Grein Becomes 14th Bishop of New York
Episcopal News Service. October 26, 1989 [89207]
NEW YORK CITY, Oct. 14 -- When the Rt. Rev. Richard F. Grein became the 14th bishop of New York on October 14, succeeding the Rt. Rev. Paul Moore, Jr., it represented a significant change in leadership for the diocese -- and the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Moore was one of the great liberal leaders of the church, the scion of a prominent family, and the outspoken champion of causes -- especially rights for minorities and the poor. Proud of being called a liberal, Moore said, "If you're going to be given a label, I rejoice in that one." Liberalism for Moore was not so much an ideology as a "point of view -- a posture in which people can develop in the fullness of the stature of Christ."
In an interview with Religious News Service, Bishop Moore said that mainline denominations such as the Episcopal Church are suffering from tremendous losses in membership because they fail to present a message that is "radical" enough to appeal to people who are willing to put their lives on the line for their commitment to social justice.
Bishop Grein, former diocesan bishop of Kansas, has made it known that he will concentrate more on the internal needs of the diocese, such as finances and clergy morale. While he says he is proud of the church's social consciousness, he expresses an eagerness to "put a theological undergirding beneath it because people sometimes have forgotten what motivates their concerns."
In an interview with the New York Times the day before he was installed, Grein said that he would like to see Anglicans build their identity around "the things we are good at -- liturgy and spirituality." Grein spent two years as an Episcopal monk and said that Anglican spirituality stems in good part from the religious life of the Catholic Benedictines in medieval England. "I wish we could retrieve that spirituality with its sense of permanence and its love of creation," he said.
Grein was installed in a ceremony that seemed uniquely appropriate for the world's largest Gothic cathedral, St. John the Divine on Manhattan's Upper West Side. After lengthy processions that included many distinguished guests, Bishop Grein knocked on the massive bronze doors and was welcomed by the people of the diocese with their promise to "celebrate the ministry to which you have been entrusted and to induct you into that office."
Ushered down one of the longest aisles in Christendom by a bagpipe band, applause, and incense, Grein stood before the president of the province and asked "to be recognized, invested, and seated in the chair which is the symbol of that office."
Preacher for the three-hour service was the Most. Rev. Michael Peers, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, who thanked the diocese for sending his church "a great gift to us over 200 years ago. Our first bishop came, as a political exile, what you call a Tory and we call a Loyalist, washed up as political exiles are from that day until this, on the shores of Nova Scotia."
In the Catholic tradition the bishop's role, Peers reminded the audience of over 4,000, is to "symbolize the unity of the church, to maintain the integrity of its teaching, to ensure the continuity of its mission and ministry." Peers said that a bishop should also "seek the common way forward among the complexities and diversities that characterize the life of the church."
The ministry of the bishop, Peers contended, becomes "increasingly vital and increasingly difficult as diversity and complexity increase in the church and the world. We have always cherished diversity in Anglicanism," he added. "We have considered that one of our strengths is that catholicity which is the inclusion of differing traditions -- theological, liturgical, social -- within one common order. We speak of unity in diversity with a certain amount of pride, and we have often said, to ourselves at least, that this is one of the gifts we offer to the ecumenical family."
There is a danger, Peers said, "that legitimate diversity can so easily become something else. The temptations of bland and uncritical inclusion, on one hand, and the temptation of entrenched dogmatism, of single-issue mentalities, on the other. Narrow models of unity stifle the spirit of creativity, and inadequate models of inclusiveness can deny the spirit and primacy of truth."
After Bishop Grein renewed his ordination commitments and was invested with the signs of his office, ecumenical representatives brought greetings. John Cardinal O'Connor said that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York owed a special debt to New York Episcopalians because in 1785 "a very, very poor Roman Catholic community, in what was then the heart of New York, a community despised by many -- St. Peter's, wanted to build a church. It had no land. Trinity Episcopal Church sold it a tract of land. The church was built, but then St. Peter's had no money, so Trinity forgave the debt and gave the land to St. Peter's Church." Interjecting a note of humor into the otherwise solemn occasion, the cardinal said, "It was undoubtedly the first, most wonderful gesture of Christian charity on the part of the Episcopal Church toward the Roman Catholic Church -- and undoubtedly the first and worst land swindle on the part of the Roman Catholic Church toward the Episcopal Church."
Other greetings were brought by Lutheran Bishop William Lazareth; the Rev. James Forbes of Riverside Church in New York; Bishop Athenagoras of the Greek Orthodox Church; Anglican Bishop Samir Kafity of Jerusalem; and Dr. Mohammid Mehdi of the National Council of Islamic Affairs.