Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

I, along with many of you, rejoiced to learn that Canon Megan Traquair was elected to be the next Bishop of the Diocese of Northern California. She is everything one hopes for a Bishop to be and it seems to me that the Diocese saw that the Spirit had called her to be their Bishop even before the formal process had begun. It seems a good time to reflect, for a moment, on what it means to have bishops. I once read a piece in which a high church writer of a century or so ago wrote, “We exalt the authority of all bishops except enfleshed ones.” Of course such a take is humorous but it also points toward a reality — while we elect people we like, love, or tolerate to the office it is the office itself which carries the seed of unity from the first apostles to us here and now.

Saint Cyprian of Carthage wrote this in the third century (that’s roughly 200 years after Christ and roughly 1,800 before today):

“We should all firmly believe in and maintain this unity, but especially those of us that are bishops, so that we may prove the episcopate to be one and undivided. Let no one deceive the brothers by false teaching: the episcopate is one, and each part is held to the whole body by each other part. The Church is also one, though spread far and wide by its ever-increasing fruitfulness. There are many rays of the sun, but one light. There are many branches of a tree, but one strength from its mighty root. From one spring flow many streams, and though they are multiplied in rich abundance, yet they are still united in one source. You cannot separate a ray of light from the sun, because its unity does not allow division. You can break a branch from a tree, but when broken, it will not be able to bud. Cut a stream off from its source and it dries up. It is the same with the Church. Filled with the light of the Lord, it shines its rays over the whole world, yet everywhere it is one and the same light that shines, and the body is not divided. The Church’s fruitfulness spreads branches over the whole world. It sends forth her rivers, freely flowing, yet the source is one, and she is one mother, plentiful in fruitfulness. We are born from her womb, nourished by her milk, given life by her spirit.”

When a Bishop is elected she or he is elected not to just the concerns of whatever metropolis or backwater village to which she or he is called — they are now a Bishop in a line that stretches back to the unity of a few women and men who saw, heard, and touched the resurrected Jesus and could only go forth and make it known. The duty of a Bishop, enfleshed or elsewise, is to maintain the Church’s fire and zeal at having seen nothing less than the Lord of Life pass that life on to us so that he, who once was thought dead, might give us knowledge of eternal life.  

We may think a Bishop’s role is a managerial one and involves shepherding the daily concerns of a body of the faithful. It is that but it is also the stewarding of the mysteries that have come to us by no other means than bishops of the past being faithful to ensuring that the doctrine, discipline, and worship they have received are passed to us not untarnished (for loving use always leaves a mark) but unwarped and unbroken.  

Apostolic Succession is not just the touch of one bishop’s hand to another’s brow — it is the passing of fire. It is the passing of the fire that warmed the apostles in the upper room. It is the passing of the fire of Pentecost. It is the passing of the fire that at once brought down and raised up martyrs. It is the passing of the fire that cooked the fish that Jesus shared as he walked and talked and broke Bread with pierced hands.

God bless Canon Megan as she begins this ministry and carries our prayers as she takes on the work of stewarding the mysteries and passing on the fire of faith.

Robert