Commontide
The Ordination and Consecration of a Bishop
Most merciful Father, send down upon this your servant your heavenly blessing; so endue him with your Holy Spirit that, in preaching your Word, he may not only be earnest to reprove, beseech, and rebuke, with all love and godly doctrine, but may also present a wholesome example in word and conduct, in love and faith, in chastity and purity; that, having faithfully run his course, at the Last Day he may receive the crown of righteousness, laid up by the Lord Jesus, our righteous Judge, who lives and reigns with you and the same Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.
This prayer, spoken as the new bishop rises from the imposition of hands, has been said in almost these exact words at every Anglican bishop's consecration since 1550, nearly five centuries ago. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer wrote it by weaving together two passages from St. Paul's letters to Timothy, and it has outlived the Reformation, three prayer-book revisions, and a century's worth of liturgical fashions almost untouched.