Gospel priorities for the Church of England’s clergy

THE ANGLICAN ORDINAL:
Gospel Priorities for Church of England Ministry
By Andrew Atherstone
The Latimer Trust. 60 pages. £7.00
ISBN 978 1 906 327 590

We owe a debt of gratitude to Andrew Atherstone for this primer on the Anglican Ordinal. The Prayer Book Ordination Services, which were crafted by Archbishop Cranmer, wonderfully express the Reformation and evangelical doctrine about the kind of ministry that gospel-believing and Bible-teaching churches need.

The Prayer Book Service of 1662 is explained and expounded very helpfully and in a moving and challenging way. It is considered alongside the modern Common Worship Service with its faults and some improvements – like placing ordained ministry in the context of the ministry of the whole people of God. The older Service is more focused and expresses clearly a Biblical view of ordained ministry.