Rethinking the Episcopate: Apostle, Priest, and Pastor

Since last summer, our diocese has been living without a bishop. I won't go into the details (you can get the skinny on our diocesan website here), but it has meant I've done a good deal of reflecting on the ministry of bishop as I've experienced it in the Episcopal Church, both as a lay person and as a priest. And I have some... thoughts.

I also want to acknowledge that I offer these thoughts gingerly. What I'm writing here isn't about what has happened in our diocese, what is happening now, or what might happen at the end of our bishop's suspension. This isn't about agreeing with or not agreeing with current or past diocesan leadership, but is an attempt to reflect upon what I, as one lone priest, might hope for from the ministry of bishop in The Episcopal Church of the twenty-first century. 

Though it might be risky to write something like this while your own bishop is suspended... and when there are a multiplicity of views not only on his return but also upon the very shape and structure of the ministry of your diocese and a diocese with whom you are in partnership... I converted to the Episcopal Church because I believe in the apostolic ministry of the bishop. Of course, it's much more than that and there are now a host of reasons why I am an Episcopalian... but I believe in the office of the bishop. I believe it is one of the fourfold ministries necessary for the church to be who God calls her to be. 

I also want to be clear that none of this is a commentary on previous bishops with whom I have served, but is instead a commentary on what I perceive in the broader Episcopal Church, the continued patterns we repeat over and over again. 

Being a bishop must feel like an impossible job at times. I get that, I truly do. But part of the reason it is an impossible job is that we have so often lost sight of the true nature of the job itself. And so, I think we need some fundamental rethinking of this office in the Episcopal Church. 

There are two key questions to be answered when it comes to the ministry of a bishop. First, what does our prayer book envision for the ministry of a bishop theologically and practically? Second, what do churches in our time need from a bishop so that Episcopal parishes can reverse decades of decline?

The catechism begins its exploration of the four-fold ministry of the church (laity, bishops, priests, and deacons) by saying each one's first job is to represent Christ and his church and that each one is called to participate in the reconciling ministry of Christ. On page 855, the catechism says that the ministry of a bishop, specifically, is to represent Christ and the church, "particularly as apostle, chief priest, and pastor." Further, the bishop is called to "guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the whole church, to proclaim the Word of God, to act in Christ's name for... the building up of the Church, and to ordain others to continue Christ's ministry."

As an apostle, the bishop not only connects the church to the first apostles but also to the church catholic. An apostle is someone who is sent, in its literal meaning of the word. This means that a bishop must be deeply committed to the evangelistic ministry, a leader in supporting new ministry and working to push the edges of the church into the places she is hesitant to go. Their apostolic role is also one of leadership and should model that in all ways. The apostolic nature of the church is one of its four marks in the Nicene Creed. 

As the chief priest, the bishop at the altar with her clergy and people is the fullest experience of Christian worship. The diocese must have a regular and sustained experience with their bishop at the altar, serving as the Presider of the sacrifice of Holy Eucharist. A bishop must take seriously priestly vows to lead worship according to the Book of Common Prayer and celebrations of liturgy by a bishop should be the fullest and best experience of the liturgy of our prayer book. Innovation is required at times when the prayer book does not envision a circumstance, but rather than cultivate novelty, a bishop should blend into the mass so that the liturgy of Eucharist in the prayer book is what carries the day. Bishops often, by nature of who is elected, have a very strong personality. Every effort must be made to sink into the liturgy, to make it clear that as presider you are not star but simply have one with a particular role... and to do that role well, with care, preparation, and reverence. 

Finally, the bishop is called to be a pastor. In the church of my upbringing, there was a movement toward the use of shepherd for an image, one that I liked. A bishop is a pastor to the clergy of the diocese in the same way I'm a pastor to the members of my parish. Ideally, the bishop is someone I would call when I'm scared or anxious. The bishop is someone who might come to my home for dinner on occasion. When I am experiencing struggle or crisis, the bishop comes alongside of me—not to fix things, every priest knows your job is a pastor isn't to fix things, but to be the presence of Christ in the wilderness. The Bishop as shepherd keeps any eye on the edges of community, always careful not to lose any of those God has entrusted to you... so far as that is in your power.

Apostle. Priest. Pastor. These are the three fundamental calls of a bishop. But, as I said, there are four other ministries the bishop has, ministries that are in many ways derivative of the first fundamental three:

• Guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the church – This is derivative of the role of apostle and pastor, I would say. That is, if you understand the pastor as being the shepherd, you know the importance of the task of guarding. It is the job of the bishop to guard the faith of the church, to ensure that what is taught is theologically and Scripturally sound. This means that, while a bishop need not be a theologian or scholar, a bishop should be theologically and Scripturally competent. The bishop should be able to exercise that teaching role well. The bishop guards the unity of the church by connecting us, through teaching and action, to our early church roots while also being attentive to those on the edges of the Christian community so that the unity of the church is not achieved only at the expense of those on the margins. The bishop also guards the discipline of the church by ensuring that things like canons and rubrics are followed. This is why a diocesan liturgy should be pristine and sound from a prayer book perspective. It is why policies surrounding finances and personnel should be kept zealously in a diocesan office, to model that practice for parishes. And it is why for a bishop to openly advocate for communion regardless of baptism, contrary to the rubrics of the prayer book, contrary to the canons of the church, and contrary to the express will of general convention is the height of episcopal  incoherence… Especially when many of those same bishops supported discipline against the Bishop of Albany. Don’t get me wrong, I believe the Bishop of Albany needed to obey his vows when it came to the discipline of the church and the life of LGBTQ Christians. I just also think that we need some more consistency on this as a church if we don’t want to look like a massive hypocrites
• Proclaim the word of God – A bishop needs to know how to preach. The bishop should have training and skill in rhetoric, the mother of homiletics, and must know the difference between traveling around the diocese doing a pitch for your vision for the church and studying carefully the Scriptures appointed for the day and preaching the Good News of God from those Scriptures as it relates to the life of the gathered congregation. 
• Act in Christ's name for the building up of the Church – The job of the bishop is not to ensure the diocesan structure continues to grow and expand. The job of the bishop is to ensure that the local parish, that each local parish, is being built up. True, that sometimes means a bishop must make a difficult decision that will be unpopular, but if the true goal of the bishop is the building up of the church, that decision will be made in good faith. A bishop should constantly be asking how his leadership and energy is helping to build up the local congregations of the diocese. 
• Ordain others to continue Christ's ministry – The discernment and selection of appropriate candidates for the Sacred Order of Priests and the Sacred Order of Deacons is how the ministry of Christ will continue. This means that you care deeply about the process being one of discernment of God's call—not a series of hoops for people to jump through or a hazing ritual. It also means that while people are in formation for ministry, you know that they are very much the babies of your flock. You care for them. You read their ember day letters and respond. When they are in crisis, you are present. And you ordain them to a vowed life where they will continue the ministry you have sought faithfully to embody.

Now, you may notice a few things that are not on this list...

A bishop is not called to be the CEO of a diocese. I say this as someone who deeply loves administration, someone who is currently pursuing an Executive Masters in Nonprofit Administration from the University of Notre Dame. I take very seriously the administrative nature of my job as rector. But a bishop is not called to be a CEO. That model, that sees the diocese as a corporation and the bishop as the CEO, is a model that must die. The bishop must have a competent administrator at the center, one who will keep the complex organization of the diocese functioning efficiently. But the bishop's focus should be being an apostle, priest, and pastor. 

A bishop is not called to be a manager of institutional decline. If your solution to the Episcopal Church today is that more churches are going to have to close, then you have lost the apostolic vision of the church catholic. If you continue to think we need to get rid of and let go of our buildings, you have misunderstood one of the biggest lessons of this pandemic. Sure, sometimes churches close. It's been happening for a couple thousand years. But the church persists because of her apostolic tenacity—because of the apostolic work of planting new communities and building up existing ones. The bishop is called to be the leader of that apostolic vision. 

A bishop is not called to be the the priest's boss. I have made a vow of obedience to my bishop, but this massively different than the bishop being my boss. Bishops shouldn't micromanage their clergy in their cures. I have been particularly uncomfortable with the readiness with which so many of our bishops have used pastoral directives to force very specific and limited responses to the coronavirus, for instance—responses which are sometimes even contrary to the actual recommendations of health professionals. I remain unsure if a bishop can truly close a parish in a pandemic—circumventing the canonical right of the rector to use and control of buildings. Once this pandemic is done, we need to think about the way we have allowed bishops to exercise authority and how several of them have related to their clergy.

Finally, a bishop is not called to be a systems agent. Once again, I say this as someone who finds family systems theory tremendously helpful in my own life and in my vocation as a priest. But if you think your job is to play with the system to move it in a certain direction, then my guess is that you do not spend a lot of time as apostle, priest, and pastor. 

What might this mean for the Episcopal Church of the twenty-first century?

Well, it means I think we actually need more bishops and not less. I think more of our dioceses should structure collaboratively when it comes to the administration of ministry (central offices for finance, communication, children & youth ministry, etc., run by a solid administrator as a canon) but should then push the episcopate back down to the grassroots level when it comes to the ministry of a bishop. A Bishop, like a shepherd, should smell like sheep. A bishop shouldn't have oversight over more congregations that can be adequately led and pastored by one person. We must reverse the trend of bishops holding multiple jurisdictions. Rather than the increase in a multiplicity of diocesan staff, I would rather we saw two or three bishops (an ordinary and suffragans—but suffragans with true oversight over their part of the diocese) who are able to be the apostle, priest, and pastor to Episcopalians in that area and who are supported by a strong central office.

This also means we need to fundamentally rethink episcopal compensation. I know this is verboten, but I do not see how Episcopalians can preach with a straight face about income disparity and at the same time approve compensation packages for a bishop that approach three to even four times the minimum salary for a priest. Does offering less than $150K for a salary package mean you won't get candidates? No, it just means you'll get different candidates... and you might get candidates with a keener interest in being, you guessed it, an apostle, priest, and pastor to a geographic gathering of Episcopal congregations. 

Finally, we need to restructure our approach to discernment of episcopal and discipline. The current model of a packet of information followed by videos and (the unfortunately named) "walkabouts" means that you often wind up electing the person who is best at the soundbite. I fail to see how this model enables you to discern who has the skills to be an apostle, priest, and pastor. And there have been a handful of examples over the year of the most electable candidate proving to be far from the most gifted apostle, priest and pastor. Also, our discipline model continues to treat bishops as above the fray from true consequences for their actions. Bishops who commit misconduct often wind up with a year of paid leave... something unheard of in the larger world, including the world of normal parochial ministry. Compensation and terms for discipline must be removed from the bishop's peers and placed in the hands of the broader church. 

I don't know what to do with all of this. Heck, probably just writing this means I'm sealing the deal on being even MORE unelectable to the episcopate, should that opportunity ever come in the distant future. But, to be honest, I wouldn't really want to be a bishop in the way the vast majority of bishops are forced to function. Being an apostle, priest, and pastor has appeal and I could see a calling to that later in my life... but that just isn't what the many bishops get to be.

And that brings me to my last and perhaps most important point. The issues I have identified above are not the fault of the current or previous bishops of our church. They are the fault of clergy and lay people who have written these scripts and then expected bishops to follow along. We have created the systems in which our bishops currently function and when they try to break these systems they are broken down by the system in return. 

Our bishops cannot fix this. Only we can fix this. And we must if the Episcopal Church is ever going to reverse decline, turn from blind partisan allegiance, and become a true force of God's reckless love in an increasingly dark world.