The Pastoral Bishop

Abstract

Abstract Lesslie Newbigin’s entire career may properly be regarded as pastoral in the broad and christological sense of the term: as he himself wrote of another great missionary to India, C. F. Andrews (1871–1940), his life “has reminded people in our day of the Good Shepherd himself.” More specifically and ecclesiastically, Newbigin served both local congregations and larger units of the Church as the ordained representative of Christ “the Bishop and Pastor of our souls” (1 Peter 2:24). In India, he first ministered pastorally as a district missionary in town and villages; and then as bishop in the largely rural diocese of Madurai and Ramnad, and later as bishop in the big city diocese of Madras when he functioned also as deputy moderator of the Church of South India, there fell to him “the care of all the churches” (2 Corinthians 12:28). In Britain, he spent most of his eighth decade as pastor of a small congregation of the United Reformed Church in the inner suburbs of Birmingham, immediately after having led the whole denomination for a year as moderator of its assembly. His theological reflections on the practice of ministry and on the ordering of the Church not only were shaped by his study of the Scriptures and the Christian Tradition but also grew out of his experience in such diverse capacities and circumstances.