Address by the Presiding Bishop
Diocesan Press Service. October 29, 1972 [72162]
Rt. Rev. John E. Hines
My brother bishops, in Christ Jesus, I hope you will bear with me for a few minutes as I reflect upon a very few things at the beginning of our meeting together.
There will be another and, perhaps, more appropriate time for us to express to our host Bishop, Iveson Noland -- to his wife, Nell, and to Bishop and Mrs. Gooden -- the feeling of pleasure I am sure all of us have because we are guests in the Diocese of Louisiana and in the storied city of New Orleans. The Church came early to Louisiana. It spent some rather lonely initial years in this French-Anglo culture. If I remember correctly, Hodding Carter Sr.'s history of the Church in Louisiana, there was a time when the present Cathedral congregation felt so isolated from any Episcopal neighbors that they petitioned the Diocese of New York to be taken in as a part of its church family. That would not be such an extravagant idea in our time with these two great cities separated by only ninety minutes jet-age style. But in those earlier years -- bereft of automobile and plane -- it would have posed an interesting but not very practical study in Episcopal pastoral oversight.
I have a remote historical ecclesiastical connection with this diocese through its first bishop, Leonidas K. Polk. The late Arthur B. Kinsolving II, in one of his oratorical flights, used to remind his audiences that in his mother's eyes the only person that out-ranked a Christian missionary -- in the hierarchy of saintliness -- was a Confederate soldier. Leonidas K. Polk was both -- baptized at West Point at a time when Christians were rare -- and religion was less than respectable at the Point. He eventually carried the titles of bishop and general in the War of the Northern Invasion! By mandate of the 1835 General Convention he was the first bishop of Arkansas and the Territory of the Southwest -- a small piece of which I inherited as Bishop of Texas. And when he was killed in the Battle of Pine Mountain in the Georgia campaign -- because transportation back to Louisiana was impossible -- he was buried beneath the altar of St. Paul's Church, Augusta, where we met as a House of Bishops a few short years ago.
Many a time I entered that church to find a bishop, or priest of the Church at prayer beside the tablet that marked his grave. Later, both he and his wife were brought to Christ Church Cathedral here in New Orleans, where they rightfully belong. Bishop Polk was merely a part of a great history of the Episcopal Church in this diocese -- to which both Girault Jones and Iveson Noland have contributed significantly.
Since we met last together several of the men who have sat and labored together with us as fellow-members of this House have entered the Church Triumphant. They are : Charles Clingman, Retired Bishop of Kentucky, Dudley Stark, Retired Bishop of Rochester, and Winfred Ziegler, Retired Bishop of Wyoming -- and also Geoffrey Fisher and Isabelo de los Rey. We remember them before God because of the gifts of ministry which He bestowed upon them. And we remember them as friends and fellow-workers in the name of Christ Jesus. Each possessed his own particular strengths. And because they were human, even as are we, each had his own particular weaknesses. We are stronger as a House because of the legacies of the spirit they bestowed upon us. And I think we could say of each of them what George Bernard Shaw said of William Marsh: "You can lose a man like that by your own death, but not by his. "
Sometime during our meeting together you will have on your desk a short paper explaining something I intend to do within the fairly immediate future as an extension of the pastoral office of the Presiding Bishop.
Seldom does a week pass but that there comes to my desk a letter -- or letters -- from clergy in our Church which, in reality, are a "cry for help. " Almost without exception they are ordained men who have exhausted the local and diocesan resources available to them -- and I am pretty much a "last resort" from which, I realize, they expect little or nothing. But -- in their desperation they dare not fail to grasp at even the frailest straw.
In a way, I am going to attempt something rather impulsively. But not without having sought counsel from people of experience in this Church. I realize that long-term solutions are, at least, in the initial stages. And help is "on the way." But it is the "now" that is hurting these men. And it is the "now" to which this office -- with the help of others -- intends to minister.
Some of our clergy are simply unemployed and may be without income or may be forced into uncongenial and unsatisfying secular jobs. Circumstances producing these results bring about an unhappy demoralization among certain clergy. Not only does this badly depress the spirits of those affected, it is also a very poor witness for the Church in the world.
In time, admissions to the ministry may be more realistically adjusted to the demand in terms of available full time employment openings in our total system. Our computerized deployment system ultimately will help to relieve this problem. Renewal at the seminary level, the revitalization of Continuing Education concepts, and the forming of truly supportive peer group associations -- all of these factors will operate to improve the present conditions, but these will take time.
Right now some of our clergy are in deep personal and professional distress. While the system itself cannot instantaneously modify itself so as to overcome its negative features, the Church does have the obligation to express humane and loving concern for those who are experiencing difficulties. Toward this end, two offices will be opened to deal with these needs. Each office will be staffed by a Presiding Bishop's Deputy for the Clergy.
To begin with, these two persons will be available to clergy who need and desire counseling regarding their deployment and their unemployment difficulties.
These Deputies will be an expression of the Presiding Bishop's concern and the Church's concern for the full and adequate utilization of our clergy. They will function as counselors and consultants to assist clergy with job-oriented problems. Close collaboration will be effected with the Clergy Deployment Office, the Office of Pastoral Development, and all other such serving agencies. Complete confidentiality will be professionally respected at all times.
The Presiding Bishop's Deputy for the Clergy will function as a kind of ecclesiastical ombudsman whose task it will be to respond to individual clergymen in distress. This task will necessarily be very broad and general, but the specific object is to provide the clergyman in distress with a human resource that he can call upon and make use of in his own need and desire to make better use of his own human, vocational, and spiritual resources.
One office will be located east of the Mississippi and one office in the west. While these two deputies will report to the Presiding Bishop, they will be geographically situated somewhere in the two fields indicated above.
At this moment I do not know how these offices will be funded. I can only say that support for the two field offices will be drawn from special sources. This will be an experimental and streamlined operation. The deputies will not function as bureaucrats, although it is expected that they will make use of various resources that exist within a number of different organizational systems. While doing this, however, their own system will be very simple and will be characterized by uncomplicated procedures and direct services.
This proposal will be carried into effect as swiftly as possible. It will be looked at carefully at six-month intervals to see whether or not it is serving pragmatically and proving to be effectively responsive to the needs of those persons it is being set up to serve.
You have, of course, the letter from me recording my intention to resign this office of Presiding Bishop sometime in 1973, the resignation to become effective -- if you agree -- May 1, 1974. This is not a time for any sort of a valedictory even though I realize that the moment this House authorizes the nominating procedure to begin, you and the Church, rightly, will be looking ahead to the future. The eight years which this House has given me in this office, thus far, have not exactly been the most tranquil years of the twenty-seven I have spent as a bishop. But -- in reflection -- I must admit that the tranquil years have been very, very few. But I would not want to exchange them, no matter what the offer. And I am both proud and grateful because of the patience with which you have regarded my idiosyncrasies, and the restraint with which you have tempered my excesses. In its usual good spirit I trust that the House will honor my request, authorize and -- if possible -- approve both the nominating process and those appointed to implement it. The six or seven months between the election of a new Presiding Bishop, and his assuming the prerogatives of this office will not be too much time for him to move from one world in which his episcopacy has been exercised to another in which it will be both stretched and rewardingly fulfilled.
During the months since the Houston General Convention, as the Presiding Bishop I have had the invaluable services of a committee appointed by the President of the House of Deputies and the Vice-chairman of this House, at that time Bishop Warnecke. It was appointed for the purpose of counseling with me in the performance of the duties and responsibilities of this office. The committee has been composed of the Rt. Rev. Jack Wyatt, Dr. Cynthia Wedel and Mr. Hugh Jones. They have been supportive of me as I sought to respond to the privileges of the office of Presiding Bishop and they have been analytical as well in seeking to understand the dimensions of the office and in seeking to assist me to do the same. I have asked this committee to make available to each member of this House its reflections which it has addressed to me. Thus by the good offices of Bishop Wyatt these reflections may form a point of departure for the discussion of the office of the Presiding Bishop which discussion a majority of this House requested the Agenda Committee to schedule for this meeting. I should think that not only the incumbent would benefit from the consideration this House can give to this matter, but also perhaps any future Presiding Bishop.
Shortly before the election of Arthur Lichtenberger as Presiding Bishop in 1958, Bishop Dun wrote an article for "The Witness" entitled "The Kind of Presiding Bishop We Want." His prescription:
"A dedicated, godly man, a simple man unspoiled by conspicuous position, with dignity but no tendency to strut or develop an official facade.
"A man of evident moral and intellectual stature, with strong convictions, joined with the capacity to respect the differing convictions of others.
"A man capable of lonely decisions, and not in constant need of reassurance and approval.
"A friendly out-reaching man, but not so genial that one never knows where he stands.
"A man of whom we can be proud as he represents us all, with all our interesting differences, in the nation and in the wider Christian fellowship!"
My predecessor in this office was that kind of a man. In my successor you will have an opportunity to choose another.