Vital Signs News of the Episcopal Church
	Living at the Edge: Sacrament and Solidarity in Leadership Penny Jamieson (London, Mowbray, 1997) Participating in the Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion last year left me with a fantasy: I have been given the authority to draw up a list of prescribed readings for a gathering of bishops of my church. At the end of the course I examine them. Not simply for content, but in terms of the broadening and deepening of their understanding of their particular ministry. My head fills with titles of books on ministry, on the offices of the church, on spirituality and theology, novels and poetry. At this point the vision evaporates. Reality takes over. My fantasy crumbles as just another rather preposterous pipe dream. But I do recognize its origins. First, I have seen too many bishops who, overwhelmed (if not overly impressed) with the responsibilities of their office, are rendered impotent to seize the opportunities and the challenges offered to them. Second, they lie in my own experience of the power of the written word. Third, I believe in learning as a life- long process. Consequently, I long for all the clergy to have time off and the space to read, think and meditate. This is exactly what Penny Jamieson, the first woman in the Anglican Communion to become a diocesan bishop, did. On holiday at a small settlement on the North Otago coast of New Zealand, with time to reflect on her understanding of the church, she explored her experience of the episcopacy. Her experience of being a woman, and thus an outsider, who has become an insider, is clearly reflected in the title of this absorbing book, Living at the Edge. This work is not an apologia for women bishops. It is also more than simply a reflection on the office of a bishop. It is a book which is deeply concerned with the nature of the church. But it is still more. It bears the mark of spiritual wrestling, of trust in prayer and of the celebration of faith. Never sentimental or pious, the author comes across as a truly prayerful bishop. For anyone who loves the church despite its obvious shortcomings, this book offers much food for thought. Its themes are significant and appropriate, and the author's struggles with the challenges of the office of bishop are unfeigned and candid. Understanding the nature of power is central to exploring the episcopacy--a recurring theme of this book. After looking generally at the diffused nature of power as well as its inevitability, Jamieson explores power in the church. On her election as bishop she realized that she would have to come to terms with the perceptions of power related to the office of bishop as well as the particularity of being a woman in that position. Many women are confronted with the ambivalent nature of assuming and exercising formal power. "Spiritual power," writes Jamieson, "is the power to influence others through one's own being--by example, by kindness, by wisdom, by love, and above all through prayer. Institutional power, it is said, has to do with ambition and exercising control, while spiritual power, on the other hand, has to do with surrendering control." This ambivalence of, on the one hand, being a woman who has authority and power by virtue of her office, and on the other, knowing that true power lies in powerlessness and surrender to God, runs through this work. Jamieson proceeds to discuss the responsibilities and challenges of leadership in the church through the lenses of "discerning,Ó "caring" and "holding." Her reflections take place within the reality of the Anglican church in New Zealand's unique constitutional recognition of its three cultural strands: those of the Maori, the Pakeha (successors of the colonists) and the people from the Pacific countries. Holding the unity of the mission of the church in the face of diversity is not easy, but Jamieson believes that it is possible when the basis of unity is found in love as exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ. I particularly liked the chapter devoted to ethics. Bishops, by virtue of the authority of their office, often have to make ethical judgments which affect the life of the church. Such judgments are based on an analysis of the ethical demands of a particular situation. Christian ethics derive from discernment, nourished by prayer and undergirded by sound analysis of the context. Here Christian feminist ethics prove to be helpful. Jamieson comments that "the raw material for feminist ethics is the lives and experiences of women" (p.90). As such, feminist ethics are more relational than conventional ethics. This emphasis on relationships, our relationship with ourselves, with others and with God, makes for an ethical approach that is intensely humane, generous and open. Questions of poverty and the unequal distribution of resources, sexual ethics, clerical ethics, the ethics of human relationships in marriage and same-sex relations, then cease to be a string of "thou shalt nots" and instead became integral to the ongoing struggle to become truly human people living in a web of relationships. Against the backdrop of an ethic of relationship Jamieson tackles the thorny question of authority in leadership. The need for authority is undisputed. The challenge is to exercise authority in a proper way. Women with authority have to deal with cultural prejudices which are unfriendly to the idea of women in leadership positions. However, relational authority, backed by a relational ethic, becomes authority which is exercised in mutuality. This kind of authority fits in comfortably with the notion that leadership is itself a gift, a charism just like any other, given for the building up of the whole Body of Christ. Viewed in this way leadership is a sacrament. This is a powerful argument against the temptation to abuse positions of leadership and to confuse authority with power as dominance. I trust that at some future date, Jamieson will explore the role of the bishop in facilitating the diverse gifts of the people of God as the means of creating and sustaining a lively participatory community of faith. The three weeks spent at Lambeth with over 800 bishops was a mixed experience. There were times when I despaired for my church. I heard a great deal of theological nonsense and cultural prejudice from bishops who confused power and politics with calling and true authority. I was also encouraged by other bishops who, like Jamieson, continue to wrestle with the temptations and the challenges of their particular office. Jamieson's book would be pretty near the top of my list of prescribed readings. For those of us who are not bishops, it combines theological reflection with experience in a manner which is both readable and exciting. Denise M. Ackermann is Professor of Christian Theology at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. <ackerdm@wn.apc.org> Back to top Back to current issue