Sometime tomorrow we will all see the slate of nominees for Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. I’ve been thinking about the challenges our next Presiding Bishop will face, and I wanted to get some thoughts jotted down now, before we know who the nominees are. I don’t want to be seen as campaigning for a particular person. (Disclosure: Forward Movement, my employer, is a ministry of the Presiding Bishop, so the next PB is, in some ways, my boss.)
Under our current system of governance — both the de jure way it is expressed and the de facto way we live it out — our Presiding Bishop has a nearly impossible job. She or he must be a CEO without the power of a CEO. Authority, accountability, and responsibility are not aligned in our current system, and this includes the Presiding Bishop, as well as other officers, staff, Executive Council, and even General Convention. But that is for another day.
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