Bishop Todd Ousley visits St. John’s Episcopal Church on January 18th, 2015.
A new year is upon us and at St. John’s we will be ushering it in with a visit from our bishop, The Rt. Rev. Todd Ousley, on Sunday January 11th. Being a part of an “episcopal” (or “bishop”) church, I find it helpful to reflect on the office of bishop and its importance in our Christian denomination. The Biblical origin of the word bishop, “episcopal,” comes from the original Greek of New Testament. In Acts 1:20, which quotes the Greek Old Testament Psalm 109:8, it references Judas saying “Let his office (Greek: episcopoi) another take.” That episcopal office, is mentioned throughout the New Testament as being setup by the apostles to oversee the local churches in their absence. Other ways of translating the Greek word episcopal into English are in fact “bishop” or “overseer.”
In our church, the bishop has an important role that is spelled out in our prayer book. On page 517, The Book of Common Prayer says that the bishop “is called to be one with the apostles in proclaiming Christ’s resurrection and interpreting the Gospel, and to testify to Christ’s sovereignty as Lord of lords and King of kings.” It goes on to say that bishops are called to “guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the Church.” As Episcopalians, we draw strength from this ancient biblical office given to Bishops when they are ordained. Their presence reminds us that we are called to be good stewards of the faith given by Christ to the Apostles: the faith of the Resurrected Lord who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is a true blessing to start off a new year,with the visit our bishop…our representative of the Faith of the Apostles.
Peace & Blessings,
More about the bishops visit…
In addition to celebrating with Bishop Ousley we’ll get to witness a few more special things.
- The Sacrament of Holy Baptism
- The Consecration of Chrism (the holy oil used to anoint the sick or newly baptized)