Metropolitan Georges' Reflection on Bishops

Met Georges denotes several of the Pauline criteria for episcopal candidacy. As he indicates, these are given in 1 Timothy 3.

What he fails to draw our attention to, or even to mention at all, is Paul's emphasis on marriage and family.

He says 'Among the examples of blamelessness, Paul mentions that a candidate for spiritual leadership must be “sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome”'

This is not inaccurate. But one of the examples of 'blamelessness' mentioned by Paul, perhaps even the most important one, since he mentions it first, is that of marriage and family.

Here is what Paul says to Timothy about episcopal candidacy:

1 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an bishop must be above reproach (or 'blameless', anepilempton), the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil (1 Tm 3 1 - 7).

Notice that Paul places a heavy emphasis on marriage and family here. First, in verse two, after he gives the key qualification, 'above reproach' (or 'blameless'), the initial criterion Paul mentions is 'the husband of one wife'. Next in verse four, the candidate 'must manage his on household well, with all dignity keeping his children in submission'. Lastly, in verse five he asks 'if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?' Paul indicates only one meaning for the term 'household' here. It is one with children. Anything else, it seems, must be taken as an instance of oikonomia, therefore.

'Reform in the Church starts with its leaders' says Met Georges. 'The Church' he continues 'does not wait a long time for its priests and bishops to repent. She does not let the evil of those who have had a great fall to get out of control'.

One problem with reform starting with the leadership is that our leadership is unwilling to deal with long held instances of error. There will be no true healing until we are willing to be honest about not holding fast to the traditions that we were taught by the apostles 'either by word or by letter' (cf 1 Thess 2.15). The most basic problem in Orthodoxy is not transparency and accountability; it's dishonesty and inauthenticity. The requirement of celibacy of the bishopric is one very good instance of this. And it is apropos to the present discussion for a few reasons. Some of these are detailed in my 'Call for Reform', published here on ocanews.org a couple of weeks ago. But Met Georges' reflection also indicates that it is central to the present discussion since he has simply not mentioned it at all. He has oriented us to an appropriate section of Paul’s letter, yet his helpful discussion of it serves also to indicate the importance of what he does not address.

Another problem with reform concerns perspective. We must look to the Church as the source of some of these problems and not merely to its hierarchy. The claim Met Georges makes about the Church not waiting 'a long time for its priests and bishops to repent' and not letting 'the evil of those who have had a great fall to get out of control' does not reflect reality, unfortunately. But it's beside the point, in my judgment, anyway. For the real issue concerning the office of the bishopric, and the requirement that a bishop be blameless, is that the Church itself has 'had a great fall', and we, both laity and hierarchy, have been tolerating it for the past 1300 years.