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I believe

I believe in episcopacy.

I’m just not sure about bishops.

Is there a problem with this statement?

July 24th, 2008 | Category: Church | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL

9 Responses to “I believe”

  1. 1
    Justin Anthony Knapp:
    July 24th, 2008 at 1:32 am

    “The problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried & found wanting but that it has not been tried”
    -G. K. Chesterton

  2. 2
    PaulW:
    July 24th, 2008 at 1:40 am

    I believe in personal and corporate episkopé. I could swallow episcopacy if the polity it represented was not the exercise of prelacy, but that of bishop in presbytery.

    Not sure it’ll happen, so I’m not sure about bishops.

  3. 3
    Derek the Ænglican:
    July 24th, 2008 at 3:44 am

    The difference between Lutherans and Anglicans: Lutherans believe that bishops are desirable but not necessary. Anglicans believe they are necessary but not desirable.

  4. 4
    Mark B.:
    July 24th, 2008 at 7:15 am

    PaulW, you describe the classic Anglican understanding, that bishops are senior presbyters, not a different order of ministry. Anglicanism is of course derived from Western Catholicism, which is primarily legalistic in its thinking (the heritage of Tertullian, I think), including its view of bishops. How much and in what ways would its self-understanding be changed if it worked in the more charismatic, pneumatic view of Orthodoxy? or the evangelistic view of bishops in Nigeria?

  5. 5
    Bill:
    July 24th, 2008 at 8:20 am

    As far as we can tell, no NT church ever started out with elders (or ‘overseers’) right from its very beginning. So First Century ‘episcopacy’ seems to depend on selecting men who have grown up into Christ alongside the rest of the congregation. Of course, sophisticated organizational structure prefers shipping in new managers from elsewhere as opposed to ‘promotion from within’. These probably aren’t the issues that most bother you at the moment, brother Doug… but there’s food for thought from a former Episcopalian. :)

  6. 6
    MetaCatholic » Help! Have I been sleep-blogging?:
    July 24th, 2008 at 8:33 am

    [...] 8:32 am This is well weird. I turned on the blogging machine this morning to find 5 good comments on this post. I have a vague recollection of writing this some months ago, but none at all of doing it last [...]

  7. 7
    Eddie:
    July 24th, 2008 at 9:12 am

    I believe that for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows…

  8. 8
    doug:
    July 24th, 2008 at 9:15 am

    In my experience, Eddie, it’s very often a weed

  9. 9
    Derek the Ænglican:
    July 24th, 2008 at 2:23 pm

    I worked in landscaping for several years. The only true difference between a weed and a flower is location…

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I'm Doug Chaplin, parish priest and human being. Sometimes I have thoughts I want to share. Sometimes I have thoughts I should keep to myself. Sometimes I get them confused. Happy browsing.

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