From Mr Don Manley
Sir, - Last week in the diocese of Oxford, we learnt that the
Commission responsible for choosing the next Bishop of Oxford could
not manage to make a selection. Archbishop Welby has framed this as
"The Commission is unable to discern the candidate whom God is
calling." So now Bishop Colin Fletcher has to carry the can for a
second time in this diocese - and for a very long second time. One
feels for him (and half begins to wonder why he hasn't now got the
job).
This is all very disappointing, and one wonders whether any
other organisation would allow a key post to stay vacant for
several months like this. It is all very well dressing this up
cautiously as a failure to find the "right" person, but I wonder
whether this failure to agree is simply a smokescreen to hide
serious theological differences in a diocese that has something of
a track record for them. Maybe, maybe not; but we ought to be
told.
And what would the "right" person mean exactly? It surely
doesn't mean that we all have to wait for a divine thunderbolt from
above. God gives us the freedom to find the person we deem to be
right, and, when the decision is made, God will work his purpose
with whoever that person may be.
Although I have no idea who the candidates were, I suspect that
more than one of them might have been well qualified and felt a
calling. Surely there should have been a mechanism for some sort of
majority decision. God is not a theological football to be kicked
around. I bet he is thinking: "Get on with it!"
DON MANLEY
26 Hayward Road
Oxford OX2 8LW