Letter to Praxis published in Issue 20 [Winter 2008]
In Praxis 19, Colin Buchanan noted that the Archbishop placed a ring on the finger of two of his friends newly consecrated bishop, and queried the introduction of this ceremonial. I write as the ‘other’ consecrand at the service in Southwark to offer a complementary comment.
I suspect that many bishops would agree that ‘kit’ of all kinds looms a little too large in our ministry, and the acquiring of it can be another dis-quieting factor in the days before the consecration. But that’s how it goes in this embodied life, from weddings to starting out in the workplace – and there’s a bit of both in a consecration – and I’ve already discovered the practical importance of turning up at a school, for instance, ‘looking like a bishop’, even if that means feeling like a Christmas tree.
So, weighed down by my kitbag, I nevertheless experienced the ceremony at Southwark as one touched by both the human and the divine. Receiving Communion with my family, and then just sitting down for a bit, was heartily humane; and the presence of God shone with assurance through the breaking of both the Word (thank you Jeremy) and the Bread and Wine, not to mention the consecratory prayer itself – all sacramental moments in that sense.
So the business of the rings did not for me arise from any sense of attempt to re-create pontifical pomp or introduce Catholic curlicues. It fitted quite naturally into the process of taking a very human candidate and the clobber of human life and praying that God would break into all that and be encountered as present too. No great difference there – perhaps none at all – from ordination to the priesthood or even baptism at bottom, but a bishop is de facto propelled into a public ministry well beyond the bounds of those who know him or her personally, and so the symbols marking out that ministry are perhaps particularly important. Which takes us back to the ring.
I have never been a bejewelled sort of person. Even my wedding ring decided to disagree with the finger it was meant for. Learning from that, Jean helped me choose and have made a simple one that would work better, with a Celtic Cross on it – no more. I’ve found that I keep it on at all sensible times, and that for me it is a simple and enduring public statement that I am wherever I am for and with Christ, in and offering His love. Compared with the radiant raiment, the beautifully bound Bible, or even the lovely Cumbrian crook my sending diocese gave me, its ubiquity, its simplicity, and its donor all mark it out as particularly special. So I’m rather pleased that it had its own moment of ceremonial glory too.
Now all of this is very ‘bottom up’ and experiential, a proper liturgist’s nightmare. And liturgy needs a few lions prowling round it to watch out for unnecessary excesses and theological thoughtlessness. So I’m grateful to Colin for his comments and can assure him that no offence has been taken at all. But I do long for a liturgy where we do not have to walk too carefully between the leonine commentators on either side of us, and can be free to make the most of those moments when the church and worship in all its quirkiness becomes a touching place for both the divine and the daily. This was one of them.
Filed under: Magazine articles, bishop, consecration
