Apr 03 | Well Done, Thou Good and Faithful Servant

So it looks like my Bishop is retiring.

I suppose it’s not so surprising. I had been expecting it would happen for some time – I didn’t think that, should I be ordained, I would serve under his episcopacy. It’s still a bit much, though! He’s been Bishop of this Diocese for twenty years; that’s an impressive stretch.

I wasn’t paying attention to church stuff in the Diocese of New Westminster when he was consecrated in 1994. In fact, I still lived in Ottawa then – I was ten years old and singing in the St. Matthew’s Women and Girls’ Choir (but still not paying much attention to church politics!) When we came back, I left church for a while, but my mum got quite involved. It was around 1998 or so when the Diocese first began talking about the blessing of same-sex unions. Bishop Michael was a true champion of the people – standing up for equality and yet being very sensitive toward those who supported the motion and those who didn’t. At every turn he made sure that he was not imposing his will on anyone else. He wouldn’t even allow the motion to be put forward until it had a majority at Synod.

Even though I wasn’t involved in the church at the time, I was aware of Diocesan efforts and Michael’s efforts. It was a true witness to what I believed was a geniune Christianity – one that welcomed all God’s children to the table if they were willing to come, and one that welcomed people as they were. This only became more important to me when I came out as bisexual. If this hadn’t been modeled to me, I might never have come back to church. I know today how amazingly lucky I am. It’s why I’m so sympathetic to Millennials (and others) who choose to identify as “Nones.” I could have been one of those Nones, one of the “Spiritual but not Religious” who looks around at the vision of Christianity they see on TV and in the news and decide they’ll not bother with that, thank you.

I shall greatly miss Michael’s ministry as Bishop. He is a man of deep grace, civility, gentleness, sharp wit, and reverence. He was the kind of Bishop that could actually make a Millennial support an episcopal system! He took the role very seriously and never abused it. He was a careful and generous shepherd. I’ll admit I’m a little sad that I won’t get to call him my Bishop. He has absolutely earned this blessed retirement, though. I wish him well and I really hope he uses his time to continue to write – and get a couple of rounds of golf in.

In the meantime – OMG YOU GUYZ WHO WILL THE NEW BISHOP BE??? I can think of two people I would absolutely stand behind…but part of me is really thinking they’ll choose someone from outside the Diocese, and I suppose that could be good. It would be nice to have a pair of fresh eyes. As my prof mentioned today, this is a very rich Diocese in terms of real estate – one of the richest in the region. It would be a real challenge to lead a place like this.

Pray with me that we don’t get a total nutcase. This is sort of like a potential boss we’re talking about.

-Clarity