Control Issues in Autocephalous Catholicism

My church believes as me,
I control all I that I see,
Titles and dressing up are so much fun,
Yet now I am but a church of one.

We have a control problem in Autocephalous Catholicism. It starts early, as my dumb little ditty says. First, we find a jurisdiction that believes (almost) everything we do. After all, we might have come from mainstream denominations that we judged had too many liberals or too many conservatives, so we want to recreate the perfect oasis for ourselves and our beliefs. Naturally, the next step is to seek ordination. Our movement is, I have argued, almost opposite to clericalism because few people aren’t ordained! Inevitably, the next step is to move towards the episcopacy. Bishop so and so wants an auxiliary, we want to ensure we have some control, the succession must be preserved, etc. There are numerous reasons for it happening. And then comes the power struggle. Over very little.

One of the tests of Independent Catholicism is that we are made up of very independent people. We all want to be in control of our own destinies. This isn’t an inherently bad thing on its own, but when we use it with the desire to rule… Well, then we fall into the quote of Saint John Chrysostom that “the desire to rule of the mother of all heresies.” Unfortunately, this is playing out in several jurisdictions I know of right now and has happen untold times in the past. In a cynical view, a bishop is ordained who then wants to be in control or the bishop in charge does not want to give up control. And a split ensues. Or, in a more neutral sense, people just can’t get along and a split ensues. The result is the same.

I think this is something we need to address. There are a couple of realities we need to face first. Ultimately, we have not been good at continuing parishes and groups past talented leadership or a generation. Since the beginning of our movement, we have had churches, some quite successful, which have come and ultimately gone because they had a charismatic pastor (until they didn’t) or had a supportive group carrying it (until they didn’t). We also have not been good at keeping groups together on a larger scale. Parishes split off or groups discontinue, leaving dioceses with few constituents and jurisdictions with few members.

We have also never been good at screening candidates who want to serve. I’m not suggesting that we are alone in this dilemma. There are plenty of mainstream clergy who want to dress up and feel important as well, lest we be condemned as such. But the essence of ministry is service, not being served. How can we call people who truly want to serve the People of God by offering the sacraments of God? And how can we find a way to support them in this role?

Some path forward: Figure out why people are joining the jurisdiction. Is it because they believe exactly what you do? Is this a good thing necessarily? What are you willing to allow in divergent beliefs before you start anathematizing each other? Next, ask candidates what they plan to do with their ministry. Hold them to that and ensure that they are doing some ministry. It does not matter if you have less clergy because you don’t want people who don’t do anything. The majority of people think we are strange anyway, so having more people doesn’t necessarily even make an impact. Is it just to dress up? Why do they want to dress up?

Then and most significantly, identify and address control issues. What is it that is trying to be controlled? Why? Does it even really matter? I’m willing to do a lot to keep communion with people because it matters. Relationships matter. We have but a short time on this earth, and it’s a pity to spend any of it fighting over stupid things.

Now, I’m not saying this is a magic bullet for us all to live in harmony and grow. But I think it is some concrete steps to identify how we can stop some of the stigma we have had since Peter Anson’s time and move forward. If we can get control of our control issues, we’ll all be a lot better off in the end.

 

“You must not abandon the ship in a storm because you cannot control the winds. What you cannot turn to good, you must, at least, make as little bad as you can.” – St. Thomas More