The Accidental Anglican by Todd D. Hunter

Author:Todd D. Hunter [Hunter, Todd D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780830868322
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2010-11-08T00:00:00+00:00

My public life as a bishop got off to a challenging start. It was early on a Saturday morning and I was getting dressed in the cramped quarters of the bathroom in our hotel room. I was dressing in full clergy wear, collar and all, for the consecration service of a friend as a bishop. It felt like I was in Little League again. I loved putting on uniforms when I was a kid. It was a big day, and out of respect I wanted to look nice. I also had a working-lunch meeting afterward with three colleagues.

As I was putting on my collar, which is still not an easy task for me, I looked at Debbie, sitting on the side of the bed, and said to her, “Great! The first time I am going to wear my collar in public and it is October 31st—Halloween. Everyone will think I’m wearing a costume.” Such, I guess, is the fate of an accidental bishop.

I walked out the door into the California sun thinking I didn’t look too bad in purple. I was ready and happy to meet the challenges of the day—the toughest thing to brave, I thought, would be an extraordinarily long church service. But things got stickier than that pretty much right away. Upon arrival at the church I was guided into a room reserved so the bishops could robe in private.

Have you ever been in a room with dignitaries of some sort and known right away you were out of your league—no matter how kind everyone was being? In fact, you are sure that the kindness is a polite cover for what they are all thinking: What is he doing here? Remember the terrifying days of junior high school when you had to shower after PE? That was me.

I thought, sometimes even feared, that someday I would be exposed as not just accidental but as an imposter. I never dreamed it would come at my first public outing as a bishop.

All the guys around me were putting on these amazing copes and miters. Who knew grown, gray-haired and balding men could be lookers in embroidered gowns?

I should interject here that I have no issue with high-church accoutrements. I have great respect for all the Anglo-Catholics I have met so far. But coming from a low-church background, the high-church trappings made me feel like an awkward, self-

conscious kid at his first formal dance.

Just when I was getting over the envy of not having a cope and miter—and thank God for my brother bishop from Africa in the room, because he didn’t wear them either—I noticed two beautiful certificates lying on a nearby table. They looked like pieces of fine art.

I next noticed a man and woman standing behind a desk. The woman was holding up what appeared to be an electric glue gun to see if the tube of stuff loaded in the gun was melting. As it turned out, the glue gun had wax in it, and the woman began putting small dollops of melted wax on the edges of the certificates.

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