ECCLESIASTICAL TITBITS

ECCLESIASTICAL TITBITS

Some years ago Sir Tom Skinner, trade union leader, lamented the growing tendency to omit titles such as ‘Mr’ and its correlates. He was speaking about the then Prime Minister being referred to as ‘Muldoon’ without any sign of honouring the position held. Sir Tom (he was only ‘Mr’ then) claimed the day would come when we would regret our cavalier attitudes to public figures and each other.

Recently, I heard that a young curate greeted the Bishop and Synod with the words ‘Hi, folks’ without deferring to his ecclesiastical superiors or the honour inherent to Synod. Of itself not, in some people’s view, significant beyond the lack of manners,. but it signified an attitude to synod and the bishop which detracted from the honour of both.

It seems that many clergy no longer understand that the basic unit of the Church is the diocese and that the bishop is the guardian of doctrine and custom in the diocese. Priests are appointed to assist the bishop, hence anyone put into a parish is done so with words clearly stating that the charge is both the vicar’s and the bishop’s. Thus, in the diocese the bishop is supreme. In visiting any parish he/she has the right to pronounce the absolution and the blessing. This is also true in the cathedral, it being the bishop’s seat.

It also happens that no priest visiting from elsewhere can offer worship, or anything associated with it, without the bishop’s knowledge and consent. No other bishop can intrude into another’s diocese and usurp the diocesan’s rights. Anything done to the contrary is unethical.

PISCATOR