God's Word for today

Thursday 6 March 2008

To all those wannabee Bishops

This one's going to get me into trouble...I KNOW it is - but I couldn't resist it!

It was during my daily trawling through some of my favourite blogs that I came across this video of the song, "Start Wearing Purple". The chorus of this ditty goes thus...

Start wearing purple wearing purple (da da da da da)
Start wearing purple for me now
All your sanity and wits they will all vanish
I promise, it's just a matter of time...

It was posted by Paul Martin, a British Methodist minister who has a blog entitled "Turbulent Cleric". This post was entitled "In expectancy of Methodist Bishops", and it got me thinking about the nomination process currently underway for candidates to stand as our next District Bishop.

Judging by the general gossip that one hears among the clergy, it seems that the prospect of holding office as a District Bishop ranges from "life's ambition to wear a purple shirt" to "a punishment surpassed only by hell itself".

Like many offices in the Church, becoming Bishop has to be in response to a call from God, otherwise you would have to be completely insane. A couple of weeks ago I posted a tribute to Paul Verryn, current Bishop of the Central District, and when I think of the workload that he carries, the nonsense that he often has to put up with (sometimes from me), and the fact that despite there being 21 Circuits in this District, he still manages to get round to each Circuit fairly frequently, all things considered, his ministry is nothing short of incredible.

Whether Paul Verryn continues as our Bishop, or someone else steps in to fill what are very large shoes indeed, will only be decided at our upcoming Synod. But if any readers of this blog have designs on wearing the "purple shirt", give this video a quick squizz...

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