Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
Is a good offense. Does the Bish of Connecticut have either? His response to his fellow bishops is here and here and here.(pdf alert)
Let’s stipulate that St. John’s Bristol has problems, and that some of them involve money. Most Episcopal/Anglican congregations have those problems. Let’s further stipulate that if Rev. Hansen has left the parish under the guise of a sabbatical, it’s not an especially cool idea. After slicing through all the words, defenses, and exaggerations, is there any way to tell whether Bishop Smith was acting pastorally, according to his own light, at least, or whether he came down upon St. John’s like a wolf on the fold? *
Reaffirmers, traditionalists, orthodox, whatever, in dioceses dominated by reappraising bishes and clergy often feel a tad isolated and alone, and when the time comes for a clerical changing of the guard, nervous. Bishops have a lot of power and influence during rector searches, if they chose to use it. Reaffirming parishes tend to feel that they’ll get stiffed during the process, and sometimes that happens. A Reappraising bish can draw out the process, can appoint priests-in-charge, influence the candidates, and, at the end, refuse a selection. There’s probably some purely passive editing: at least some entirely orthodox priests likely won’t even step forward for vacancies they might otherwise find interesting, if they have little appetite for conflict. There are all sorts of pitfalls. Bishes, through their clergy deployment officers, can sell candidates hard, even deceptively (hey, it’s been known to happen), or drag the process out so long that the parish finally chooses someone, anyone, or a selected candidate may find that ambition overwhelms judgement, and so bends in the bishop’s direction. Delegated Episcopal Oversight, DEPO, as configured currently, leaves the Diocesan Bish in charge of the clerical succession, and that is why it doesn’t work. St. John’s knew it needed a new rector, and it didn’t trust the Bishop of Connecticut to oversee the process. For the outsider watching the carnage, it doesn’t matter whether the parish’s concerns were reasonable or well founded, or otherwise. That lack of trust was what Bp. Smith had to deal with. How did he do?
Whenever I think about leadership, I keep running aground on what Jesus said to his followers when they were elbowing each other out of the way in that sort of “me first, no, me first,” bit in Matthew 20, and then Jesus’ reply
But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.
But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;
And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:
Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
Of course, this tells you that I do not belong to that variety of Christian who breaks the Bible into phonemes and reassembles it to suit my purposes. Old fashioned of me.
How do you apply this guidance to a situation such as Bishop Smith found himself in regards St. John’s? Did he come to the parish as a prince, or as a servant? Did he go prepared to lose, if need be, in order to serve the flock in his care? Or did he go in to win, to impose his will regardless? I’ll let the readers decide.
*Lots of us know, or have at least heard, the first lines of Byron’s poem, The Destruction of Sennacherib, but it’s a little scary to bear in mind that at the end of the poem the splendid host arrayed in purple and gold is dead, withered by the breath of the Lord. Just sayin’
It is pretty sickening, to say the least. bishop Smith is all about numbers and hold the LAW. Parishoners who left because they can't handle the truth are returning so they can feel good about themselves. I bet they now use the same feel good music that certain other protestant faiths use.
There is no Gospel without the Law, and anyone who joins/attends a church that is only about the Gospel is getting half-baked goods (or cassarole as the case may be).