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Anglican Church in Aotearoa NZ (Pelly et al): Commission Report: A Theology of Priesthood for New Zealand (Wellington General Synod 1982)
The Convenor of the Commission was Very Rev'd Canon R.B. Pelly. The other Commission members were: Rev'ds C.G. Brown and P.A. Stuart the Very Rev'ds G.J. Coles and J.O. Rymer Right Rev'd M.L. Wiggins and Ven. G.H.D. Connor.
The report lays considerable emphasis on the context of ministry and of teamwork in ministry. It discourages attempts to preserve the particular Christian traditions brought to New Zealand from the British Isles however precious those traditions may be. Perhaps inevitably the report raises more questions than it answers and leaves a legacy of issues for further exploration.
The Commission attempts to describe what it calls 'the secular context' (pp.vi-viii). The issues that they consider most important are: wealth race pluralism family life and human relations authority and the end of isolation.
This is the reflection of a group of Anglican clerics. They report no research on whether similar lists would have been put forward by a group of factory hands of unemployed teenagers of accountants of homemakers of food process workers. It is a view of the secular world from within the Church and indeed from within the clergy.
On the theology of the ministry of the whole Church

"Our starting point is the affirmation that Christ's is the fundamental ministry. Christ is the source of all acts of ministry or service done in his name. Therefore each person's union with Christ in his Body the Church is the real source of their ministry. ... Ordained ministry including priestly ministry must be lived and understood within [the] theological perspective of the ministry of the whole Church." [Quote p.x]

"Christ's whole human nature was both a gift from God and the way of access for people into the life of God. By his own complete obedience unto death he offers the whole of humanity and its life to God the Father. Christian priesthood is a recapitulation of and a centring on or sharing in this one fundamental priesthood of Christ. Thus the life of a priest is both a personal offering of self to God through Christ and a constant struggle to promote or facilitate a similar offering in the lives of others." [Quote p.xi]

On collegiality -

"Prieshood exercised collegially requires a model of authority which is far more than the formal right to require obedience. A collegial model of authority includes the duty to consult to persuade to encourage to enable. This model of collegial authority is compatible with one person carrying ultimate responsibility before God for the ministries of others but it also includes the dimension of joint responsibility and mutual accountability." [Quote p.xii]

On the significance of 'place' the Commission acknowledged the influence of the idea of 'natural human grouping' - as exemplified in Boulard's work 'An Introduction to Religious Sociology' (Darton Longman Todd 1960).

"The definition of 'place' to mean 'natural human grouping' might have consequences for the number of clergy who would be housed and paid by the church and in that way classed as 'full-time'. Wea are perhaps approaching the time when each 'place'/natural human grouping/unit of mission would contain more self-supporting than stipendiary clergy and in which the whole enterprise of mission/ministry would be shared by many people most of whom would be lay men and women." [Quote p.xiv]

"Although ordination is undoubtedly to the priesthood of the Church Catholic the Church Catholic subsists normally in actual local churches. If this local context for the exercise of ordained ministry is ignored then priesthood is in danger of becoming a personal possession rather than a gift of God in and to and through the Church." [Quote p.xvii]

- and this exposes the fallacy of using non-stipes to fill-in hither and yon where stipendiary priests are lacking.
The Commission's recommendations include as well as the usual pleas for further study and reflection -

"Ordination should normally be confined to those who will exercise leadership amongst the People of God in the preaching of the Gospel in teaching and equipping for mission and ministry the administration of the Sacraments pastoral care and the oversight or ordering of the ministries of the baptised." [Quote p.xv]

"The Church should clearly affirm that there is a valid ministry of Word Sacraments pastoral care and leadership of the People of God to be exercised in contexts other than the residence-based parish." [Quote p.xv]

"Ordination for priestly ministry should only be for those who have undergone a theological training adequate to the task of teaching and equipping the People of God in their context of ministry." [Quote p.xvi]

"Hand in hand with the new emphasis on the context of ministry ... should go a corresponding stress on the importance of licensing regarded not simply as authorisation but authorisation to exercise ordained ministry in a given context. In practice no person should be ordained without a clear view as to their place of subsequent functioning in the Church." [Quote p.xvii]