A bishop is a Prime Minister – Monarch – Speaker – Scapegoat.
A bishop is more than a presbyter: the shepherd’s crook, pastoral staff, which is given to the bishop at the consecration service speaks of the bishop’s role of nourishment and cautioning.
And what of a bishop’s rootlessness, isolation and digestion!?
The above diverse aspects of episcopal leadership in the Anglican Church come via the Bishop of Bendigo and Primate’s letter:
Bishop Andrew Curnow recently referred me to an article in the Church Times, September 4, 2009 by the Rt Rev’d Kenneth Stevenson, outgoing Bishop of Portsmouth, about being a bishop. I believe +Kenneth’s observations are thought-provoking, and I trust might prompt our own reflections on the nature and challenges of the episcopal office.
The text of the article is available to download from the Church Times website. The article itself is an edited extract from +Kenneth’s farewell address to his diocesan synod in June of this year is at The Business of Bishoping – a Bottom Up Theology.
A Proper Wedding by Amanda Lohrey in the Monthly August Edition 2009 commences,
In February of this year I watched the telecast of the Victorian bushfire memorial service, a unique piece of improvised public ritual that was very much of its time. . . . .
I could not remember another time when a newsreader had been elevated above bishops at an important state memorial service, yet no one in the media remarked on it. This, I believe, is a direct outcome of the fact that for over three decades Australians have been attending weddings and funerals performed by civil celebrants. If any one factor has prepared us for an easy acceptance of secular ritual, both public and private, it is Lionel Murphy‘s reform of the marriage culture.
I commented on this theme and Amanda Lohrey’s insightful analysis on this Civil Religion at the Rod Laver Centre in Melbourne for the victims of the Victorian Bushfires in an article, What song shall we sing? Words of consolation? Or excruciating kitsch? Amanda Lohery writes about this now in relation to marriage and rites of passage in general in Australia.
In what ways have Christians not taken up the opportunities for pastoral ministry to Australians seeking ways, rites of passage, to express love and loss?
The Canberra poet and civil celebrant Mark O’Connor argues that Australia is largely a “post-Christian society, and for many people the old ceremonies no longer fit”. Perhaps this is why so many new ceremonies have come into being over the past 20 years: infant naming, adolescent and old-age rites of passage, pet funerals, menopause parties, divorce ceremonies, new-home blessings -you name it, you can find a celebrant to officiate. Of these, the infant naming ceremony is the most popular, replacing as it does the traditional christening. Again, there is an emphasis on participation and the ceremony often involves the father lifting the infant above his head while assembled friends and family shout the child’s name. One celebrant told me of a naming ceremony where the mother read out a letter in which she apologised to the baby for her post-natal depression. “It was cathartic,” said the celebrant, “not just for her but the whole family. It felt like a new start.” This celebrant is one of the many who are content with their current role and limited function: “I don’t want to be doing any more than I do now. I’m not any kind of priest, I’m just a privileged witness.”
I also note the continuing challenge of building family life: ‘Australian marriages making a comeback’ by Simon Santow for ABC Radio’s AM 1st September. Yet a disturbing trend of long term couples divorcing – http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26009968-421,00.html
In what ways can Christians take up the opportunities for pastoral ministry to Australian men and women, boys and girls, who are seeking ways to express love and loss?
When I visited Launceston Church Grammar School this week for my annual “Bishop’s Day” I was asked questions by the Year 6 students and also by a Year 12 Religion and Philosophy class.
These opportunities were stimulating, challenging, enjoyable and encouraging. See how you would have gone:
Year 6 questions
First, there were questions on being a Bishop…
Where do you work?
What is your job?
What’s with the collar!?
Is the ring on your finger special?
How did you become a Bishop?
Are there other bishops?
What’s an arch bishop?
Have you been criticised for being a Bishop?
Then there were questions on God…
Have you spoken to God?
Has he spoken back?
Does science disprove God?
There were questions on heaven, hell and Jesus’ return…
Will we eat food in Heaven?
Do animals go to heaven?
What age/how old will we be in heaven?
Do babies go to heaven?
What is hell like?
Is hell forever?
Do people from other religions go to hell?
When will Jesus return?
Questions on demons…
Do demons exist?
Have you seen a demon possessed person?
I was also asked to explain euthanasia.
As Chaplain Elizabeth said, “They kept you on your toes! So thanks for coming. Please pray for these students.” Yes. I will.
Year 12 Religion and Philosophy questions
(Thanks to Chaplain Paul for these conversation starters.)
What do you think is at the heart of Christianity?
How do you regard other denominations/strands of Christianity?
What do you think of other religions?
Sacraments are important in some strands – especially Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox. How important are sacraments to you?
What does Sunday worship in church mean to you?
How is God involved in everyday life?
How do you read and interpret the Bible?
What do you think about the creation story?
How do you deal with evil and suffering?
I feel like I own some of our Tasmanian highways as I have been spending a lot of time recently traveling around our rain soaked State. The following episcopal note caught my attention. I am obviously not the only Bishop of Tasmania to have felt the multiple demands on leadership, the need to prioritize those demands and the assistance of others in doing so.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Bishop is resting from his arduous trip in the North and North West during the past few months. He would be glad to be relieved of all unimportant correspondence, etc., for the time being.
Church News, Page 10, January 1926
This fourth review of Australia’s contribution to Goal 8 of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) by Make Poverty History and Micah Challenge has two major conclusions:
As the deadline to achieve the MDGs by 2015 looms closer, Australia must go beyond aspirations and set concrete steps in place to give more and better aid, ensure trade justice, cancel poor country debt, support good governance and tackle climate change – to do our fair share to halve global poverty.
Please pray that Australia may further its committment to the poor and marginalised.
Pray also that the Australian Government may turn its aspirations into acts: [It is our] aspiration to achieve the 0.7 per cent target that the international community has embraced. – Kevin Rudd, speech to Lowy Institute, July 2007
Micah Challenge has released the review at http://www.micahchallenge.org.au/assets/pdf/Goal8_report_web.pdf
Helpful ‘Ekklesia’ comment at http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/10225
The Break O’Day team have added a 4th ‘B’ to their regular ‘Beer, Beef and Bibles’ get together at St Paul’s Parish Hall, St Helens. Yes, ‘Bishop’ is the 4th one! See you there Saturday. Here’s their regular invitation card. A creative bunch at Break O’Day 🙂
Frequently the euthanasia debate is set up in terms of the religious (anti) and non-religious (pro). The following article sets out 7 common pro-euthanasia arguments and then gives ‘non-religious’ replies to them. It also reviews the ethical arguments and the empirical evidence from the Netherlands and Oregon. A very stimulating read.
[The media’s] coverage of the issue (physician assisted suicide-euthanasia) often consists of milking viewers’ emotions in favour of decriminalization and implying that any opposition must rest solely on religious belief, particularly of a “fundamentalist” stripe.
This paper aims to promote a more accurate and informed understanding of the issues. It sets out seven arguments which are commonly advanced by advocates of decriminalization and offers corresponding counter-arguments. The arguments for decriminalization undoubtedly merit a reply. However, as will become apparent, cogent replies are available. Moreover, these replies need rest on no religious basis, “fundamentalist” or otherwise. The aim of the paper is to provide anyone interested in this pressing debate with a clear overview of the arguments, and to suggest that the case for decriminalization is far less persuasive than is often thought. It concludes that relaxing the law would be a serious mistake which would hinder rather than help the urgent task of improving care for the sick and the dying.
Article, ‘Should We Legalize Voluntary Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide? – A Review of the Ethical Arguments and of the Empirical Evidence from the Netherlands and Oregon’
by John Keown, MA DPhil PhD
Ramadan is a time of prayer and fasting in the Muslim community and it is not uncommon for Christians to pray for the Muslim community during Ramadan.
Brian McLaren, a Christian, is praying and fasting during the current Ramadan. This is good. Christians are to fast and pray, Matthew 6:17. I am, however, concerned that he may have fallen into the tendency of some Muslim (and Christian) people to reduce aspects of the Christian faith to Islamic beliefs. Muslim reductionism of the Christian faith is seen in the Muslim’s questions to the Christian, “We believe in your prophet, Jesus. Why do you not believe in our prophet, Muhammad?” (But for the Christian, Jesus is more than a prophet; He is the Son of God) and again the Muslim asks, “We both believe in Abraham and he submitted to God: he was a Muslim. Why are you not a Muslim?” (But for the Christian, Abraham did more than submit to God; he is the father of our faith in God. See Romans 4.)
Similarly, a Muslim asks, “We both pray to the One God. Let us pray together?” (But for the Christian, God “Our Father” is addressed “through Jesus Christ our Lord”.) Read on –
Prayer is a conversation between two persons. The question is, Who is the One addressed? and, What is the basis on which we can come to God in prayer? For the Christian, God is the One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and hence Christian prayer is addressed to the Father through the Son and by the Holy Spirit. Thus the classical phrase, “through Jesus Christ our Lord”, closes Christian prayer.
When I read the Ramadan prayers of Brian McLaren I hear neither of the address to the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit nor of entering into that loving conversation with “Abba, Father” “through Jesus Christ our Lord”. I find this deeply troubling. Why these omissions? Has Brian McLaren’s commitment to peace-making inadvertently sacrificed the Prince of Peace? How is peace gained when clarity in divine address is absent?
Is peace-making best left to deeds of loving service and prayer for our neighbours, rather than the confusion and perhaps misunderstanding of prayer with our Muslim neighbour at their Ramadan time?
I heard our brother Brian speak at the Lambeth Conference of Bishops last year and greatly appreciated his zeal and clarity. I trust that he will clarify and make Christian his Ramadan prayers lest he inadvertently become a submissive appeaser rather than a Christian peace-maker.
“Montgomery of Tasmania: Henry and Maud Montgomery in Australasia” by Robert Withycombe, Acorn Press. Planned release is late 2009.
If only I’d had this fascinating book when I started (bishoping in Tasmania)! I couldn’t put it down! ‘Leadership’ is much in vogue, if too little assessed. Here is a sustained assessment of leadership, both gifted and learnt. H. H. Montgomery was gifted with athleticism, initiative, a sense of adventure, an ease with people and a sustaining vision of God’s love in Christ for the world. How would these gifts play in Colonial Tasmania? And what kind of bishop would emerge? – ‘Bush Bishop’. ‘Mutton Bird Bishop’, ‘Citizen Bishop’, ‘Missions Bishop’? Montgomery decided for the latter, the others followed. We learn of Episcopal leadership engaging Gospel and culture, in its success and failure: a truly fascinating study to enrich learning and conversation.
The above commendation was meant to be 40 words but I became so enthusiastic that it is over 100! The book’s Editor, Rena, will delete and put in lots of . . . and get the commendation down to 40! The longer version above will appear on the Acorn Press website when the biography is released towards the end of the year. How about the book launch at Montgomery’s Pub in Hobart?
H. H. Montgomery, 4th Anglican Bishop of Tasmania 1889-1901, was the father of Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery of World War 2 fame (’Montgomery of Alamein’) and the son of Sir Robert Montgomery who courageously faced down the 1857 Lahore mutiny in India. Quite a family, the Montgomery family.
The biography’s author is Dr Robert Withycombe, Senior Research Fellow, St Mark’s National Theological Centre, Canberra. Congratulations, Robert, on your outstanding work.
Keep your eye out for this nugget 🙂