Once you have been ordained as a Deacon and have full-time experience as an assistant minister, you may wish to explore being ordained as a presbyter.  Ordination to the presbyterate is for men who lead a congregation and would also qualify you to lead a local church as a rector, if you were invited to do so by the Archbishop at the request of a parish. 

Because of the importance of this office, we will engage with you over an extended period of time, (normally two years from when you are accepted as a candidate) to explore whether you have the character, convictions and competencies for congregational leadership. Further, during this period we will also seek to help you develop in your congregational leadership capacity.

The process has a particular focus on your leadership competencies and seeks to answer the following questions:

• Are you gifted by God to help teach his vision for his Church?
• Are you able to help the church discern how to apply this teaching in its local context?
• Do you have the skills to raise up staff and funding for that work?
• Are you competent to manage that vision and live it out in your own life?
• How has this been demonstrated in your work as an Assistant Minister?

As being ordained as a Presbyter is a very high calling, we encourage you to read “The Ordering of Priests” contained in The Ordinal before beginning the application process.

If you would like to make an application to be ordained as a presbyter, the following steps are involved.

1. Making an application

Contact Claire Pritchard at MT&D (claire@mtd.org.au) to organise an appointment with the Director of MT&D, Gary O’Brien. Claire will also send you three forms for you to complete for the initial interview; an Application form, a Life and Times Profile and a Confidential Lifestyle Questionnaire.  We will also confirm with your regional Bishop that he is supportive of your application.

2. Initial interview

At the initial interview, Gary O’Brien will discuss with you your ministry experience so far, your thinking about serving as a congregational leader in our diocese, and the details of the discernment and development process.  He will also go through the Application Form and Confidential Lifestyle Questionnaire with you.  Following this interview, if the decision is to proceed, the Office of the Director of Safe Ministry will conduct the necessary checks to enable you to continue in the process.  We will also contact your rector to describe the process to him and enlist his help. You will then be given Parish Feedback Forms for your rector and three lay leaders to complete and return to you. Please discuss with your rector who those lay leaders are to ensure that we (and you) receive wise and thoughtful feedback from discerning people in the parish. It is important to discuss these Parish Feedback Forms with each person before returning them to MT&D. This is because it provides valuable input regarding how others perceive your giftedness and possible development areas which we will then discuss together.

3. Psychological assessment update

You will then complete some online questionnaires and meet up with one of the psychologists at TheMindSpace.  The psychologist will then provide us with an updated psychological assessment (supplementing the one you completed as an applicant for ordination as a deacon).

4. Interview

At this interview, you will be able to read the report provided by the psychologist and discuss it with Gary O’Brien along with the Parish Feedback Forms. If you’re married, it will be important for your wife to come to this interview and be part of the conversation.

5. Panel interview

The final step in the application process is for you (and, if married, your wife) to come in for an interview with the Archbishop’s Presbyter Panel.  They will have read your Psychological Assessment Summary and all the Parish Feedback documents. It is important you re-read these documents before coming to the interview. Following this, a recommendation will be made to the Archbishop about your candidature.  He will notify you of his decision in writing.

6. Presbyter Ministry Development Plan

If you are accepted as a presbyter candidate and enter the two-year discernment process, we are keen for you to continue developing your congregational leadership skills. This is so that you might serve effectively now and as a rector, should you be invited by the Archbishop following ordination.  To this end, Gary O’Brien will speak to you about creating, in consultation with your rector, a Minister’s Development Plan (MDP). This Plan will form the basis of a mid-process conversation when he visits you on a Sunday in parish. You are also encouraged to discuss the MDP and your progress in your regular one-to-one meetings with your rector.

7. Parish visit and interview with the Director

Towards the end of your first year, Claire will send you two forms (a Self-Evaluation Form and a Rector’s Evaluation Form) for you and your rector to complete and return.  Claire will then make a time for Gary O’Brien to visit you on a Sunday to discuss how you are going in your ministry development toward the presbyterate, to discuss the evaluation forms and answer any questions you might have about your ministry future.

8. Panel interview

Towards the end of the second year, Claire will organise a time for the second Panel interview with you (accompanied by your wife if you are married). She will send you additional Parish Feedback Forms for your rector and three lay leaders to complete and discuss together in preparation for this interview.  Following this, a recommendation will be made by the Panel to the Archbishop about your suitability to be ordained a presbyter in the Anglican Church.  He will notify you of his decision in writing.