The crisis of episcopal leadership in the Church of England
by Ian Paul, Psephizo:
We have a serious crisis in the episcopal leadership of the Church of England. It has more than one dimension to it, and, as with any crisis, it has been a long time coming. If your ceiling caves in because a water leak has weakened the structures, you can be sure that the water has been leaking for some while (as we found out in our kitchen a couple of years ago!). The dimensions of this crisis include questions of role, training and education, and selection and appointment—but also more fundamentally of theological vision.
These questions have been brought into sharp focus by the news, leaked to the BBC, that Paula Vennells, chief executive of the Post Office during the Horizon scandal when 700 postmasters were wrongly convicted of fraud, was shortlisted for the role of Bishop of London, historically the third most senior post after the two archbishops. I will return to Vennells and her significance at the end of this piece.
Four years ago, I wrote a piece ‘In defence of bishops‘ as a response to comments by Matthew Parris and Sarah Coakley on the inadequacy of the current bench. (Bishops appear to be a relatively safe target for criticism in the media). I noted that part of the problem is that we have reached a point where, as far as I can see, the role of bishop in a diocese is just not doable:
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