18 March 2009
Not much difference
Fr Blake laments that one of the problems about the Westminster appointment is that good 'traditional' priests are 'kept in the shadows'. Gracious. We Anglicans would feel at home if we poped. With us, the mechanism is that Diocesan bishops are very rarely appointed from outside the ranks of suffragan (assistant) bishops. And suffragans are appointed by Diocesans without any external control. So we have a self-perpetuating liberal oligarchy in which talent is not encouraged. Sour grapes? Well, have you ever meditated on why they had to invite a bishop of the autonomous Welsh Church to cross Offa's Dyke to become Primate of All England?
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With us, the mechanism is that Diocesan bishops are very rarely appointed from outside the ranks of suffragan bishops. And suffragans are appointed by Diocesans without any external control.
Diocesan bishops moreover - following a well-attested law of personel management - are deeply reluctant to appoint a side-kick who is likely to be more competent than they are. Once this final ingredient is put into the loop we have the Law of Episcopal Mediocrity as memorably enunciated by the late Fr John Boardman.
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