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

[Charles Wohlers]

What Roger says is my experience also, at least in the Diocese of 
Massachusetts. Don't expect much of any assistance from the bishop, and you 
won't be disappointed. If you get some, be (I hope) pleasantly surprised.

OTOH, you situation is greatly helped by Ascension being, I presume, an 
important parish, and more importantly, is located in the see city.

Chad Wohlers
Woodbury, VT USA
chadwohl at satucket.com



-----Original Message----- 
From: Roger Stokes
Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2015 5:02 PM
To: magdalen at herberthouse.org
Subject: Re: [Magdalen] Parish in crisis, was Re: Some Christmas music

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