Covenant Does Not Introduce 'Flying Bishops' in Episcopal Church
Episcopal News Service. March 21, 2002 [2002-070]
James Solheim
(ENS) The bishops of the Episcopal Church, at their recent retreat at Camp Allen in Texas, embraced a Covenant on Episcopal Pastoral Care, stating the belief that the present Constitutions and Canons of the church are "sufficient for dealing with questions of episcopal pastoral care and disputes that may arise between the bishop and a congregation, urging that "their provisions be used wisely and in the spirit of charity."
The brief covenant added that "the provision of supplemental episcopal pastoral care shall be under the direction of the bishop of the diocese, who shall invite the visitor and remain in pastoral contact with the congregation." The covenant also pointed out that such an arrangement, already employed in some dioceses of the church, should be understood as "a temporary arrangement, the ultimate goal of which is the full restoration of the relationship between the congregation and their bishop."
"It represents courtesy and hospitality within our canons," said the Rev. Rosemari Sullivan, executive officer of the General Convention. Any significant change would need the approval of both houses of the General Convention, she pointed out.
Contrary to some reports, the covenant does not represent a new policy, introducing the concept of Provincial Episcopal Visitors (PEV), commonly known as "flying bishops," that has been used by the Church of England since its General Synod in 1992 opened the way for women to be ordained to the priesthood.
The General Synod adopted an Episcopal Ministry Act of Synod in 1993 to "make provision for the continuing diversity of opinion in the Church of England as to the ordination and ministry of women as priests…." The act said that "the highest possible degree of communion should be maintained within each diocese" and that "the integrity of differing beliefs and positions concerning the ordination of women to the priesthood should be mutually recognised and respected."
Holding the church together
One way of maintaining that integrity was to introduce some "practical pastoral arrangements" such as the appointment of suffragan bishops in the provinces of York and Canterbury to act as Provincial Episcopal Visitors to work with the diocesan bishop "in enabling extended pastoral care and sacramental ministry." The PEV "will act as spokesman and adviser for those who are opposed to the ordination of women to the priesthood and will assist the archbishops in monitoring the operation" of the Episcopal Ministry Act of Synod.
Archbishop of Canterbury George L. Carey has on several occasions said that the arrangement may be a little messy but that it is much better than facing schism in the church.
He defended the decision in an address at the Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul in Charleston, South Carolina, at a conference organized by Scholarly Engagement with Anglican Doctrine in April 1999. "It is said that PEVs are a theological nonsense and potential source of division. I don't see it that way. As a House of Bishops, we saw the importance of holding the Church together and believed that some 'untidiness' of theology was preferable to the bitterness of division."
Carey said that opponents of women's ordination who sought to be faithful Anglicans should be respected. For many of them, he said, "there is no other place [than the Anglican Communion] they can call home, and to deny them room in our household is an ironic contradiction of our much vaunted comprehensiveness."
American system based on local autonomy
While some "traditionalists" in the Episcopal Church would like a similar arrangement, the polity of the American church makes that difficult. Prof. Ian Douglas of Episcopal Divinity School in Massachusetts said in an interview that the system is "uniquely American" because trust and authority resides at the local level where bishops are elected, "quite different from a Crown Commission in England choosing bishops."
Douglas argued that "in England, largely because of its history, authority is more monarchical while in America it is more democratic, with an emphasis on the authority of the local dioceses. Our extra-diocesan structures are federal in nature and, just like states' rights, we are cautious of authority beyond the dioceses," he said. "As Americans we believe in democracy and local government so power exercised from outside local settings is a big pill for us to swallow. We don't have archbishops and our polity makes it difficult to understand authority imposed from the outside--and that would include flying bishops."
Yet he added that this "primacy of the local leaves us freedom and flexibility to adapt to needs and challenges, as long as the diocese is the primary locus of authority."
In a memo shared with bishops at their retreat, Prof. J. Robert Wright of the General Theological Seminary in New York said that the church's Constitution and Canons allow the diocesan bishop to permit or license another bishop to "perform episcopal acts or officiate by preaching, ministering the Sacraments, or holding any public service." Doing so is "clearly not understood as being the same as a transfer of episcopal prerogative or episcopal oversight," Wright pointed out.
David Booth Beers, the presiding bishop's chancellor, said in a memorandum shared with the bishops that bishops from outside the diocese "may only function at the request of the diocesan bishops," and that their function is "limited in scope" and also "limited in time."