The Holy Orders and Offices of the Church

All high­er lev­els of study in Spiri­tis Sem­i­nary per­tain to the High­er Offices that per­pet­u­ate the Church, pro­vide lead­er­ship and direc­tion for its con­gre­ga­tion, cel­e­brate the Sacra­ments, and per­form all the many ser­vices to God and man that are part of min­istry.

Throughout history there have been many Orders and many Offices in the Church.

There are, how­ev­er, three prin­ci­ple Orders that cov­er the most basic and impor­tant respon­si­bil­i­ties of the Church. These are the Orders of Bish­op, Priest, and Dea­con. They were all present in the first cen­tu­ry of the Church’s his­to­ry.

 First it is impor­tant to under­stand that the Church’s broad foun­da­tion has the widest pos­si­ble inclu­sion of all who would respond and join in ser­vice to one anoth­er with­out spec­i­fied duties to any orga­ni­za­tion­al struc­ture. Jeshua com­mand­ed the Apos­tles to go to the far­thest reach­es of the world and car­ry the good news. In ask­ing this of them, he made this promise: “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”–Matt. 28:19–20

That their out­reach might be car­ried with enthu­si­asm and spir­it, he made anoth­er promise: “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you anoth­er Com­forter, that he may abide with you for­ev­er; even the Spir­it of truth; whom the world can­not receive, because it sees him not, nei­ther knows him: but ye know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you com­fort­less: I will come to you.”–John 14:16–18

In this per­pe­tu­ity, there is both struc­ture and non-struc­ture. Above all, the non-struc­tured com­mu­nion of truth and love is the rul­ing nature of Christ’s Church. Accord­ing to Matthew 18:20, it is said: “Wher­ev­er two or three are gath­ered in my name, I will be among them.”

There­fore, let it be known that the true and spir­i­tu­al com­mu­ni­ty of Spiri­tis Church is bound by the Holy Spir­it and the Love of Christ, and not by human lim­i­ta­tions or pre­scrip­tions, nor by set juris­dic­tions of phys­i­cal prop­er­ties or loca­tions. In this spir­it we present no phys­i­cal or denom­i­na­tion­al lim­i­ta­tions upon our mem­ber­ship, nor do we place restric­tions on the hearts, faith, or beliefs of those who join with us in the Truths of God. By this trust and by this grace of God our mem­ber­ship is thus estab­lished and includes all.

For all those rea­sons, and in the way of its orig­i­nal incep­tion, Spiri­tis Church has seen fit to rec­og­nize and per­pet­u­ate a large and free spir­it­ed Min­istry and Chap­lain­cy of men and women ded­i­cat­ed to serve in what­ev­er way they have cho­sen for their lives.

To these ded­i­cat­ed indi­vid­u­als Spiri­tis Church presents respon­si­ble spir­i­tu­al edu­ca­tion with respect for the diver­si­ty and tal­ent among them all. As it is said in the Gospel: “And his gifts were that some should be apos­tles, some prophets, some evan­ge­lists, some pas­tors and teach­ers, to equip the saints for the work of min­istry, for build­ing up the body of Christ:” –Eph. 4:11–12

To car­ry the good news of love and truth; and to facil­i­tate the evo­lu­tion of human con­scious­ness, in unique and indi­vid­ual ways, is the core work of a Spiri­tis Min­is­ter. To be a Spiri­tis Min­is­ter and Chap­lain is an inde­pen­dent ordi­na­tion not requir­ing any ser­vice with­in the High­er Orders, unless their heart’s so elect.

The High­er Orders of the Church have evolved over cen­turies of lov­ing out­reach, neces­si­ty of lead­er­ship, and the var­i­ous tal­ents that have been offered in ser­vice to God and man. In the first gen­er­a­tion of Chris­tian­i­ty, every­one who was called by the Holy Spir­it min­is­tered (just as our Spiri­tis Min­is­ters and Chap­lains do today). The expand­ing min­istry was coor­di­nat­ed and man­aged only by the Apos­tles and those appoint­ed by them. It was a sim­ple two-pronged sys­tem that allowed for the max­i­mum expan­sion and local­ized lead­er­ship wher­ev­er con­gre­ga­tions devel­oped.

After the gen­er­a­tion of the Apos­tles had passed, those who took up their respon­si­bil­i­ties became the first Bish­ops. It was (and is) the pri­ma­ry duty of a Bish­op to estab­lish church­es and man­age con­gre­ga­tions. The Order of Bish­ops exists to this day as the pri­ma­ry lead­er­ship posi­tion with­in Spiri­tis Church and the con­ti­nu­ity of Apos­tolic Suc­ces­sion.

His­tor­i­cal­ly as con­gre­ga­tions grew, the need for lev­els of ser­vice also grew. There­fore, the func­tion of Dea­cons and Priests became essen­tial to car­ry out all the tasks at hand.

In Spiri­tis Sem­i­nary we also see this great val­ue, and offer advanced train­ing to become ordained as a Dea­con and a Priest. While some parts of this train­ing are uni­ver­sal and aca­d­e­m­ic, these cours­es of study and prepa­ra­tion are often high­ly indi­vid­u­al­ized in respect of the spe­cial tal­ents, skills and call­ings of those who apply. There is both study and per­son­al guid­ance by an appoint­ed Bish­op or Priest in the var­i­ous acts of min­istry and pro­to­col for the Order to which one is aspir­ing.

Becom­ing a Spiri­tis Min­is­ter is a pre­req­ui­site to apply­ing for study in one of the High­er Orders. Detailed infor­ma­tion on these High­er Orders is part of the Spiri­tis Min­istry Course. How­ev­er, any­one not enrolled, but inter­est­ed in a gen­er­al sum­ma­tion of these cours­es, may con­tact Spiri­tis Sem­i­nary.

Any Spiritis Minister wishing to take the next step of advancement in Spiritis Church need only call our office for an application: ‭(361) 947‑7747‬.