In June 2024, the Eastern Synod will be electing a new bishop. As we engage in this time of discernment, Bishop Pryse continues his reflections on where and how the bishop’s ministry is exercised.
By the time you read these words, you will have been presented with a slate of names identifying those persons who have been nominated for election as our synod’s next bishop and vice-chairperson. Allowing one’s name to stand in nomination is not easy and all the nominees are to be commended for engaging this process of discernment with us. It takes a lot of courage.
A few months after I was installed as bishop of this synod in 1998, I attended an event where the then primate of the Episcopal Church USA was discussing episcopal ministry. He began by telling us a story about how he had responded to his own nomination to allow his name to stand for election to that particular office. Upon receiving notice of the nomination he went to his spiritual director saying he was at a loss as to how to respond. His spiritual director – very pastorally – said to him, “Face it, Frank – you’re a coward!” “You’re afraid because either way – if you participate in this process – you will have to deal with your own poverty – the poverty of not being chosen, or the poverty of “being” chosen.”
Most of us can probably understand the poverty of not being chosen. But few of us experience the poverty of having been chosen, of being pulled from a place of vocational confidence and competency to a place of vocational questioning and uncertainty.
Now retired Bishop Michael Ingham from the Diocese of New Westminster put it this way in an Anglican Journal article. “I remember a day early in my episcopate when I entered a room full of friends and colleagues. I was astonished when they all stood up! In the next few weeks, my jokes became funnier, my casual observations strangely more profound, and great interest was taken in my well-being in a way never shown before! The process of distancing and elevating had begun.”
“I was overwhelmed with demands. Every organization wanted me to articulate my “vision” for the church. Every priest and deacon wanted time with me. Every lingering conflict turned up fresh at my door. I was asked to make decisions about matters of which I had no understanding.” That is part of the poverty of having been chosen.
When I was elected, Bishop Huras told me that no one would sit beside me when gathered in a circle with colleagues. “No one wants to look like they’re sucking up!” I was stunned by his words and sadly surprised to learn that he was right! I was startled by how quickly the process of distancing had begun! Sadly, that, too, is part of the poverty of having been chosen.
As we prepare to elect new leaders in the life of our synod, I urge you to be urgent in prayer, generous in spirit and compassionate of heart. All of those who we will consider, whether identified in the nomination process or in the ecclesiastical ballot, are precious and beloved human beings; whether elected or not. In their offering to serve they will, indeed, experience a poverty. We owe them our deep respect and most generous gratitude.