The Ordinal gets it right – the Vicar is not Timothy
by Julian Mann, VOL:
The briefing paper for the recent ReNew conference of confessing Anglicans in England warned against local church leaders directly identifying themselves as the Timothy to whom the Apostle Paul wrote two pastoral epistles in the New Testament.
Pointing out that no sensible reader of the Bible would directly identify with David in the slaying of Goliath, the paper argued that local church leaders should rather identify themselves with the presbyters Timothy appointed.
It was a helpful warning because Timothy was a personally appointed delegate of the Apostle Paul in Ephesus and authorised by him to ordain ministers of the Word, hence Paul’s instructions to him about the qualities required for church leaders in 1 Timothy 3. Local church presbyters in connectional churches, such as Anglican vicars or rectors, are certainly not Timothy in this respect because they are not authorised to ordain.
The ReNew warning was timely because shortly after the conference the 9:38 Network, which runs conferences for people considering church leadership, circulated a booklet called Mind the Gap: Raising up the Next Generation of Gospel Workers.
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