Diocesan Synod this week - and a meeting of the Electoral Synod that as yet does not have any electing to do. It means a two day visit to Oban, with people having to stay away from home and travel some of the most challenging roads in the country to get there. In past years I've felt a certain anticipation - there's a social element, a dinner, a sense of the diocese meeting for once instead of ploughing lonely furrows in scattered pockets of Episcopalianism. And for the past 5 years or so there's been Bishop Martin, and he always raised spirits just by being himself. I don't feel that sense of anticipation this year. We need to be able to elect another bishop, and one of our choosing - and Canon Law, like Time's winged chariot, is pressing down on us.
As we all head to Oban tomorrow, like so many bedraggled homing pigeons, we could do with the prayers of our friends, wherever they are, that all will be well.
I've found one slightly puzzling phrase in Canon 4 (section 30):
ReplyDeleteIf no election shall have been made within two hundred and ten days of the issue of the Mandate,... the right of election to the bishopric shall lapse for that turn to the Episcopal Synod.
I assume this means that in these circumstances the present bishops get to choose the new one, but I find the use of the word "turn" a little odd.
Incidentally, my text is dated 2005, so it may be out of date.
Robin