Ecclesiastical Orders of Clerical Title in Thai Clergy

Abstract

The purposes of this research were: 1) to identify the ecclesiastical orders of clerical title in Thai clergy, and 2) to examine the opinion of the monks on the ecclesiastical orders of clerical title in Thai clergy. This research was a retrospective research design. The data were collected from 3 sources: 1) primary source 2) secondary source and 3) contemporary data source, the instruments used for collecting the data were semi-structured interview form. Data were analyzed using content analysis.           

The research findings revealed that: 1. The number of ecclesiastical orders of clerical title in the Thai clergy was based on clerical title. Their main responsibilities were to take care of six core tasks and one special task, which were 1) governing 2) Religious educating 3) public facilities 4) education welfare 5) propagation 6) public welfare, and special task: developing Phutthamonthon to be the World Buddhist Centre and others duties appointed by prelate.

2. The opinion of the monks on the ecclesiastical orders of clerical title in the Thai clergy in all aspects of the ecclesiastical orders system, duties, qualification and appointment process was found to be appropriate, since the appointment of ecclesiastical orders helps lighten the works of the prelates and they also agreed that the ecclesiastical orders should be appointed by the approval of each prelate/clerical titles.