Bishop smashes chalice on his cathedral altar to shame his critics: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 24, 2010 p 6. December 30, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Australia, Church of England Newspaper.trackback
Bishop Michael Hough
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The embattled Bishop of Ballarat closed out his episcopate with a bang, smashing a chalice placed on the altar of Christ the King Cathedral during his final sermon on Sunday.
On June 19, the Rt. Rev. Michael Hough told his diocesan synod that he would step down from office effective Dec 20. The bishop of the small rural diocese west of Melbourne had been under investigation by the Episcopal Standards Commission since July 2009, facing allegations of bullying his clergy. The bishop’s opponents had also pledged to bring a no confidence motion before the synod and were circulating a petition calling for his resignation.
In an emotional 30 minute sermon, Bishop Hough stated that his resignation did not mean that his opponents “have in fact won their guerrilla wars.”
The bishop then presented an analogy of his travails. Holding aloft a ceramic chalice he had commissioned from a local artist, Bishop Hough said he had come to love this “beautiful pot” which he felt represented his ministry in the diocese.
“But then along comes someone who hates the beauty of the pot, who resents the fact that it is slaking the thirst of the peoples in need of water,” the bishop said, according to local press accounts of his sermon.
“He does not want the pot there as he has a pot of his own which he thinks is better … so the bitter man gathers a few others around him who support him in his dark intent and they come and smash the pot to pieces.”
The bishop then placed the chalice in a bag and laid it on the altar, smashing it with a hammer. The pot was now “gone forever,” he said and the “evil one is happy as he can now put forward his own pot as the answer to the needy thirst of the people.”
The bishop then spoke of the sufferings and false accusations of Jesus. However, as Christ overcame his sufferings on the cross, so too could the diocese overcome its difficulties, the bishop said as he held aloft a cross adorned with pottery shards.
Without naming his opponents, the bishop rebuked those who disagreed with his leadership, and said that while the number of clergy and communicants had declined over the past twenty years, the church had been blessed by lay ministers and women clergy.
“Yes, the pot that was the church of 50 years ago is not the same pot of today,” the bishop said, adding, “I have no idea where we are going, but I am confident and comfortable in leaving that in God’s hands.”
Over the past year twenty clergymen have left the diocese, and attendance at Sunday services has fallen by two-thirds, the ‘Ballarat Laity Against Bullying’ coalition had charged. In 2009 five clergy brought formal charges of misconduct against the bishop, citing a confrontational management style. Bishop Hough had dismissed his opponents as “malcontents” who were unwilling to modernize the church.
Currently out of the 23 dioceses of the Anglican Church of Australia, only the Dioceses of Ballarat, North West Australia, Sydney and The Murray do not ordain women as priests. Bishop Hough had angered some traditionalists by ordaining three female deacons, but had said he would go slow over ordaining women priests.
