ordain

ordain (one) as (something)

To invest one with the powers, duties, and responsibilities attendant upon a particular religious role. Often used in passive constructions. Regina Jones was ordained as the first female rabbi in 1935. I just heard the clergy ordained Tom as a priest.
See also: ordain
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

ordain someone

 (as) something
1. Lit. to establish someone as a priest or minister. In a lovely ceremony, they ordained David as a priest. He was ordained as a priest by a bishop.
2. Fig. to establish someone as something. They ordained the poor old man as a deputy sheriff. Was he duly ordained as a Mercedes mechanic?
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • tap
  • tap (one) for (something)
  • tap for
  • tap someone
  • tap someone for something
  • tapping
  • taps
  • snow (one) under with (something)
  • snow under with
  • promote
References in periodicals archive
His writing strongly favored deaconesses, and even suggested that they could be ordained, although he admitted that he had never witnessed such an ordination.
He got an answer from a well-respected scholar and member of the International Theological Commission: Yes, women had once been ordained as deacons and can be so ordained again.
The Northwest suburban deacons to be ordained and their wives are:
Some of those being ordained will work for their churches as volunteers while others have a full time salaried job with the church.
When asked why they are, or are not, or are not yet ordained, women offer important clues about the changing practice of ordination.
"In South America, there are bishops who say, T would ordain women in a minute.'"
The ceremony was to be conducted in York Minster by the Archbishop of York, the Very Reverend David Hope, just weeks after Miss Foster turned 24 - the earliest age a person could be ordained.
Many Christian denominations allow ordination of women, but the Catholic Church has been strictly following the age-old law of allowing only men to be ordained as priests.
This time the swarm is over restoring the tradition of ordained women in the Roman Catholic Church.
NEW priests are to ordained by the Bishop of Wakefield Stephen Platten in the next two weeks.
WOMEN are slowly being allowed a greater role as ordained ministers in the Anglican Communion - and are becoming increasingly accepted.
As Bishop Patricia Fresen has said, "the reason for ordaining women as bishops was only so that they in turn can ordain priests which is the traditional method for ordination in the Roman Catholic Church.
The pressure to ordain women to the Catholic priesthood and permanent diaconate is growing.
Her body wrapped in yards of white cotton, her head shaved and eyebrows shorn, she faced insects and rats and flying snakes, and learned to meditate for 19 hours at a stretch, sublimating ego, breathing through doubt, hunger and restlessness, making friends with fear and loneliness to ordain as a Buddhist nun.
IRELAND'S rival rebel bishops Michael Cox and Pat Buckley are battling it out to see who can ordain the most priests.