One of my favourite bits of 16th-century canon law speaks about how ‘the condition of the state is ruined when it is governed by people who are stupid, demanding, and burning with ambition.’
At the same time, it continues: ‘The church of God is struggling, since it is committed to the care of those who are totally incompetent to assume so important a task. In this respect it has fallen very far short indeed of those rules of the blessed Paul, which he prescribed to Timothy and Titus. Therefore we must find an appropriate remedy for so serious a plague on our churches.’
Don’t appoint gifted people
I’ve noticed, studying those pastoral epistles for a new commentary I’ve put together, that we’re not supposed to appoint gifted people to positions of church leadership. I know that sounds like the ‘strategic’ thing to do. But Titus is not told to appoint people who have great leadership potential and scintillating oratory. Paul doesn’t say pick some people from the best families and the best universities on Crete, and fashion them into instruments for transforming Cretan society.
Sins that ruin a nation
Like many of us, I have been pondering the question of Covid-19 and God’s judgment. The Anglican Book of Common …