Bishops are supposed to be pastors and guardians of the Christian faith, teaching truth and refuting error, winsomely and compellingly if possible; by applying discipline if necessary.
They should be examples of godly character, leading people in worship and mission, selecting, training and ordaining clergy, promoting unity, and managing essential administration for a group of churches over a wide area.
But what if bishops do not do this, perhaps because of incompetence (not having the necessary gifts), bad character, or heresy? Ideally, a healthy church would remove such people from leadership, but if this doesn’t happen, perhaps because the problem is with institutional culture not individuals, what then?
Questions from a visit to North Africa
I recently attended the consecration of Dr Ashley Null as Anglican bishop of North Africa, a new Diocese in the …