Communion in Small Groups: Ordain More Canon 9 Priests?

Historically, Anglican discipline has limited the administration of Communion to ordained priests.  Because of the limited supply of priests, in practice this means small groups usually can’t celebrate a Eucharist as part of their worship.

This is a real shame.  Small-group Eucharists have been the most powerful I’ve ever experienced.  Every time, the sense of reverence was palpable, far more than in mass-production Sunday services.  A priest presided each time, but I don’t think his episcopal ordination mattered much, if at all — the intimacy made the feast what it was. 

It would be wonderful if that kind of grace could be a regular feature of small-group worship.   I’m confident that the two Bible-study groups in which my wife and I participate would welcome such a development, and I have no reason to think others wouldn’t as well.

If episcopal ordination is indispensible to leading even a small-group Eucharist, may I suggest a simple answer:  Ordain more priests.  Bishops could ordain suitably-qualified lay people as local priests under Title III, Canon 9, of the national-church canons, with a limited license to celebrate the Eucharist only for small groups.  (That would also be consonant with the ancient concept of the priesthood of all believers.)

Canon 9 permits the ordination of lay people to serve as part-time local priests in communities where other priests are not available.  That canon provides in part:

With regard to Dioceses with Congregations or missionary opportunities in communities which are all, isolated, remote, or distinct in terms of ethnic composition, language, or culture, and which cannot be provided sufficiently with the sacraments and pastoral ministrations of the Church through Clergy ordained under the provisions of Canon III.7, it shall be permissible for the Bishop, with the advice and consent of the Standing Committee, or the equivalent body in special jurisdictions, and with the prior approval in principle of the House of Bishops of the Province, to establish procedures by which persons may be called by their Congregations and the Bishop with the Standing Committee, to be ordained local Priests and Deacons and licensed to serve the Congregations or communities out of which they were called.

Bishops already grant licenses to suitably-qualified lay people to serve as chalice bearers, preachers, and lay readers.  There’s no reason bishops couldn’t take the next step and ordain such people to serve as local priests, with a limited license to celebrate Eucharists only for small groups (or for larger groups in exigent circumstances).

True, Canon 9 on its face seems to address other situations, such as small towns that otherwise wouldn’t have a priest at all.  But there’s no reason that small groups couldn’t be regarded as “communities which are … distinct in terms of … culture,” and therefore deserving of priestly ministrations.

There might be reasons this isn’t a good idea.  But it seems worth a try.