Anglicat is just now back from the Minnesota Diocese's first clergy retreat. A recurring theme was "episcope," which is generally translated as oversight of, watching over, or caring for the churches. Our distinguished retreat leader described how the rules of ministry change when one steps from rectorship to the episcopate. While as a good parish priest, one gets to be the star in the congregation, in the episcopacy, the task is to help other people to become stars, he said. "It's a ministry of encouragement," he summarized.
These comments triggered Anglicat's thoughts to drift to the 1999 film,"Instinct," starring Anthony Hopkins. By copying what the gorillas in a band were doing in the jungle, and gradually moving closer and closer, the Hopkins' character manages to join the band under the leadership of an old and glorious silverback gorilla. Hopkins describes, with awe, the experience of being under the silverback's tender and vigilant episcope':
"...the way the old silverback used to watch over all of us, even me! It's an amazing feeling, Theo, to be watched over. I discovered in that look of his more than watchfulness--tolerance, acceptance." Such a beautiful thing.
Watching over--episcope'--is a magnificent gift to those blessed to be watched over. Would that all churches could experience episcope' as the gorillas do.
2 comments:
Hmmm... I'm not so sure of that analogy. You see, in order to be accepted by the silverback you have to smell like a silverback.
Thanks for this, Anglicat. Concise but very thought-provoking.
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