In June 2024, the Eastern Synod will be electing a new bishop. As we engage in this time of discernment, Bishop Pryse offers some reflections on where and how the bishop’s ministry is exercised.
It’s not uncommon for the bishop to become an object lesson for the Sunday morning children’s message. In a laudable effort to introduce the visitor at the front of the church who wears a big cape and carries a big stick, the bishop gets trotted out for a visit with the kids. And invariably, the pastor asks, “Who knows what a bishop does?”
One Sunday morning an all-too-clever pre-teen shouted out, “They move diagonally!” We all laughed, but there was more than a little truth contained in that youngster’s answer!
The bishop is always moving, sometimes diagonally, sometime forward and sometime backward; always moving between different expressions of the church. One Sunday in a rural congregation in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia and the next to an urban ministry in the heart of downtown Toronto. Then off to a meeting of the National Church Council or a solidarity visit in support of one of our Global Mission Companions. The bishop is always moving back and forth between the church’s most local and widest expressions. And in that movement, the bishop can become a means of connection that strengthens the bonds that unite us as fellow members of the body of Christ.
All human beings and human institutions are vulnerable to the dangers of parochialism. We are all tempted to value only our own very particular perspectives, experiences, and aspirations. As someone whose ministry engages a wide variety of local and wider expressions of church, the bishop can help broaden perspectives and make connections that can enhance the functioning of the whole body.
When the bishop sits at meetings of the National Church Council or the Conference of Bishops, they must carry their synod’s congregations and rostered leaders with them. Likewise, when the bishop engages with congregations and rostered leaders at the most local level, they must always carry with them the experiences, perspectives, and aspirations of our wider church partners.
St. Paul, writes, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.”
No single expression of the church can live in isolation. Bishops are called to help make connections and broaden perspectives. They move diagonally. They must listen carefully, reflect prayerfully, and share generously. And in that sharing our experience of discipleship can be made richer and the health of the whole body made stronger.