BETHESDA CATHEDRAL ORDINATION SERVICE
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2025 - 12:00 NOON
ORDER OF SERVICE
Mistress of Ceremonies
Minister Patricia Walden
PRELUDE......................……………………………………………………...........................BC Worship and Arts Ministry
PROCESSIONAL
INVOCATION.............................................................................................................................Evangelist Chellette Thaxton
SCRIPTURE READING.........................................................................................................................Elder Gregory Rivers
Old Testament - Isaiah 6:8 New Testament - 2 Timothy 2:15
PRAISE AND WORSHIP.........................................................................................................BC Worship and Arts Ministry
ECCLESIASTICAL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
MUSICAL SELECTION..........................................................................................................BC Worship and Arts Ministry
THE MESSAGE...............................................................................................................Suffragan Bishop Stewart Reese III
LITURGY OF ORDINATION
The Inquiry and Examination of the Candidates
License and Credential Committee (Suffragan Bishop Reuben Graham, Sr. – Chairman) to the Suffragan Bishop Stewart Reese III: I have inquired of them, examined them, and believe they have met all the qualifications. Therefore, I present to you for ordination:
Presentation of Candidates to Suffragan Bishop Reuben Graham, Sr. & The Credential Committee:
Evangelist Carma Reese
Bethesda Cathedral, Decatur, GA
Dr. Shonnie Scruggs Bethesda Cathedral, Decatur, GA
Questioning of the Candidates:
I. HIS CALL TO THE MINISTRY - Suffragan Bishop Willie Caldwell
A. Are you moved to become an ordained minister of the gospel by worldly ambition, worldly gain, or popularity?
Answer: “I’m not.”
B. Have you been divinely called by God to minister the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Answer: “I have.”
C. Then is it your desire to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, to set at liberty those who are bound in sins, to bring the light of the truth to those who sit in darkness?
Answer: “Yes, it’s my desire.”
II. BELIEF IN THE APOSTOLIC DOCTRINE - Suffragan Bishop Stewart Reese III
A. Do you believe that water baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is essential to salvation from sin?
Answer: “I do.”
B. Do you believe that speaking in tongues as the spirit gives utterance is the initial evidence of receiving the Holy Ghost?
Answer: “I do.”
C. Do you believe that there is one Lord, one Faith, and one baptism?
Answer: “I do.”
D. Do you believe in the death, burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and His second coming?
Answer: “I do.”
III. MINISTERIAL ETHICS - Suffragan Bishop Reuben Graham, Sr.
A. Will you solemnly promise, to the utmost extent of your ability, that you will faithfully perform the duties of the ministerial office?
Answer: “I will.”
B. Will you solemnly promise that, in and out of the pulpit, by both word and deed, you will earnestly endeavor to show forth the praises of Him who has call you out of darkness into His marvelous light?
Answer: “I will.”
C. Will you promise to conform both your preaching and your life to the gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed in God’s Holy Word?
Answer: “I will.”
D. Will you solemnly promise here before God and this great cloud of witnesses that you will labor to extend the kingdom of Christ our Lord to the salvation of men and the glory of God?
Answer: “I will.”
E. Furthermore, will you defend, teach and observe the following Apostolic Doctrines: Holy Communion, Coming of Jesus Christ, the Translation of Saints and Eternal Judgement as they are revealed in the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World?
Answer: “I will.”
IV. CHARGE (TIMOTHY 4:1-5) - Suffragan Bishop Reuben Graham, Sr.
I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusting shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
ORDINATION PRAYER
(Laying on of Hands)
Presentation of Candidates to Suffragan Bishop Stewart Reese III Remarks
