Clergy:

This refers to the men who have wholly dedicated themselves to the service of Christ in His holy Church. The clerical ranks are three: the diaconate, the presbyterate, and the episcopate. Each rank includes “orders” for the purpose of distributing responsibilities of service, ensuring discipline, and achieving integration. These clerical ranks are never given in exchange for compensation, nor taken as a “job position” in any way.

Promotion:

In the ecclesiastical–clerical understanding, the concept of being promoted does not exist as in the civil or secular sense. There is no system of career ambition aimed at obtaining higher authority or greater moral or material gain, nor is there advancement based on performance, innovation, or diversity of methods. Rather, it is the struggle of the spiritual life, aiming to obtain the grace of honorable faithfulness and self-sacrifice. A rank or order is granted only under two conditions: the need for the  service, and the suitability of the person—that is, the presence of the required spiritual and behavioral qualifications.

Selection (Divine Choice):

This means God’s choice and calling of the one He appoints according to divine wisdom and heavenly purpose: “And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God” (Hebrews 5:4, NKJV).

Installation (Resama):

This refers to the set of liturgical rites, ceremonial actions, and prescribed steps performed through the set prayers and formal steps assigned to each rank or order.

Ordination (Seeyama):

This is the laying-on-of-hands, or cheirotonia, which is given to those undergoing the installation process by the laying-on-of-hands honorably. It is exclusively the domain of the episcopal ranks.

Cheirotonia (χειροτονία):

This is the holy laying-on-of-hands (Charisma), which is specific to the three clerical ranks. As for the orders within each rank, the laying-on-of-hands is not repeated; that is, the rite of cheirotonia is not performed again within the same rank. For example, when a presbyter is ordained, the bishop lays his hand upon him—this is the assigning of a specific person with the gift of the Holy Spirit to receive the grace of the Mystery of Priesthood for the practice of the sacraments of God’s Church. But when this priest is elevated to the rank of hegumen, the hands are not laid again; only an installation rite and a blessed ceremonial service are performed.

Calling (Qisma):

This refers to the geographical designation of the one ordained, meaning the specific jurisdiction where the cleric serves. Thus it is said: “This priest was called to such-and-such church,” or, “This bishop was called to such-and-such diocese.” This concept receives full respect in ecclesiastical law: it is binding on the one who performs the ordination and binding on whom the hands were laid. However, in some necessary cases for the peace of the service and the Church, the high priest, that is the Pope and Patriarch, may order the transfer of a cleric to another place. This is an exception, not a rule, and is not to be expanded or generalized.

Appointment:

A general linguistic expression belonging to administrative and civil employment. It is not used in the clerical ecclesiastical context. Therefore, a bishop may “appoint” a church superintendent, church board, or other administrative employees who serve various practical needs. Such individuals fall under the jurisdiction of positive law.

Consecrated Woman:

The terms and titles of clerical ranks and orders apply exclusively to the males who hold them. Women do not perform liturgical service, for they hold neither clerical rank nor ecclesiastical order. They are not ordained, and hands are not laid on them, according to the Scripture: “Likewise their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things” (1 Timothy 3:11, NKJV). Ecclesiastical canon states: “Ordination is for deacons, and consecration is for virgins.” This principle has been established since the Old Testament, for no woman entered the service of the Tabernacle or the Holy of Holies. Divine wisdom assigned priestly service in particular, and clerical service in general, to those responsible for guidance, teaching, and shepherding souls, namely males, since the Holy Spirit declared: “the man is head of the woman” (1 Corinthians 11:3), in the sense of leadership and direction. This has been firmly established in the Church from the early centuries. To claim otherwise is heresy and abhorred before the Lord.

Conditions:

The conditions for admission to the clerical rank are:

a) The candidate must be male.

b) He must be a son from his mother’s first marriage.

c) He must be of the canonically required age.

d) His household must be believers in Christ the Redeemer and Savior.

Most of what is in this article is taken from the book “At-taqnīn Al-kanasī” (Ecclesiastical Regulation) according to the Coptic Orthodox Church, written by the late jurist Dr. Awni Barsoum, university professor and international arbitrator, in 1994.

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