Bishops and Power

I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by amazing people and the more I find out about them, the more I admire them. There is a retired clergyman that I have got to know who I think is truly wonderful. It is so good when I am at the beginning of my ministry to talk to someone who has so many years of experience. He was also very active in national church matters and so understands how the systems and structures work. He commended me for my work trying to stop the Anglican Covenant and asked me how I had found it. I said,

'Well I have met and worked with some really great people'.

'Good'.

'And I have learned so much about how the systems work and taken much more interest in our church'.

'That is good training for you.'

'But the thing that has amazed me is how much power the bishops have'.

At this point my priest friend burst out laughing and could hardly stop.. when he regained his composure he relayed what I had just said to his wife and they both started laughing uncontrollably. It seems like this is a well known thing that bishops have lots of power. Nobody thought to tell me though.

My priest friend told me that it is a lot better now than it used to be, it shouldn't be like it is, but historically bishops have always had oodles of power.

It is an ethical question for me though, if we are synodically governed then how much power and influence should bishops have over their synods? For instance, on the Covenant debate, I have been told that many synods are getting a speaker to put the 'for' case, but not the 'against' case, and it is their entitlement as the President to give a steer. I wasn't expecting that and it has come as a shock.

I would be interested in your thoughts. A friend and I were debating this and she felt that the more liberal members of church are in favour of a democratic synodical approach to governance and more conservative members were into the bishop having power. Do we as a church know which of these two models we have? Do we need to debate it? My understanding is we are synodically governed and episcopally lead. So the 'laws' are up to the synods and the strategy and pastoral side of things are up to the bishops. Hence my personal feel is that the bishops have their say at general synod and at diocesan level they should not unduly influence the debate....

What do you think?

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