Letter to the Editor
Bishops–Who Pays?
Dear Editor,
Your issue of 25th March compared proposed new bishoprics to Peter Sellers’ clergyman character becoming the Bishop of Outer Space. Quite appropriate, like Outer Space the possibilities for these special bishoprics are vast and unending. A Bishop of the Opera? Or of the Soap Opera?
A Bishop for Covid? A Bishop for Coughs and Colds? A Bishop for Not Forgetting Your Hankie When You Go Out?
Who decides which topics are of sufficient importance to have a Bishop assigned? Will there be a televised phone-in vote, or perhaps a league table with promotion and relegation at the end of a season? A bish bash bosh?
By what benchmark will these Bishops’ effectiveness be assessed? By inches of complimentary print in Guardian editorials?
What can a parishioner do if they think one of these Bishops has not adequately conveyed the Church’s position on a certain topic?
Will these Bishops have fixed terms in office, or will they be sounding off on the same old topics twenty years hence, when everyone else has moved on?
And we are left with the inevitable and obvious question – who pays?
If these Bishops have such a burning desire to step onto their soap boxes and pontificate on every political issue, there is an avenue available to them. They can renounce their orders and stand for Parliament, on their own merits and at their own expense.
Yours etc,
J Clayton
Manchester
