On Thu, Aug 31, 2023 at 9:57 AM Laura Dickerson via Boston-change-ringers boston-change-ringers@cosmos.phy.tufts.edu wrote:

Retired suffragan bishop (I have no idea what that adjective means)

A bishop suffragan (I think usage is about equally split between the adjective coming first or second) is the more common type of “assistant bishop.” He or she gets to do episcopal (bishoply) things, like ordain priests and stuff, but doesn’t have the same administrative authority a diocesan bishop does. And, more importantly, when the diocesan retires or whatever, the suffragan does not automatically become the diocesan bishop. But another kind of assistant, bishop coadjutor, less commonly used, does: the bishop coadjutor is thus a sort of pre-elected diocesan bishop in waiting. There are also explicit “assistant bishops” and “assisting bishops,” though they are, I think, even less common, and, while again able to do typical episcopal things, they typically have even more restricted fields of activity, I think, Assisting Bishops typically being just temporary positions (though permanently bishops); I believe it is not uncommon for a retired bishop to serve as an Assisting Bishop for some specific purpose or other.

I’m guessing you remember Barbara Harris. She was Suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts, while first David Johnson and then Tom Shaw were the diocesan bishop. She was subsequently Assisting Bishop of Washington (DC) for a few years.

I don’t know what it’s like these days, but when I lived there the Massachusetts diocese typically had one or two suffragan bishops in addition to the diocesan bishop. Largely because of Cape Code, I think, Massachusetts also had more than its fair share of retired bishops (of any adjective), frequently from elsewhere, who are nonetheless still bishops and often ran around helping out, typically on Sundays. In fact, Otis Charles, the former bishop of Utah†, whom I knew reasonably well, moved to Massachusetts to be Dean of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge (EDS has since moved to New York, though). Otis (died a decade ago) was quite an engaging, colorful character, about whom I can tell some stories. While it never came to fruition he was for a time reasonably interested in somehow getting change ringing bells into the diocese of Utah, largely as he saw them as a healthy social activity.

† I don’t know what the situation is today, but when I lived in Utah the entire state supposedly had fewer Episcopalian churches than did the Newtons!

—
Don Morrison dfm@ringing.org
“Bishops move diagonally. That’s why they often turn up where the
kings don’t expect them to be.” – Terry Pratchett, Small Gods