A New Bishop

Roughly 21 months ago, the Episcopalian Bishop of Minnesota, the Rt. Rev. James Jelinek, announced his plan to retire. The husband of a college friend was named to the Search Committee which had the job of finding a replacement for Bishop Jelinek. I was impressed. I'm a baguette Catholique, and I don't know anyone who's helped sift through a field of priests to find a bishop. We are told, "Here's your new bishop. Make the best of it." Then I met one of their friends who is rapidly achieving prominence on the national level as a laywoman to be reckoned with. If she were Catholique like me, she'd be a Cardinal of yesteryear who didn't have to be ordained to help run the show. I was impressed. I don't know or know of any lay person, male or female, who helps run the show. And then there's my college friend. Not one to be left out, she was ordained a deacon last summer by the lame duck bishop, Jelinek. A female deacon! We Catholiques have no female deacons. And what about that lame duck bishop? He was terrific. We Catholiques probably have a bishop or two who are terrifique, but I don't know any. Yes, again I was impressed. Further, how on earth could the Search Committee find a replacement for the Rt. Rev. James Jelinek? What a daunting task!

After 18 months of meetings and winnowing, a new bishop-to-be was found by the Search Committee, the Rev. Brian N. Prior. Today, he was ordained and consecrated as "Bishop in the Church of God and the Ninth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota." As one who hangs out with an in-group of Episcopalians, I was, of course, there. I was early so had a cup of coffee and church-people watched. Fascinating. Scurrying about were a sea of black suits with Roman collars and an army of albs, stoles, and cinctures. Very formal. They looked like the clergy Catholique from my youth. In those days of yore, a priest looked like a priest. Nowadays, even when preparing for a great ritual, priests don't always look like priests. The spiffy ones look like the men in GQ, and the not-so-spiffy ones like truckers. In the end, many look like priests only because their duds are hidden by the vestments. Those Episcopalians looked like priests before they put on their vestments. Well, not exactly like priests because they were with their wives and children. Others didn't because they were with their husbands and children. Some men were with their male partners, and some women were with their female partners. Married men, women, gays, and lesbians don't look like priests to the rigidly Catholique because we never see any priests who are married men, women, gays, and lesbians. (Those former priests, married and gay, who fill the pews of our churches Catholiques don't count.) Fascinating. When the service began, it was obvious. All of them clearly WERE priests.

Myfriend will be ordained in the spring by Bishop Prior. I will be there because I hang out with an in-group of Episcopalians. I will meet the new Bishop. I know I will be impressed, in fact deeply moved, by my friend's ordination. Will I be impressed with the new bishop? Probably. So many worked so hard to find him. Will I like him as much as I like Bishop Jelinek? Time will tell.