[Magdalen] Parish in crisis, was Re: Some Christmas music

Roger Stokes roger.stokes65 at btinternet.com
Thu Dec 17 22:02:18 UTC 2015


On 17/12/2015 21:48, Scott Knitter wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 3:43 PM, Molly Wolf <lupa at kos.net> wrote:
>> The bishop definitely needs to be involved.
> I'm sure he has been from behind the scenes, via his assistant, and I
> think he's met with the Vestry, but he's long overdue for either
> putting in an appearance in church (special meeting, maybe) or
> communicating to the parish via mailed letter what his view is on how
> we need to proceed and what behavior is not acceptable. He needs to
> kick a**. Like a boss.

In my experience bishops don't like to do that and the clergy are caught 
in the middle.  In the Church of England when a priest takes charge of a 
parish the bishop comes for a big service and reads out the Deed of 
Institution or the Licence as the priest kneels in front of the bishop.  
The document is then handed over with the words "Receive the cure of 
souls which is both yours and mine."  Getting the bishop to act as the 
chief pastor and do anything to demonstrate that responsibility for the 
cure of souls is virtually impossible. When a bishop does act in a 
dispute it is generally without first investigating the situation 
properly so it is ill-informed meddling which assumes the laity are 
right to complain about the priest.

Roger


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