A necessary evil

The ABC reports that besieged Bishop, Ross Davies, of South Australia's Diocese of the Murray will be "charged" under internal church proceedings. (here).
It is always easy to misinterpret what is going on here. And it is very sad for the Bishop, the Diocese and particularly the good and faithful folk of the Murray (which stretches from the southern suburbs of Adelaide to Mt Gambier in the South East and Renmark in the east Riverland).
It has gone on for some years now and is probably best characterised by the expression 'breakdown of relationships'.
The basic problem for the Anglican Church is that each Diocese is really independent and if there is need for external arbitration there is not necessarily any outside authority that can do this. Although the most obvious line is to the principle Bishop (called the Metropolitan...who in this case is the Archbishop of Adelaide), I think Bp Ross has some question about whether this line is correct. But we shall see.
Don't hold your breath waiting for titillation, it is likely that the argument will be in this area of 'relationship breakdown'. Like marriages which breakdown (mea culpa!) this will be the sad litany of disappointed expectations on both sides.
The truth is that this cannot go on forever, (without destroying the Diocese). Most people don't realise how fragile these small country Dioceses are...and as unpleasant as it may be....the Archbishop will reluctantly have to try and do what he can to sort it out. Hopefully it can be resolved. But it won't be happy, pretty ...but it is necessary.

A rock and a hard place

News that the embattled Bishop of the Murray, Ross Davies, is seeking $1 million in order to leave his job (The Sunday Mail..November 30) will come as no surprise. Though most will be horrified. It is a surprise (because it is news) but no surprise (because it is part of a litany of woes) that Archdeacon Michel Whiting has quit his post as Vicar General. One wonders why he took it in the first place.
I have a modicum of sympathy with the Bishop, he is after all slightly younger than myself and still has to think about proper provision for his family.Many would have thought that you just cut your losses and go back to being a parish priest, though I imagine he wants to join the Pope of Glenalta, who probably can't afford to pay him and Bp Ross most likely has no intention of staying in the Anglican Church.
Survivors of sexual abuse, none of whom I imagine has received $1 million, will be deeply hurt if the Church pays out that sort of money to one of its own, who some regard as part of the problem.

trouble afoot-on keeping one's nose clean

I am interested that my little blog has attracted some attention in the last few days from unexpected quarters. In particular the entry of November 30 about the possibility of Bp Ross Davies being compensated by the Diocese of the Murray, in order to facilitate his early retirement.
I made the comment then, and I stand by it, that it would be unfortunate if the Church were to be seen to compensate one of its prelates, in a way that it has clearly not been able or seen fit to compensate some of its victims...or rather the victims of some perpetrators of abuse..
One telephone call a few days ago, made the point, with which I do not concur that one of the publicly named clergy was being hard done by. That remains to be seen.
He nevertheless commended me for the point I was making about the injustice, perhaps even immorality, of the institution doling out largess to the Bishop in order to get him to go away.
A commentator today criticised me for suggesting that one of the perpetrators may be being prejudged. I steadfastly deny that I am referring to any case in particular, but I suspect that the commentator may well be closely associated with said person. I have no way of knowing for certain.
But, indeed, my sympathy goes out to those who have to deal with the mess that other people have made.
I am just intrigued that obviously my comments do not go unnoticed.
But let not our personal involvements stop us from seeing that these processes need to be done decently and in order.
I reassert that the church must state uncategorically that the welfare of those who have been betrayed by so-called pastors must be our highest concern, the institution must take second place to those who have been so brutally wounded. If we don't get this right then we may as well shut up shop!

The cost of justice

The ongoing dispute between the Diocese of the Murray and its Bishop , Ross Davies, (here) has taken another step towards resolution. Though, I guess this his been going on for nearly half a decade.

The toll on the Diocese seems astronomical and warns us about the enormous, potentially paralysing, cost of an hierarchical system.

That is, a system where one person or office can virtually hold the whole structure to ransom.

It would be inappropriate to comment on the Murray case, given that the case is now in session; save to say

that if part of a structure is found to be dysfunctional, or that other parts of the structure can't cooperate with it then obviously it is good to be able to stand that aside for the time it takes to work it out.

The trouble with a hierarchy which has a one-person pinnacle is that if that pinnacle is the problem you can't replace it until it's found it needs to be replaced. We don't even have a way of placing a temporary stand-in in place.

It is something that needs to be looked at, as there seems to be an increasing number of possibilities for dysfunctionality