“We Are Church Ireland” Survey on electing our bishops
Once the office of bishop was clearly established in the early church, that office was filled by the choice of the local people and priests, and ratified by the neighboring bishops as a sign of the unity of the church. Even unbaptized persons were eligible to be chosen for bishop, as we know from the story of St. Ambrose, who was acclaimed by the clergy and people as bishop of Milan while he was still a catechumen.
Today we are so used to the pope choosing our bishops for us without any input from those whom the bishop will serve that we forget it was not always that way. In fact the right of the pope to choose bishops was only finally settled by the 1917 Code of Canon Law, which clearly allocated that power to the holder of the papal office.
There are only 10 Questions and it should only take you 5 minutes to complete.
Only the overall results will be published, no details of any individuals responses will be published.
Click here to take the survey:
www.surveymonkey.com/
The final date for completing the survey is Saint Patrick’s Day, 17th March 2014.