The Bishop - Chapter Thirteen: Burn the Heretic

Chapter Thirteen: Burn the Heretic

"I don't think they will charge you with being a heretic, Bishop," said Wilma Trehewey, QC, as she dropped the letter on his desk.  The Diocesan Chancellor, the senior legal officer of the Diocese, was perhaps Bishop Perkins' only true ally and confidant. She made sure she steered clear of any "office politics" at the Diocesan Centre, as her role was voluntary and she was otherwise preoccupied with her partnership in a large city law firm. An extremely competent and judicious individual, the Chancellor commented only on matters within her purview of expertise and oversight. Yet, she was a trustworthy ear for the Bishop, a good listener, and exemplary encourager. The issue on this day, however, was well within her wheel-house.  The Bishop had been visited by a delegation of clerics and lay people who had presented him with a letter strenuously objecting to any implementation of the Synod vote to authorize same-sex marriages in the Diocese.  In a round-about way, the letter threatened the Bishop that a senior lay person in one of their parishes might be willing to go to the Archbishop with a charge of heresy and the expectation of a trial, if the Bishop were to authorize a rite for same-sex marriage.  The Chancellor thought this was all just bluster, and very unlikely to come to any sort of fruition. "Heresy trials are exceedingly rare in modern-day Anglicanism," the Chancellor told him, "and it is most unlikely that the Archbishop would even entertain it. What I am more concerned about is their more overt threat that several parishes will withdraw from the Diocese and attempt to take their assets with them.”

“Surely, there is enough precedent in law that the Diocese is the legal owner of those assets…”

“Yes,” she replied, “I’m not worried that they could succeed, but this could get messy and would take up a considerable amount of our time and energy.”

“And not too mention, how bad it would be for the church to be at war with itself.  What does that say about us, Wilma?  I have striven so hard through all my ministry for a kinder, gentler church, one more reflective of the Gospel of Christ.  I never wanted to be a bishop, but now that I’ve been place here, I had hoped that perhaps my episcopate could be less confrontational than the last, more reconciling, more… more…”

“Pastoral?”  

“Well, yes.  That is what Canon Swiftman said when he nominated me.  That is what he - that old dog of all people! - said we needed. I think he was right, and that’s why I was elected. I know this.  If I’m in this chair for any reason, I have to believe it is because of that.  I’m not a fighter, Wilma, it’s just not in me.  I don’t want this battle.”

“There are those of us who will do the fighting, Will,” she said with a familiarity that few offered him these days.

“I don’t really want any fighting, at all.  You know how conflict averse I am - and how contrary it is to who I believe we ought to strive to be! There must be a better way.”

“If there is a better way, I know you will find it.”

“I just don’t know what it is, and when they accuse me of being a heretic…I mean, I am a human being…that is just insulting and vicious.  Truthfully, it does make me want to come out swinging, but if I did that, I’d be landed on my ass after the first punch.”

They both laughed.

“You’re no fighter, Will.  Don’t let them make you think you need to be. Don’t let them turn you into a dominator.  That’s the temptation that is laid before you in all of this.  People want strong leadership, they want a strong boss…until they don’t like what the boss is telling them, and then they get vicious.  You can’t be other than who you are, and you are not a dominator.  Look, I’m used to going into battle - it’s fun for me. It’s why I do what I do. Robbie and Suzanne, well, they love a good dust-up, too, each in their own way.  If there’s any fighting that needs to happen, let us do that.  We’re the soldiers but you are our leader, and you have gifts that we don’t have. You can stop the war before it starts.”

“I wish I knew how.”

“Well, you’re good at praying and I’m sure an answer will come to you in some quiet moment.  In the meantime, I’ll be strategizing the legal battle should it come to that. You know where I am if you need me.”

..."The Bishop" continues tomorrow...