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July 2009 Fifteen Years of Provincial Episcopal Visitors.
July 2009 Fifteen Years of Provincial Episcopal Visitors.
| Fifteen Years of Provincial Episcopal Visitors. |
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| Written by †Martyn Beverley | |||
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Some see the PEV as part of the solution to our difficulties. Some see him as an additional problem. Some dioceses use me seriously as a partner in mission. I am invited to attend staff meetings regularly, and am always sent the papers and minutes. I act for the diocesan like a suffragan, working with the archdeacon to make appointments, instituting and ordaining. I am used in areas where I am judged to have particular skills, regardless of being a PEV. Concern for a parish or a priest who looks to me always produces an enquiry so that we can evolve a common policy. Then there are dioceses where I am allowed to confirm in petitioning parishes and to perform the odd episcopal duty. I receive no staff meeting papers and rarely if ever an invitation to be present. I am rarely consulted about parishes and people. Folk who copy me into correspondence have even been rebuked. Such an approach works counter to the Church’s mission and makes those who look to me increasingly suspicious of their diocese. Most dioceses are somewhere in-between A change of diocesan bishop can transform relationships or occasionally undermine what has been achieved previously. The Act of Synod has few teeth and is near impossible to police. It convinces me on practical as well as theological grounds that a code of practice will not work. There is no tidy answer to the theological question as to what is a PEV. It is objected that the institution breaches Catholic order. Yet Anglicans have always lived with bearable anomalies. While there is a division within the presbyterate of the Church of England, formally permitting the recognition or non-recognition of women as priests, there is a larger breach of Catholic order. PEVs are the necessary further anomaly that helps the Church of England hold together. Being a PEV brings its particular difficulties. All bishops are recipients of projection. For PEVs it is enormous. Some former friends removed me from their Christmas card list. I travel long distances. Staff resources are modest. I miss the support of a senior staff team especially in times of personal and family crisis. Bishops are essentially world-facing in their ministry but a PEV is heavily preoccupied with the Church and its constant politicking. There is little opportunity to give expression to my interest in Catholic social theology. My fellow PEVs, not members of General Synod, are largely excluded from contributing to the Church’s wider thinking and mission. Subsequent provision must allow both for the better support and for the parity of our successors. For all this, I have come to love this ministry. There is much personal contact with clergy, laity and parishes. It is liberating for someone to whom the Church entrusts as little statutory responsibility as possible to be so trusted and affirmed by one’s own clergy and people. †Martyn Beverley
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