Recent news of bishops

The body of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was found in a shallow grave after his kidnappers informed authorities of where his remains could be located.  The head of the Chaldean Christian minority in northern Iraq, the Archbishop was outspoken in the pleas to end violence and religious persecution in what the US military has described as a region of Al Qaeda influence.  Benedict XVI extended his condolences to the Iraqi Cardinal, and prayed that the death of the Archbishop of Mosul, though tragic, could sow seeds of healing, peace, and reconciliation.  In my opinion, he Archbishop' continuing presence and leadership of a minority population shows the courage and conviction needed in one who leads a local church.  The payment of his life for that leadership is to be deplored, and prayers for the forgiveness of the perpetrators of this crime must be offered as part of that process of reconciliation.  Truly a martyr and truly a hero, the Archbishop of Mosul shows us, along with the murdered bishops of the Spanish Civil War, and Archbishop Romero, that even in our modern times, the price of our convictions is sometimes our lives.

So, if the price of heroism isn't always your life, in what other forms might it be found?  Bishop Robinson of New Hampshire, responding to the American House of Bishops gathered currently in Texas about the news that Lambeth Palace would not be extending an invitation to him, encouraged his brother and sister bishops to attend and participate in the gathering, and not to boycott in order to support him.  It seems to me that the graciousness and humility of this leader of the church in New Hampshire shows forth a model of one configuring himself to Christ: not looking for the promotion of his cause, but willing to sacrifice his dignity for the greater good.

And what of his aforementioned brother and sister bishops, who voted to depose two of their own number yesterday?  As ordained bishops, those two (Schofield, formerly Bishop of San Joaquin and Cox, formerly Suffragan Bishop of Maryland), they posses the fullness of the priesthood and are ontologically changed by their ordination: they are bishops forever, no matter what the House of Bishops does, they can never be unbishoped.  But they can be deposed, as the House moved to do.

These two men are still our brothers and merit our respect for their conviction and willingness, like Robinson, to sacrifice their dignity for their greater good.  Many of us disagree if the greater good of Robinson is the true good or if the greater good os Schofield and Cox is the true good.  But truly, both sides are lost when we stop coming together to pray, to talk, to argue, to meet Christ together in the Eucharist.  When our factions divide us, we are already lost and in breach of Christ's prayer to his Father that we all may be one.  The deposing of those who wish to stop the coming together might be for the greater good, though it is painful to all involved.  I have so much to learn from those with whom I do not agree, and I lament that I may never grow because they now are to disenfranchised, angry, and scared to remain.  As a Christian called to the diaconate, it is my duty to go to those at the periphery our our society and of our Church.  These persons, Schofield and Cox and their followers, are as integral to the life of the Church as any seated bishop.

To paraphrase John Donne, the death of the Archbishop of Mosul has already made us the lesser.  I pray that the deposition of Cox and Schofield will not cause them and their followers to leave and therefore lessen the Church even further.  It is a tragedy when death separates us, but a crime when schism does.