Thank you, Fr. Mark for your essay. I agree with your conclusions. Below are thoughts that came to mind while reading recent Gospel lectionary selections regarding the dispute in the Apostolic College as to who would be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven At Good Shepherd on recent Monday nights we were discussing Sacraments and Orders, which also prompted observations in this piece. Charles+ ---------------------------------------------------- The Subject of Apostolic Succession is one that has been of interest to the church from its beginning. It was of interest because the passing on of truth was considered to be critical to carrying out Our Lord’s command to preach the Gospel to every creature. To stand in succession meant that the Gospel was being passed on. The office of Presbyter (Priest) was significant because it had the responsibility of teaching, passing on this Gospel by Word and Sacrament. The office of Overseer (Bishop) had as its prime responsibilities the passing on the true teaching and the maintenance of order. This “living voice” in the Church passed on the traditions given by the Apostles. There came a time when the Church was captured by the empire (the world). Bishops became Lords Temporal. An Imperial Papacy, a Pope with armies seems entirely foreign to Jesus who told St. Peter to put away his sword, and who said before Pilate, “My Kingdom is not from this world, else would my servants fight.” The Church in the middle ages became very involved in civil government. In a sense, it might seem that the Kingdom of God had come on earth to assure stability in all of public life. However, the excesses of the church courts and the veniality of clerics in high places brought the church into disrepute. The rise of nationalism in Europe and the dawn of “the Age of Reason” brought about a re-thinking of the relation between the Kingdom of God and the newly emerging states. A doctrine of divine right of Kings was discovered and the debate arose over who was really sovereign in a nation state (the territory of the episcopate) Who is to be sovereign; the Lords of the Church or the Lords of the State? This debate is still going on in the courts of this and other countries. JPII and other Christian leaders hold the view that the only defense of individual freedoms against an all-powerful state (sovereign), is the freedom of conscience, the freedom of will of the individual to acknowledge God as the Lord of his life. A man’s ultimate concern (to use Tillich’s phrase) is not the Company or the State; men must be free to follow conscience. But the nobility of this effort of church leaders to hold out for freedom of conscience and expression by the individual against the state is often undermined by the very activities of those who call themselves Christians and demand privileges for themselves and their organizations that others are denied. For example, a few decades ago Rex Humbard’s Cathedral of Tomorrow and Brassiere Factory was faced with Federal charges of tax evasion. The question of whether church properties and enterprises should be tax exempt is always up for review in this country. Debated in courts today is the issue of whether Church employees should be given the same privileges and benefits given to workers in the “secular” work place. To many, perhaps most, Americans, it is fundamentally wrong that a Church and its leaders should grow wealthy by manufacturing underwear and not paying taxes on these profits, or that a church should avoid responsibilities required of other organizations. Schemes to acquire places of privilege by religious are not new, or uncommon. Nor is it only charlatans from the Protestant evangelicals corner that are culpable. In the 1960’s a Roman Catholic Brother was a guest in my home while he was on vacation from his order. He had spent 2 decades in Rhodesia, managing a coffee plantation. This devout, humble man confided in me that he wondered whether his work was truly to the glory of God. These were the days when nationalism was rising in Africa and colonialists of every sort were being challenged. He eventually retired to a communal home that his order provided in Florida for its aged members. The money for that retirement community was earned by men like Brother Martin and the labor of persons he supervised on that plantation. In his last years as he watched the sunset on Tampa Bay, he had long thoughts about the justice and the righteousness of acts by the remnants of the Imperial Church in his time. The high and mighty episcopal rulers and overseers of church enterprises enjoyed enormous privileges in some countries. In the 1960’s large portions of the church had yet to adopt the servant role the Church began to resume as a result of the Vatican II insights. Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Orthodox and other pretenders to be successors of the apostles cannot expect an informed world to take them seriously as long there is squabbles at court over property, the demanding of privileged positions and the continual parading around in the trappings of the old imperial church. It takes more than a foot-washing rite on Holy Thursday to restore respect to the office of Bishop. The world will respect Christian leaders who by their lives and teaching are “servants of the servants of God.” I respect JPII. I respected Cardinal Joseph Bernadin when he was bishop of Cincinnati, for he sold the large estate used by generations of bishops and used that money to support charities in Cincinnati while he moved to a very modest apartment. He is remembered by 1000’s in Cincinnati and in the Archdiocese of Chicago as a humble servant. But in the public eye, the good work being done by many is overlooked because of scandalous behavior and neglect of discipline by a few in high places. If Roman Catholic and Anglican clergy could manage to stay out of the courts and the media for a few generations, and attend to teaching and the servant life in imitation of our Lord, then perhaps a territorial episcopate might mean something to the entire community. By their fruits we will know them. The claim to have a divine right to allegiance is singularly unconvincing when the principals making such claims are disputing with one another as to who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Decades ago, in the 1960’s, I had become convinced that an episcopal order was right and essential for the passing on of the faith. However, it was difficult to find a church whose bishops resembled the “Shepherd and Bishop of Souls” (I Peter 2:25). I heard the voice of the Good Shepherd in Bp. Clavier’s attention to passing on the truths of the faith. I see in ++Walter and +Peter servants of the servants of God by their simplicity of life and I hear the Good Shepherd’s words coming from them.. Candidly, as Mark+ pointed out, “the territorial episcopate often enables an unimpeachable assault on the established Anglican faith and practice.” Sadly, I think that has been the norm in most countries for centuries, and is an assault on Christian faith that goes beyond Anglicanism. The territorial episcopate will become a reality only when the Shepherd’s voice can be heard (John 10:7-16). “Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and a smoking wick shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.” (Matthew 12:19) Charles+ ---------------------------------------