The Method of Choosing a New Priest
The Method of Choosing a New Priest
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III believed in a principle which he proclaimed while he was a bishop and implemented while he was a patriarch. This principle is:
The people have the right to choose their shepherd…
We may ask here: what is the meaning of the word the people?
To answer this question, the first pastoral letter written by the Pope was on the subject of church membership.
In his letter, he explained four types of church membership:
- General membership: This applies to every baptized person, even children.
- Spiritual membership: This includes members of the Church who enter into its spiritual fellowship, attend its meetings, practice the Church sacraments, and live a virtuous life.
- Active membership: This includes everyone who has a service in the Church, including spiritual, educational, liturgical, social service, and all Church activities.
- Leadership membership: This includes the leaders of active service.
With regard to choosing a priest, it is very appropriate that those involved be persons who have knowledge and understanding, and who possess mature judgment that is not driven by quick emotion or blind following.
Through experience, the Pope rejected the selection of a priest through endorsements.
These endorsements include signatures from many people requesting the ordination of a specific person. This is because many sign such endorsements out of embarrassment, fear, blind following of others, courtesy, or indifference—meaning they are ready to sign any endorsement without appreciation of responsibility. Others sign out of ignorance of the person being endorsed, ignorance of the motives behind endorsing him, or merely out of trust in or respect for the person calling for the endorsement.
Thus, many endorsements do not truly express the suitability of the endorsed person, nor do they express the knowledge or the true will of those endorsing him.
Moreover, endorsements present only the side of supporters and ignore the side of opponents of the ordination and the reasons for their opposition. It is very beneficial to know their opinion, and it may be harmful to ignore it if it is based on established facts.
For this reason, His Holiness preferred meeting with the people or with their representatives.
He would distribute papers to them, and each one would write what he wished, nominate whom he wished, and present the reasons he believed in, with a good conscience before God, without external influence or pressure. If there were many candidates, the opinion of the majority would be taken. Likewise, if there were one candidate and the majority agreed on him.
We do not deny that some “lobbying” may occur before such a meeting. We cannot prevent this, for people have the right to discuss as they wish, and it is rare to find a group in which some do not influence others.
Nevertheless, the opinion of the majority may not be taken if they are unaware of facts that prevent ordination.
In such a case, the matter is handled with wisdom, and the decision may be postponed for further study without stating reasons that might harm anyone’s reputation.
Here we mention the well-known ecclesiastical rule which says:
The chief priest has the right to refuse, but not the right to impose…
He does not have the right to impose, because the people have the right to choose their shepherd. And a priest who shepherds a people who do not want him cannot fulfill his responsibility in such an atmosphere of rejection.
Just as the chief priest does not impose a candidate on the people, they also do not impose on him a candidate for ordination if his conscience does not agree.
For he is the one who lays on hands, and the Scripture says: “Do not lay hands on anyone hastily, nor share in other people’s sins” (1 Timothy 5:22). If he sees in such an ordination something that does not give rest to his conscience, he cannot share with the people in choosing that person for the priesthood.
Thus, the matter requires agreement from both sides:
Agreement between the people and the chief priest on who is suitable for ordination as a priest.
Sometimes the Pope would invite all the people to choose, or all who wished to attend. At times, however, such a general gathering did not achieve the desired purpose, because many attendees had no opinion or knowledge, but merely repeated what they had been told before the meeting by some leaders.
It is known that opinions should not be counted, but weighed.
Therefore, reliance on leadership membership, together with as much active and spiritual membership as possible, appeared to be the best and safest approach.
Accordingly, the Pope required at least the attendance of:
- The priests
- Members of the Church Council
- Servants and servant women
- Church deacons
- Workers in all Church activities, such as social service, women’s committee, library, club, and other Church committees
- Well-known archons and everyone who labors in the Church and is zealous for it, from those with spiritual membership
Lists of the names of all these persons, their roles, and their services were to be submitted before calling the meeting, invitations sent to all, and confirmation made that no one was prevented from attending.
Does he return to his people or to his wife?!
A non-fitting, non-spiritual, and non-pastoral liturgical custom has spread in some churches. This is that the new priest—after spending forty days in seclusion in one of the monasteries and returning to his church—is escorted inside the church to his wife, from whom he had been separated during this period.
The spiritual reality is that the new priest has returned to his people and to his church, to his spiritual children, and all rejoice in him, not only his wife.
It was not only his wife who awaited his return, but the entire people. His family has now become the whole congregation, and the family for him is no longer limited to the narrow circle of wife and children.
Here we see that his children do not take part in this “procession.”
Why then the wife alone?! Does this not appear inappropriate?!
Moreover, from another perspective, it is embarrassing for his wife.
The people feel that the new priest cares more for his wife than for the whole Church, which is a non-pastoral situation.
The proper situation is that the new priest enters the church, prays the thanksgiving prayer, offers the evening incense, delivers the sermon, and is escorted by the deacons in a church procession—not a family one—while everyone congratulates him and the whole people rejoice in him.
As for the custom of escorting the priest with his wife, it should be abolished.
He has been elevated by ordination to a higher level.
His family has become the whole Church. She is his bride, as the Apostle spoke of the relationship between Christ and the Church, saying that this mystery is great (Ephesians 5:31–32).
Seclusion in the Life of the Priest:
Everyone in any rank of the priesthood must take periods of seclusion for himself—not only the forty-day period with which he begins his service after ordination, just as the Lord Christ began His ministry by spending forty days fasting in seclusion on the mountain.
Rather, the principle of seclusion should be constant in his life from time to time.
It may be one day a week—if possible—spent in seclusion.
I do not mean seclusion away from pastoral work while his wife sits at home talking to him, and likewise his children. Rather, he should be secluded even from his family, sitting alone in seclusion with God.
He sits in seclusion with himself and with God dwelling within him,
to examine himself and know what he ought to do.
If he cannot have weekly seclusion, then at least he should seize opportunities to spend time in a place of seclusion, such as a monastery.
He takes a spiritual recharge as a form of spiritual and mental renewal,
a time of fullness, self-review, calmness, distance from noise, problems, busyness, crowds, the whirlpool of service, and the respect given to him by people.
In seclusion he also finds a reason for humility,
for a priest may sometimes think that he cannot be dispensed with for even one day—as if the world would collapse if he were absent! Then he finds that he was absent for a few days in seclusion and the Church remained as it was without him, and thus he is humbled.
Seclusion is also beneficial for caring for his eternity,
for he may become occupied with people only and forget himself, forgetting to labor for his eternity. In seclusion he reviews his thoughts, his dealings with people, his relationship with God, examines himself, and sets for himself a spiritual plan from which he does not deviate. He searches his shortcomings and mistakes.
If he thinks about service, it is merely for organization or planning, done in calmness.
He should also think about who will replace him during his absence.
This can be arranged through cooperation among priests, taking turns in their periods of seclusion, or in churches that have two priests serving together, or through the bishop organizing seclusion for the spiritual benefit of his priests.
I say this because many priests exhaust themselves through continuous work,
becoming physically, nervously, or spiritually fatigued, which affects their service and their dealings with people, or brings distress. In seclusion there is calm that gives them rest and gives rest to the people who deal with them, as a kind of relaxation.
The Lord Christ Himself had periods of seclusion,
not only the forty days after His baptism, but on many occasions. He would withdraw to the mountain, to the Garden of Gethsemane, to the wilderness, or to the Mount of Olives. Among the most beautiful verses in this regard is the Scripture: “Then everyone went to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives” (John 7:53; 8:1). He would spend time in prayer, in communion with the Father, in matters higher than can be spoken of.
Some priests may also go into seclusion together,
provided that they do not mix with one another except at times of shared prayer, or agree on a topic for meditation together, while the rest of the time each remains in seclusion.
But a priest should not go into seclusion and have someone say to him, “Take me with you, Father,” thereby ruining his seclusion with conversations, confessions, or discussing personal or general problems.
It would be beneficial for the topic of seclusion to be discussed in some priests’ seminars or monthly meetings held in the dioceses—how to implement it practically, where and when seclusion should take place.
It would also be good to organize such places of seclusion and provide all means of comfort, in terms of quietness, services, food, drink, organization, and avoiding factors that disrupt seclusion.
A priest can set a rule for himself,
including a program for prayer, meditation, reading, quiet reflection, and even spiritual exercises drawn from his service and dealings. He may allocate time for memorization—Scripture verses, prayers, psalms, and parts of the liturgy—so that he may not need to open the liturgical book.
How beautiful it is for him to return to his people after a period of seclusion with its effects evident in his life and spirituality.
Everyone feels that their father has returned with spiritual light that appears in his manner with them, in his sermons, in his guidance to his children in confession, and in his dealings.
In seclusion, the priest can also set a plan for organizing his time—regarding service, the needs of his family, and his personal life.
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