Ordination age requirement?

according to Holy Canons 25 years old to become a deacon and 30 years old to be a priest.

thank you very much anything about bishops?

Bishops must be older than 35 God bless!

thank you

I have a (slowly growing) index of Orthodox Canon Law. Ages as given in the Canons are: Bishop 30; Presbyter 30; Deacon 25; Sub-Deacon 20; Hope this helps!

By the way Mike - welcome to the OC!

Here in Greece bishops should be older than 35...at least that was what I was expected to answer in my Greek Ecclesiastical Law exam :-)

Most priest choose to be ordained around 30 but some are ordained before. Most unmarried men, even if they have an m div wont be ordained until they are at least 25.

Quick question. I have a Masters of Arts in [Catholic] Theology. I\'m now Orthodox. Were I to, several years down the road, go to seminary, would I still take the full load for the M Div? I imagine it\'s different at each seminary and on each person, but I\'d be interested in hearing if anyone knows of persons in my situation.

StGeorge, I have a suspicion that it\'s been done before. :) There are lots of convert clergy, including those who earned degrees before becoming Orthodox (including the man who chrismated me into the faith!). IIRC, he had to do a full load at St Tikhon\'s, but it definitely *is* different with each individual because there are so many factors to take into account (eg. coming to Orthodox from what church? What institution granted the degree? What kind of marks do your transcripts say you got? and the list goes on). So it\'d probably be best to take that particular question to your priest, and maybe bishop, for a better answer. That\'s not to discourage you from asking questions here! By no means! Just don\'t always expect definitive, or correct, answers. :)

Yeah, I was going to say that the Canons DO have minimum age requirements (for, what I might add, very discerning reasons) .... However, over the years these requirements have been relaxed in juridictions where a \\"shortage of clergy\\" has been significantly experienced.

Thank you for your answer. :cool:

My husband just graduated from Hellenic College/Holy Cross. There were several people with degrees from other faiths. They still needed an MDiv from Holy Cross to get ordained in the GOA. For the GOA, your bishop and the Deaon of the Seminary would have to work on any exceptions.

The Biggest determinate towards your question st George is what your bishop says. some credits might transfer. There are likely some courses you will have to take such as canon law etc... A seminary degree is only three years long however, and there are a lot of benefits to it. One of the benefits is that this is where your going to find the majority of your brothers since parishioner cannot and shouldn\'t perform this role. p.s Iv heard stories of some priest who are allowed to come straight into the church and there are also some priest who need to spend a year in a seminary usually to get used to long services.