Christian Vocation

Why Vocation? The term vocation comes from the Latin vocare which simply means to “call.” In the Christian context, this “call” is the voice of Christ reverberating within the life of His Church. Our Lord Himself said “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). To be one of Christ’s sheep is to hear His voice and to follow after its call. That is to say that all Christians – all of the Lord’s sheep – have received the call of Jesus the Good Shepherd. As Bishop Grafton put it: “It is not, therefore, some few in the Church who have vocations, like the Clergy or Sisters, but all, are called of God.” There is a common “call” or “vocation” for all Christians. This is a call to repentance, good works, to take up one’s cross, etc. In a word, it is a call to holiness. This is why the Canons of the Anglican Church in North America state explicitly that “The effective ministry of the Church is the responsibility of the laity no less than it is the responsibility of Bishops and other Clergy” (Title I, Canon 10) – the vocation of the Church is the responsibility of the whole Church. All in the Church share in one cause because the Church makes up one Body. This is precisely what St. Paul teaches when he says

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

1 Corinthians 12:12-14

It is from this position then that we are to understand our subjective and individual callings within the Church. Just as a hand or foot cannot seek its own individual good apart from the body, so too is it impossible for the Christian to walk effectively in her calling apart from the common call of the Church. It is because the Body has one calling that we are assured of of the unique contribution of the individual members to it. The common call to holiness is the broad river in which can be discerned the several currents of the individual Christian’s calling. “Within the vocation to holiness,” wrote two monks of the Brotherhood of the Epiphany, “there are three kinds of vocation in which we can respond to the grace of God” (The Eucharistic Life). These three “kinds” or “categories” of vocation are typically understood as a call to the “Ordinary” or “Lay” state, to the Sacred Ministry or what are called “Holy Orders”, or to “Religious” or “Consecrated” life. For the sake of convenience and historicity we also utilize this framework. None of these states of life are more “Christian” than another; they are simply different parts of the Body that God has called His people to occupy. God has called you to one of these vocations as well, and it is your privilege and duty to discern where He has placed you. Your effective working within the vocation that God has ordained for you is essential to the life of Christ’s Body no less than the effective working of your lungs is to the life of your own body.