Anno Domini 2024 December 10

Beloved of the Lord:

Today is Tuesday, 10 December, in the year of or Lord 2024. The scheduled services are as-follows:

• Tuesday (today): 5:30 PM, Mass, Of the Octave of the Conception of the BVM.
  6:30 PM, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, Evensong.
• Wednesday: 12:10 PM, Mass, Of the Octave.
• Thursday: 8:00 AM, men's Morning Prayer & Breakfast.
  6:30 PM, Mass, Of the Octave, followed by Soup & Study.
• Friday: 9:00 AM, Mass, S. Lucy, Virgin & Martyr, using the Gregorian Canon.
  Immediately following, Veneration of the Blessed Sacrament.
• Saturday: 10:00 AM, Mass, S. Ambrose, Bishop, Confessor, Doctor.
• Sunday: 8:30 & 10:00 AM, Mass, Gaudete Sunday (Advent III)

For the first time in a bit, our weekly schedule follows the normal pattern. Perhaps the fact that this Sunday will be the Rose Sunday for Advent makes it a bit out of the ordinary, but we do see it every year, so not really any sort of variation from the overall Kalendar. Speaking of the Kalendar, our AD 2025 Kalendar has been sent to the printer. We are hopeful that they will be available before the end of this calendar year.

Inasmuch as the Consecration will soon be upon us (Saturday, 21 December, 10:00 AM), it might be fruitful to have a discussion on Bishops, and the Episcopacy (the construct concerning Bishops, just as Priesthood for Priests). Bishops, as we know and recognise them in our time, did not exist in the Apostolic Church. Yes, of-course, there were Bishops, but the modern form and function of them had not yet evolved.

A Bishop ~ from the Greek 'Overseer' ~ in those days was clearly the authority in the Church, having received his mandate from the Apostolic Succession, a truth that has been with us from the earliest time. Yet, the claim that S. Peter was the first Bishop of Rome is overreaching, even if we limit ourselves to the notion of physical territoriality assigned to the episcopacy, as this is, again, a notion that had not yet been born. Even S. Linus, to whom first Bishop of Rome is often assigned by those of us who reject Roman claims for S. Peter on a variety of grounds, fails this test of our understanding that a Bishop is responsible for a geographical region, which we now call a Diocese.

There has never been, nor shall there ever be, a human office that surpasses that of Bishop. One who is even slightly familiar with the topic might now question what about Archbishops, Metropolitans, Popes, and the like? As the early Church began to grow, that suspect seed endemic to all organisations ~ bureaucracy ~ began to be present in Holy Church. Thus, after the idea had become common that a Bishop was assigned to a certain geography, when those geographies became both adjacent and numerous, as in the case of a major urban centre like Rome, someone had to be responsible for overall organisation, settling disputes and the like. Hence, a Metropolitan Bishop, Overseeing, as it were, a metropolis, and the dioceses therein.

Bishops, then, are equal in theological authority and description. Even the Pope, which position has amassed vast authority and power in recent centuries, retains as his essential title Bishop of Rome. The idea of Petrine Centrality ~ that Peter ruled the Apostles, and his successors, the claimed Bishops of Rome, ruled the Church ~ is incredibly new. Archbishop Haverland makes an excellent discussion of this in his book. This notion was the product of Vatican I, one of the Councils of the Church claimed by Rome, but rejected by the Eastern Orthodox and we Anglicans. This council was held in AD 1871.

In our times, we commonly encounter three sorts of Bishops. These are separated by the authority given to them, but, here again, in the higher term, a Bishop is a Bishop is a Bishop. We most usually think of the Bishop Ordinary. This man is assigned the oversight of a Diocese. He it is who visits your parish, Confirms your children, Receives converts, and is the Father in God to your Diocese, your Clergy, and ultimately to you yourself.

A Bishop Coadjutor is a man who has been elected, by a Diocese, to be the immediate and lawful successor of the current Bishop Ordinary. These are elected for a variety of reasons. Regardless, when the current 'Ordinary dies, retires, steps-down, or is otherwise ~ God forbid ~ removed from his Office, the 'Coadjutor, having been previously and duly elected, immediately assumes the position of Bishop Ordinary, without having to call an Electoral Synod.

The last sort currently, commonly encountered, is the Bishop Suffragen. These men are elected to serve as assistants, in those matters which are properly the purview of Bishops. Occasionally, they are elected to assist an Archbishop in his Office and Duties, to represent him in Episcopal matters. I was originally elected as a Bishop Suffragen, to assist Archbishop Barton in his Office, as a member of his staff, until other events intervened, making it necessary that I take the role of a Bishop Ordinary. A 'Suffragen most commonly serves in a Diocese, making parochial visits, Confirming and Receiving, to ease the workload of the 'Ordinary.

Bishops have, from the very first, been both the crown and the conflict in Holy Mother, the Church. They are not conflict by their existence, but by the things up to which they sometimes get. Bishops are men, and, like all human beings, are subject to sinful whims and temptations. Hopefully these are the types of things that are small, and commonplace. Historically, regrettably, some have perpetrated monstrous disasters within and upon Holy Church. As my time approaches to join their number, I beg your prayers, that my works shall all be begun and ended in prayer, and that I shall ever do the will of the Father, and not of mine self, apart from Him. I remain

in His praise,

The Venerable T. L. Crowder

Pastor, Saint Matthew's Parish