LIFE as a bishop is a lot like a ride on a zip wire, the
Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, said, when he preached at the
consecration of the new Bishop of Limerick &
Killaloe, the Rt Revd Kenneth Kearon, in Christ Church
Cathedral, Dublin.
"The thing about the zip wire", he explained, "is that, to start
you off, someone has to help you on your way by giving you a gentle
- or not so gentle - push, because it looks quite terrifying; and
then, as you end the journey, somebody hauls you in with something
resembling a shepherd's crook to make sure that you land safely on
the other side, assuming you haven't had a heart attack in
between.
"The more I think about it, those two actions of launching and
hauling-in sum up the work of a bishop. We try to launch people on
their journeys of faith, and persuade congregations and parishes to
do the things they might not want to do; and we try to hold them
safe as they journey, because that is what pastoral care is all
about."
He said that "bishops, as well as being pastors, need to be like
the person at the top of the zip wire in North Wales," having in
mind a particularly scary new tourist attraction in north Wales,
Zip World Velocity (above). "The people who give the
Church a push or prod - indeed, they need to get on the zip wire
first themselves, to lead by example."
Before being elected to his new diocese, Bishop Kearon served as
Secretary-General of the Anglican Communion for ten years, and was
formerly director of the Irish School of Ecumenics.