Introduction 1. A personal note: A faithful, loyal, intelligent altar boy with a family background of devotion and loyalty to the Church. 2. The Purpose of the Service: To emphasize the relation between the Rector and People as (between) Shepherd and Flock , "to outline before him his duties and responsibilities, and to put before the whole congregation their share in this ministry of Christ and His Church." 3. The General Question of Priesthood and Ministry: ( i ) When your Rector was ordained he was asked the following question by the Bishop, "Do you think in your heart that you be truly called, according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the order of this Church, to the order and ministry of priesthood?" Answer: "I think it." The work and life of the Rector lies in his calling to the ministry of priesthood. (ii) There is great confusion in the popular mind respecting this order in the Church, confusion in using the terms "minister" and "priest." This confusion is intensified when we use the terms interchangeably - for a priest is always a minister, but a minister is not always a priest. E .g. The selection of the seven deacons (Acts 6: 3ff) for ministerial works. Tonight I want to talk about the priesthood, and in particular the priest in the parish, or the parish priest. Does mankind need a priest? We are told that the Hebrews gave the world our religion, and right at the beginning of their recorded experience is the realisation of man's rebellion against God ... Adam and Eve... Cain and Abel. (a) The biblical idea of sin, which permeates our self-understanding when it is truly Christian, sees man as self-centred, self-serving, self-destructive, alienated from God , and contaminated in His presence. Many people are afraid of this radical realism in the Christian doctrine of man. They can only bear to speak about man as created in the image of God , and to think of our way to God as simply a matter of our own initiative and our innate good impulses. (b) Classic Christian belief has always insisted that we have to have someone between, a mediator, uniting man to God in himself because he did something powerful and sacrificial. (c) The powerful and sacrificial thing, the Cross and the Resurrection, both seen together as one act of God , reveal Christ to be the Priest of the Cosmos, the Word, the Logos, the conquering Light who lightens every man, so that "the new and living way" back to God through Jesus Christ our Lord is at the heart of the Universe. God has given us a Priest - Mediator, (a) for St . Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5: 18 - 19, "And all things are of God , who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself." 49