A Good Experience With a Bishop

Lest we become discouraged with the accounts of obstructive bishops and their bad behaviour, I’d like to report a good experience.

I received a call last Thursday, and the voice at the other end said, “I’m calling from the archbishop’s office. He would like to arrange a time when you can meet him in his office.” I did a quick mental inventory, and there wasn’t anything I could think of that could possibly give reason for anxiety – one tends to do that when a call comes from diocesan headquarters. I asked if the archbishop had a time in mind. “Yes,” was the answer, “tomorrow afternoon at 3:30.” It seemed awfully quick, so I did the inventory again. Nothing.

It was a rainy day this past Friday, so I allowed myself plenty of time to get to the chancery. Too much time, in fact. I was thirty minutes early, so I slipped into the chapel to spend a bit of time with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, just for a little reassurance.

The appointed time arrived, and the archbishop greeted me with a smile and invited me to sit down. It was a good sign – no desk between us, but instead we were in comfortable chairs. “I thought we should talk a little about what the Apostolic Constitution is going to mean for us,” he said.

Then we had a very good conversation...

Read the rest of Fr. Phillips' account on The Anglo-Catholic blog.