What a priest looks like

You are a chosen people.
You are a kingdom of priests,
God's holy nation, his very own possession.
This is so you can show others the goodness of God,
for he called you out of the darkness
into his wonderful light.
—I Peter 2:9 (NLT)


The Images of Priesthood Blog is an outgrowth of the Habits of the Priesthood course at my alma mater, Virginia Theological Seminary. The images of what a priest looks like include the metaphorical and parables as well as literal.

As the site's intent is to work with images relating to priests as we understand the priesthood generally in the Episcopal Church, the criticism I have is probably not valid. But what I notice is that they do not work at all with the New Testament idea of a priest. Their are three ways priests are discussed in the New Testament: 1) The temple priests in Jerusalem whose work ended with the destruction of the Temple in 70 a.d. 2) Jesus as our great High Priest (in the letter to the Hebrews), and 3) the priesthood of all believers.

The New Testament words for the orders of ministry—Bishop (Episkopos), Priest (Presbuteros) and Deacon (Diakonos)—show our current Episcopal Church usage of "priest" as shown in the images of priesthood blog applies to the presbuteros, or presbyters, which means "elders." So the blog and its look at images of the presbuteros, commonly referred to as priests in the Episcopal Church today is a great look at the range of meaning for that term. I just want to also uphold that we have four orders of ministry in the Episcopal Church: Lay persons, Bishops, Priests and Deacons. And the laity are an integral part of the Kingdom of Priests who serve God.

And so to the others here, I add my own favorite photo of myself as a priest. A church planter has to be ready, like a missionary in foreign lands, to cut out a clearing and build a church. At King of Peace, we did both of those things together as a congregation. And this photo (taken after I had chopped at some roots under water that were blocking free flow of water out of a wet area) dates to a time in the life of King of Peace when I would chop away at trees with abandon alongside my wife, Victoria, or Mark or Gil pause to catch my breath and say, "You say psycho like its a bad thing."

Since then, we have tamed our seven acres, built a worthy building to extend our ministry in the community and made it possible for the lay persons to live into their own priesthood as they find and follow the ministries God has for each of them by virtue of that ordination service we call baptism. So the answer to the question of what a priest looks like...a priest looks like you, especially when you are serving others.

peace,
frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor

And now God is building you,
as living stones, into his spiritual temple.
What's more, you are God's holy priests,
who offer the spiritual sacrifices
that please him because of Jesus Christ.
—I Peter 2:5