What is the Anglican view of bishops?
As we saw in a previous blogpost, there is some significant biblical warrant for episcopacy — the government of the church by bishops (in Greek, episcopoi). The Church of England inherited episcopacy from the early and medieval church. Both Celtic and later Roman forms of Christianity in England had bishops (just as Eastern Orthodoxy does), though they often conceived of their roles in different ways (with the more settled, Roman pattern of a bishop overseeing a territory called a diocese winning the day as time went by). The Protestant Reformers did not seek to abolish the office of bishop, but to capture the power of appointments and reform the office according to the word of God, so that it would be a more useful instrument for the evangelisation and edification of the people. They did not seek to establish government by local committees of presbyters (Presbyterianism), or transfer significant episcopal powers to more ‘democratic’ parish gatherings (Congregationalism); and they certainly did not intend to create new mini-Popes in every parish who could tyrannise their congregations without legal accountability (a sort of hyper-congregationalism with monarchical Presbyters).
The Anglican Formularies
Episcopacy, with a balance of powers and proper accountability, is written in to the Anglican formularies. In the context of our foundational Thirty-nine Articles, and the Prayer Book in which they are found, it is clear that the Church of England does not consider a parish congregation to be ‘the highest tribunal to which an aggrieved party may appeal’, as the Congregationalist theologian Thomas Hooker (1586–1647) claimed in his argument over church polity with the Presbyterian Samuel Rutherford. Thus, the Articles talk about the biblically-circumscribed jurisdiction of the monarch over the church (Article 37); and about archbishops, bishops, priests, and deacons (Articles 32 and 36).
The Prayer Book provides for the consecration of bishops and archbishops, charging them to preach, drive away erroneous doctrine, and administer discipline across their dioceses, in accordance with the canon law rules of the Church. Articles 33 and 34 speak about the Church and excommunication (which is reserved to bishops, not local gatherings), and about particular national churches having authority to ordain, change, and abolish rites and ceremonies (which has never been a power given to each individual parish meeting within Anglican polity). So understood in their own context, the Articles cannot (as some have claimed) be singling out the local parish assembly in Article 19 as self-contained and supreme, apart from the wider Church, unless they are contradicting themselves rather blatantly.
Article 19 says that ‘The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered.’ It doesn’t say the local congregation is all that matters. Rather, it defines the whole visible catholic church as a certain group of those who have faith, called out and distinguished from the world by the preaching of the word and the orderly, disciplined administration of the sacraments (which includes the idea of excommunication or barring people from those sacraments, as the Articles and Prayer Book make clear). In its historical context, it establishes that a church does not need to be under the authority of the Bishop of Rome to be a true church, rejecting that institutional definition in favour of one which prioritises confession over connection, practice over Pope, laity over leadership.
The Reformation of Episcopacy
The proposals in the Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum (contemporary with the Thirty-nine Articles and drafted by Thomas Cranmer, Peter Martyr Vermigli and others) explain the system of church government and discipline which the Reformers intended to put in place alongside the formularies. It said,
‘Bishops, because they hold the chief place among the other ministers of the church, must therefore govern and pastor the lower orders of the clergy, as well as the whole people of God, with sound doctrine, sober authority and wise counsel, not indeed in order to lord it over their faith, but that they might prove themselves to be true servants of the servants of God. And they shall know that the government / authority and ecclesiastical jurisdiction has been specially entrusted to them for no other reason than that by their ministry and hard work / dedication as many people as possible may be made rich in / joined to Christ…’
It also speaks about the obedience to be shown to such bishops, ‘to foster harmony’ and ‘for the sake of Christian discipline’. Indeed, Cranmer’s committee outlined the tasks of a bishop as: passing on sound doctrine; conferring holy orders and instituting ministers to benefices as well as removing those who are unworthy; settling complaints and quarrels between ministers and their churches; correcting vices by ecclesiastical censures and excommunicating persistent offenders; visiting the whole diocese regularly; holding synods; and confirming people. (Reformatio, 20:10–12)
As well as in the Ordinal, (ordination services), such a view of bishops is set out in Canon Law even today. Canon C18 says of a bishop that “it appertains to his office to teach and to uphold sound and wholesome doctrine, and to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange opinions; and, himself an example of righteous and godly living, it is his duty to set forward and maintain quietness, love, and peace among all men.” This is very much in line with what the Pastoral Epistles and 1 Peter 5 say about the qualifications for elders.
The Wellbeing of the Church
Bishops are not an essential part of our definition of the church, but in the Church of England they have always been regarded as a useful biblical means for safeguarding our spiritual health and good order. They must not ordain rites and ceremonies that are ‘contrary to God’s Word written’ (Article 20). We must have lawfully called and consecrated preachers and ministers (Article 23, Article 36), who do not need to be celibate singles but may be married (Article 32), and who speak in a language understood by the people (Article 24). Sacraments ‘duly administered’ also means properly using the sacraments for the purpose they were instituted (Article 25, Article 28), including baptising infants which is ‘most agreeable with the institution of Christ’ (Article 27), and giving communion in both kinds (Article 30). It also means the ministers who administer the sacraments must be subject to discipline and removal if they fall short (Article 26), and must also discipline others (Article 33), while not offending the common order of the church in their attitude towards traditions which are in themselves not repugnant to the Bible (Article 34).
Yet reformation there must always be, in accordance with God’s word. According to the Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum, a crisis in church leadership requires urgent attention. ‘Just as the condition of the state is ruined when it is governed by people who are stupid, demanding, and burning with ambition,’ it says, ‘so in these times the church of God is struggling, since it is committed to the care of those who are totally incompetent to assume so important a task, in which respect it has fallen very far short indeed of those rules of the blessed Paul, which he prescribed to Timothy and Titus. Therefore we must find an appropriate remedy for so serious a plague on our churches’.’ (Reformatio, 11:1) One of the roles of a bishop, therefore, is to train up godly and effective ministers. In particular, a bishop should also appoint people to ‘make up for the defects and negligence of the parish priests when need be’. (Reformatio 20:13)
So, according to the English Reformers, what are the marks of the visible church, or indeed of an Anglican church (or denomination)? A group of people, with lives marked by an intention to be faithful and loyal to the holy God in their lives, who listen to his word and celebrate his sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper in a disciplined and orderly way under the properly constituted and accountable leadership of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons. This is the kind of healthy congregation that today we seek to pioneer, establish, and secure, and is the goal of all the reforming and renewing activity of evangelicals within the Church of England.