The Anglican Minimalist offers an Essay Contest for how Anglican/Episcopal dioceses might best select bishops to lead them. This is both hilarious and spot on:
From the Anglican Minimalist
Essay Contest: Anglican Covenant Values
Essay Question: Compare and contrast the two scenarios for how well they represent the Anglican Covenant values of interdependence and subsidiarity and the larger community issues of transparency, directness and candor.
Scenario I:
In this scenario for a Bishop to be consecrated he or she will have engaged in the following:
1) Read a profile of the Diocese prepared by clergy and laity of the Diocese after an extensive process of listening and collecting views from people throughout the Diocese. He or she will in turn have both profile on file with the National Office and a personal resume.
2) Been nominated by any member of the church, or through personal discernment submitted her or his name for consideration. . .
. . .
Scenario 2
1) A committee of 14 meets in secret to consider possible candidates whosew names have been forwarded by an equally mysterious process.
2) The committee settles on one to three of the men whose names have come to this secret process. This secret process may also include pressure protestations from partisan groups in the church whom members of the committee seek to appease, even though its proceedings are secret . . .
Read the rest HERE, and offer your own essay of 500 words to answer the question.
First entry is this gas-on-the-fire tweet by the Bishop of Willesden in the Diocese of London, AKA Pete Broadbent
@RuthieGledhill Election of bishops as it takes place in the USA is an appalling process – and I think you know the low quality of ECUSA.
about 22 hours ago via TweetDeck in reply to RuthieGledhill
@RuthieGledhill I invite you compare the quality and theological acumen of those elected by ECUSA with what we get through the CofE process
about 22 hours ago via TweetDeck in reply to RuthieGledhill
Broadbent was responding to this Ruth Gledhill tweet:
@thechurchmouse U r right it is ridiculous. CofE should elect them as they do in TEC.
about 23 hours ago via Power Twitter in reply to thechurchmouse
Broadbent wrote more in the comments at Church Mouse’s blog:
A lot of this is based on ignorance of the way the Crown Nominations Commission works. Those meeting will have a number of names before them (when last I did it, we had six going into the final decision process)….
[After pushback from other commenters he responded,]
All I did was point out the pig ignorance displayed by people on how the CNC works. JJ’s name would have been one among many. Most of us don’t throw hissy fits because a particular person doesn’t get a job for which they are being considered. If the leaker thought they were doing JJ or the CofE a favour, they clearly need their heads examining. But it’s a confidential selection process, and should remain so. We don’t need to be held to ransom by the tribal liberals or the tribal conservatives.