Oct 09 Archdeacon Richard, The Enthronement

At last we have arrived at Bishop James’ enthronement.  It’s been quite a process with lots of prayer and consultation and hard work (and we should record our gratitude to the Vacancy in See Committee and especially its chair and the other representatives elected to the Crown Nominations Commission).



There has been quite a bit of information about the process - the drawing up of a document describing the Diocese, the consultation by the Appointments Secretaries of the Prime Minister and the Archbishops, the meetings of the Commission where they considered specific names, then the wait and then the announcement.  Since then, however there have been a couple of quaint ceremonies which although fossils - because they are both hidden and antique - are important.

The first was the Election of Bishop James.  All the Canons of the Cathedral were requested by the Dean to meet in the Cathedral on 26th June and a letter from the Queen was read out: she reminded us that we had petitioned her for a new Bishop and now she had nominated Bishop James (this was the outcome of the consultation process, of course) and invited us Canons to freely elect him.  It was a strange election. Those who failed to turn up for the election were contumacious, there was only one candidate and you couldn’t even abstain - the Statute of Conge d’Elire sees to that!  

A letter was then sent by the Dean, from that meeting to the Archbishop of York, and at a meeting in York on 31st July, Bishop James’ election was confirmed and he became, legally, Bishop of Carlisle.

I said, “important.”  These ceremonies remind us that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves.  The choice of our Bishop is not just up to us, not even just up to the wider church, but is a matter for the whole nation through our Queen.  Incidentally, the Statue of Conge d’Elire goes back to William the Conqueror, showing that the appointment of Bishops being in the hands of the Crown long pre-dates Henry VIII.  

In fact, up to the 8th century, Popes were elected by the laity and clergy of the city of Rome. By the 11th century the cardinal bishops nominated the pope but the decision then had to be ratified by the Roman clergy - echoes of the election of Bishop James!  Those echoes remind us of the way we stand in the traditions of the church in this, as we do in what we believe.

The weaving together of Church and State, seen in our process, has other echoes.  It was long accepted that the (Roman) Emperor was the person who called General Councils - those meetings of every Bishop of the worldwide Church, at which great matters of faith and doctrine were decided.  And, for example, from the time of the Emperor Justinian (ruled 527-565), Popes, having been elected, had to get that election ratified by the Emperor.  The Emperor was to provide a check on the Pope, as the Pope was on the Emperor.

So when we come to Bishop James’ enthronement, alongside the celebration, and alongside (perhaps) unease about whether enthronement is the right word for a ministry modelling Jesus’ service, we should be reminded that we are part of a complex relationship (with checks and balances) between past, present and future, and between church and world.  It is a relationship which - frustrating as it can be - stops us playing silly internal games and turns us Christians outwards - where we should be facing.