Bishop Michael, I always enjoy your videos, but this one is particularly good, spot on. It really resonated with me and challenged me with thoughtful questions.
Michael, this is precisely the sort of vision I endeavored to cast in my decade as Bishop of Springfield. I loved serving a small diocese, where I could walk into a church and greet people by name and ask about their families--because I knew them. But I found that creating a sense of belonging to the diocese and not only the local congregation was more challenging than I anticipated.
This conversation is sorely needed as is how we lift up the laity to take a greater leadership role in the church. Your question, "what is a bishop for?" should also be coupled with the question, "what is the church for?" because we have lost the meaning of church and that is why so many people, particularly the younger people, have no need for an institution that lives to perpetuate itself. (Gayle Fisher-Stewart, Diocese of Washington)
As a priest in the sin to be diocese of the Great Lakes, i especially value your observations as we look to create our profile and being the process of seeking a bishop. As a priest in the current diocese of Eastern Michigan I find it distressing that I/We haven’t had a bishop diocesan since 2017. Thanks again for your observations. I’m going to pass them on and around. Blessings to you.
Hi Brother Hunn I Also enjoy your video s it's great to see your updates. You bring up great Questions And I ponder on some of them. Thank you for All you Do for your Diocese.
I am no theologian, no clergy just a plain lay man trying to be a disciple of Christ. I know that we need a shepherd as bishop, a man/woman near its people, teaching, bringing the sacramental presence of Christ. We don’t need princes or lords living in palaces. Bishop Michael you are so right. Thank you and greetings from Montreal.
The relational bishop that you describe is exactly the kind of bishop +Sean Rowe is and has been in his ministry. My prayers that we can allow him to continue to live that out in his role as presiding bishop.
I have to laugh. I recall a bishop, now deceased, who at the 75th year celebration of the founding of the diocese, rather than being out at the convention center talking among the people, was upstairs hosting a cocktail party for the priests of the diocese before Mass. Bad timing in my book.
Was with Diocese of New West in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada since 1982 but we had the 2002 split over blessing same sex unions; furthermore, Primate with then secretary became Bishop Michael Ingham developed rite for blessing same sex unions. But only some were given licenses to do so. Kept there till 2020 was just too much for me to see and endure more people getting madder and madder. Dad's family were French Huguenots joined the The Church Of England on Jersey Island in 1740 & again in 1753 to Anglican Church in Nova Scotia. The roots go back deep wanted to stay was hard to leave but did. Hope for the best, time will tell?
I am a Bishop in the Old Catholic Communion. We strive to live out Old Catholicism in our own context in the USA. We take courses in Utrecht and study Old Catholic ecclesiology and theology. What you are describing as your vision IS precisely the vision outlined in Old Catholicism. They recommend that there be no suffragan or assisting bishops. Dioceses should be small enough that the people can know and authentically choose their bishop. The bishop is to call forth people's gifts for use. That is not easy to do if the Bishop doesn't really know the people. To make smaller dioceses, it would mean the economics of the diocese would have to change. Maybe the diocesan officials would have to be bi-vocational. The Lutheran Synod in our area is struggling to find Lutheran pastors. They are having to use supply pastors from DOC, UCC, Methodist, Episcopal, etc. In the Episcopal Diocese, they are having to use diocesan trained self-sustained clergy. All of our OCC clergy and bishops are bi-vocational or self-sustainging. Otherwise our parishes would not exist.
Your Grace, you hit on an important point when you suggested that the Church has borrowed governing practices from the secular state. But I’d go further by saying that the Episcopal Church (and other mainline churches) are suffering financially because they have also adopted modernist and humanistic philosophies as their theology. Yes, I’m talking about “woke” issues such as diverse gender ideologies and abortion and contraception as their theology, which the Church from antiquity has taught were heretical. So when the Church adopts a new theology that mirrors the philosophies of the modern world rather than teaching the unchanging Truth, people are left asking, “Why should I be part of it? It’s not teaching me anything different than the world is teaching.” And when people thus find their Church irrelevant, the they leave. And when they leave, they take their money with them. I’m one of those former Episcopalians who left in 2010 for the theological reasons I described.
Apostolic “succession” depends on having the apostolic faith which episcopal types completely lack. Your apostles are james pike, john spong, Stephen bayne, kathryn Schori, Barbara Harris. With that succession you get congregations with 5-10% of a church building occupied on a Sunday. Fewer people training to teach a non faith to elderly people. Episcopalians might ask exactly why do I need clergy in the first place? For about 60 years they have been told that anything they want to believe is ok, anyone they want to sleep with is ok, so why all the rules about who is “allowed” to run a church service, or why there ARE services? In many congregations that question has been answered and they’re 90% empty. With that situation you don’t need more seminaries teaching unitarianism.
It would help if TEC didn’t pull bishops away from their dioceses as much as currently happens. Between House of Bishops’ meetings, and various churchwide committee meetings, bishops are always away. I also think the bicameral approach to general convention should go away. Bishops should sit with and work with their delegations.
What are your thoughts on the Reconquista, which is a movement of young people seeking to return mainline Protestant churches (such as the Episcopal Church) back to their historical, Biblical, and conservative theological roots? Would you support such a movement? Do you think your fellow Episcopal priests and bishops would support this movement?
Bishop Michael, I always enjoy your videos, but this one is particularly good, spot on. It really resonated with me and challenged me with thoughtful questions.
When money decides there's not much room for grace and love. Top to bottom the church needs this conversation. Thank you for your vision.
Good words Michael! Not a new situation. but one that will become more compelling the longer we wait for those conversations. Thank you!
Michael, this is precisely the sort of vision I endeavored to cast in my decade as Bishop of Springfield. I loved serving a small diocese, where I could walk into a church and greet people by name and ask about their families--because I knew them. But I found that creating a sense of belonging to the diocese and not only the local congregation was more challenging than I anticipated.
Thank you for offering this conversation! I have observed much the same and you have said it far more generously than I!
The truly troubling trend is the message of the gospel and the faith delivered once to all the saints has been abandoned.
This conversation is sorely needed as is how we lift up the laity to take a greater leadership role in the church. Your question, "what is a bishop for?" should also be coupled with the question, "what is the church for?" because we have lost the meaning of church and that is why so many people, particularly the younger people, have no need for an institution that lives to perpetuate itself. (Gayle Fisher-Stewart, Diocese of Washington)
Glad you are posting this timely topic. May it generate the thoughtful discussion you encourage.
As a priest in the sin to be diocese of the Great Lakes, i especially value your observations as we look to create our profile and being the process of seeking a bishop. As a priest in the current diocese of Eastern Michigan I find it distressing that I/We haven’t had a bishop diocesan since 2017.
Thanks again for your observations. I’m going to pass them on and around. Blessings to you.
God bless your discernment!
Hi Brother Hunn I Also enjoy your video s it's great to see your updates. You bring up great Questions And I ponder on some of them. Thank you for All you Do for your Diocese.
I am no theologian, no clergy just a plain lay man trying to be a disciple of Christ. I know that we need a shepherd as bishop, a man/woman near its people, teaching, bringing the sacramental presence of Christ. We don’t need princes or lords living in palaces. Bishop Michael you are so right. Thank you and greetings from Montreal.
Lots of good points here. I will be thinking about and chewing on this for a long while.
Bishop Michael I like this.
The relational bishop that you describe is exactly the kind of bishop +Sean Rowe is and has been in his ministry. My prayers that we can allow him to continue to live that out in his role as presiding bishop.
I have to laugh. I recall a bishop, now deceased, who at the 75th year celebration of the founding of the diocese, rather than being out at the convention center talking among the people, was upstairs hosting a cocktail party for the priests of the diocese before Mass. Bad timing in my book.
Was with Diocese of New West in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada since 1982 but we had the 2002 split over blessing same sex unions; furthermore, Primate with then secretary became Bishop Michael Ingham developed rite for blessing same sex unions. But only some were given licenses to do so. Kept there till 2020 was just too much for me to see and endure more people getting madder and madder. Dad's family were French Huguenots joined the The Church Of England on Jersey Island in 1740 & again in 1753 to Anglican Church in Nova Scotia. The roots go back deep wanted to stay was hard to leave but did. Hope for the best, time will tell?
I am a Bishop in the Old Catholic Communion. We strive to live out Old Catholicism in our own context in the USA. We take courses in Utrecht and study Old Catholic ecclesiology and theology. What you are describing as your vision IS precisely the vision outlined in Old Catholicism. They recommend that there be no suffragan or assisting bishops. Dioceses should be small enough that the people can know and authentically choose their bishop. The bishop is to call forth people's gifts for use. That is not easy to do if the Bishop doesn't really know the people. To make smaller dioceses, it would mean the economics of the diocese would have to change. Maybe the diocesan officials would have to be bi-vocational.
The Lutheran Synod in our area is struggling to find Lutheran pastors. They are having to use supply pastors from DOC, UCC, Methodist, Episcopal, etc. In the Episcopal Diocese, they are having to use diocesan trained self-sustained clergy. All of our OCC clergy and bishops are bi-vocational or self-sustainging. Otherwise our parishes would not exist.
Your Grace, you hit on an important point when you suggested that the Church has borrowed governing practices from the secular state. But I’d go further by saying that the Episcopal Church (and other mainline churches) are suffering financially because they have also adopted modernist and humanistic philosophies as their theology. Yes, I’m talking about “woke” issues such as diverse gender ideologies and abortion and contraception as their theology, which the Church from antiquity has taught were heretical. So when the Church adopts a new theology that mirrors the philosophies of the modern world rather than teaching the unchanging Truth, people are left asking, “Why should I be part of it? It’s not teaching me anything different than the world is teaching.” And when people thus find their Church irrelevant, the they leave. And when they leave, they take their money with them. I’m one of those former Episcopalians who left in 2010 for the theological reasons I described.
Apostolic “succession” depends on having the apostolic faith which episcopal types completely lack. Your apostles are james pike, john spong, Stephen bayne, kathryn Schori, Barbara Harris. With that succession you get congregations with 5-10% of a church building occupied on a Sunday. Fewer people training to teach a non faith to elderly people. Episcopalians might ask exactly why do I need clergy in the first place? For about 60 years they have been told that anything they want to believe is ok, anyone they want to sleep with is ok, so why all the rules about who is “allowed” to run a church service, or why there ARE services? In many congregations that question has been answered and they’re 90% empty. With that situation you don’t need more seminaries teaching unitarianism.
It would help if TEC didn’t pull bishops away from their dioceses as much as currently happens. Between House of Bishops’ meetings, and various churchwide committee meetings, bishops are always away. I also think the bicameral approach to general convention should go away. Bishops should sit with and work with their delegations.
What are your thoughts on the Reconquista, which is a movement of young people seeking to return mainline Protestant churches (such as the Episcopal Church) back to their historical, Biblical, and conservative theological roots? Would you support such a movement? Do you think your fellow Episcopal priests and bishops would support this movement?
Anglicans need to get out and evangelize. That’s the problem. We have the same problem in Canada. We need to grow our church’s.
Left the Episcopal Church and converted to Eastern Orthodoxy.
The liberal mainline Episcopal Church is dead.
God knows, you guys need to protect your pensions.
1:50 it's like "every man for himself"