I completely agree! Church discipline is almost entirely lacking in this area. I know of a divorced man who was living in sin with another woman while serving as chairman of the church council. I know of 2 cases of bishops who fell into similar sexual sins and were removed. Does this indicate that a bishop should be the husband of one wife, as St. Paul wrote?
With respect to the holy Apostle Paul, I'm not a fan of married bishops. That said, I have enough experience at this point with sexual miscreant priests and pastors to doubt that married bishops would change anything for us. Married clergy as just as likely as bishops to excuse or turn a blind eye to sexual misconduct.
To the best of my knowledge, at least in North America, only one Orthodox bishop has been deposed for sexual immorality. I think I know the two bishops to whom you refer. If I'm correct, one was suspended and later restored to ministry and the other allowed to retire. Neither man was deposed.
Our unwillingness to police our own undermines the Gospel in generally and the moral tradition on sexuality in particular.
I completely agree! Church discipline is almost entirely lacking in this area. I know of a divorced man who was living in sin with another woman while serving as chairman of the church council. I know of 2 cases of bishops who fell into similar sexual sins and were removed. Does this indicate that a bishop should be the husband of one wife, as St. Paul wrote?
Christ is Risen!
With respect to the holy Apostle Paul, I'm not a fan of married bishops. That said, I have enough experience at this point with sexual miscreant priests and pastors to doubt that married bishops would change anything for us. Married clergy as just as likely as bishops to excuse or turn a blind eye to sexual misconduct.
To the best of my knowledge, at least in North America, only one Orthodox bishop has been deposed for sexual immorality. I think I know the two bishops to whom you refer. If I'm correct, one was suspended and later restored to ministry and the other allowed to retire. Neither man was deposed.
Our unwillingness to police our own undermines the Gospel in generally and the moral tradition on sexuality in particular.
Thanks for the comment.
In Christ,
FrG