07-21-2009, 10:13 AM
My Dear Friends:
Greeting and benediction.
My arrival in this See has not gone exactly as I might have hoped.
It was expected, of course, that I would have enjoyed the benefit of a formal installation presided over by the Primate of the Church, acting on His Majesty's authority as Supreme Governor of the Church of Hanover.
As it happened, however, the Primate of the Church was not disposed to install me, desiring rather that I should never become a bishop of the Church of Hanover, much less the first bishop of the first new See erected since the foundation of the Archbishopric of Bergen.
I was quite prepared to welcome His Grace and to extend an olive branch, inviting him to embrace the opportunity to allow different perspectives to happily co-exist under one ecclesiastical roof. But to allow a different point of view was never part of the game for the Clergy of Bergen.
For them, it was always "my way or the highway." In the end, they chose the highway, when they could not prevent my appointment to this See. They went so far, in fact, as to demand that His Majesty destroy the state Church of Hanover rather than permit me to become a bishop, so deeply entrenched was their stubbornness; so great their pride.
These men who so tenaciously clung to the concept that the Church of Hanover forever be regarded as an exclusively Christian Church were so blinded with rage in their unchristian hatred of one man, that they were actually willing to see the whole Church split and torn asunder rather than welcome me as a brother. They show themselves to be as the false mother of yore, asking Solomon to divide the infant in half.
This has all come as a great disillusion and a great disappointment to me, for I saw in the Archbishop something genuinely Christian. Although he and I disagreed with respect to the purpose and the mission of Hanover's Established Church, I felt that there were still ways that he and his clergy could find a way to express their faith and their religion without excluding others.
In the end, I really hoped that the Archbishop would have seen the value in a more "open tent" approach to the Church of Hanover, and that he would have, at last, extended his paternal hand to me, to seat me in the Seat of this bishopric, and welcome me as his colleague in the episcopate.
Unfortunately, however, such was not to be.
And so now I do formally take possession of this See, given to my charge by the Supreme Governor of this Church, Our Gracious Lord James the Second, King of these Realms, to whom I now profess my complete and undying loyalty and devotion.
It is no small consolation to know that His Lordship the Count of Damoneigh desires to join my work in the bishopric of Kells, and I will be only too happy to grant him a suitable office in the coming days.
For now, however, we have all been through a great and stressful ordeal. I ask that I be given some time to collect my thoughts. And I suggest that we all take some time in silence to meditate upon the events that have transpired, and to learn from them.
Peace be with you.
+James KELLS
Greeting and benediction.
My arrival in this See has not gone exactly as I might have hoped.
It was expected, of course, that I would have enjoyed the benefit of a formal installation presided over by the Primate of the Church, acting on His Majesty's authority as Supreme Governor of the Church of Hanover.
As it happened, however, the Primate of the Church was not disposed to install me, desiring rather that I should never become a bishop of the Church of Hanover, much less the first bishop of the first new See erected since the foundation of the Archbishopric of Bergen.
I was quite prepared to welcome His Grace and to extend an olive branch, inviting him to embrace the opportunity to allow different perspectives to happily co-exist under one ecclesiastical roof. But to allow a different point of view was never part of the game for the Clergy of Bergen.
For them, it was always "my way or the highway." In the end, they chose the highway, when they could not prevent my appointment to this See. They went so far, in fact, as to demand that His Majesty destroy the state Church of Hanover rather than permit me to become a bishop, so deeply entrenched was their stubbornness; so great their pride.
These men who so tenaciously clung to the concept that the Church of Hanover forever be regarded as an exclusively Christian Church were so blinded with rage in their unchristian hatred of one man, that they were actually willing to see the whole Church split and torn asunder rather than welcome me as a brother. They show themselves to be as the false mother of yore, asking Solomon to divide the infant in half.
This has all come as a great disillusion and a great disappointment to me, for I saw in the Archbishop something genuinely Christian. Although he and I disagreed with respect to the purpose and the mission of Hanover's Established Church, I felt that there were still ways that he and his clergy could find a way to express their faith and their religion without excluding others.
In the end, I really hoped that the Archbishop would have seen the value in a more "open tent" approach to the Church of Hanover, and that he would have, at last, extended his paternal hand to me, to seat me in the Seat of this bishopric, and welcome me as his colleague in the episcopate.
Unfortunately, however, such was not to be.
And so now I do formally take possession of this See, given to my charge by the Supreme Governor of this Church, Our Gracious Lord James the Second, King of these Realms, to whom I now profess my complete and undying loyalty and devotion.
It is no small consolation to know that His Lordship the Count of Damoneigh desires to join my work in the bishopric of Kells, and I will be only too happy to grant him a suitable office in the coming days.
For now, however, we have all been through a great and stressful ordeal. I ask that I be given some time to collect my thoughts. And I suggest that we all take some time in silence to meditate upon the events that have transpired, and to learn from them.
Peace be with you.
+James KELLS