of Leadership (episkopé)” in Tampere Theses 3: “The task of leadership of the community also belongs to the service of the word.”; Freedom is binding (fn. 1), no. 2.2.1.1: “The understanding of ministry, ordination and spiritual leadership of the church (episkopé) is one of the core questions in ecumenical conversation.”

⁶⁴When we speak of “non-ordained persons” in this document, we apply a narrower understanding of ordination referring only to the ministry of word and sacraments, thus counting the ordained elders in some Reformed churches as non-ordained.

⁶⁵Cf. Porvoo no. 32.k; Reuilly no. 31.i (see above fn. 61); NMC, no. 94.

⁶⁶In the Lutheran Church of Slovakia even all baptized and confirmed members of the church elect the bishop.