Expert: I resign - 8/19/2004

Question
Hello Alex,

    In 1Timothy3:1-8 St Paul states that a bishop must be blameless, the HUSBAND of one WIFE... How can the Orthodox faith go against scripture and make a law that bishops cannot be married? I know the reason behind the decision, their children inheriting the land of the Church, but that does not justify going against accepted scripture. Please explain this to me.

Answer
Kevin,

In the first place, the Scriptures to not determine Church law, they record some aspects of it.  The Church predates the Christian Canon of Scripture.  The authority of the Scriptures rests in the Church - not the other way around.

In the second place, I think the inheritence thing is a red herring.  The decision to limit the Episcopacy to celibate men was based more on their position as Target#1 during times of persecution.  Read the lives of the early Bishops (2nd-4th cent.) and see how many of them died of natural causes.  There were times when accepting election to the Episcopacy was a virtual suicide mission.

Later, when the Church decided to limit the number of Bishops, rather than have a Bishop over every local congregation, the job became too much to impose on a family man.  And that's about where we are today.

My own Bishop is 80 years old, looks after a diocese which covers 13 states across the south and south east U.S., and lives out of a suitcase most of the year.

But we do have an early tradition of a married Episcopacy, and could return to that practice if the Church deemed it wise to do so.

Alex