Assistant Bishop Research Articles

Liberationist Icon or Conservative Leader? Ismael Mwai Mabiu’s Afro-Pentecostalism and Ecclesiastical Leadership in Kenya

This article sets out to retrieve the oral histories of a pioneer African Christian at Kagumo Full Gospel Churches of Kenya (FGCK), namely Rev. Ismael Mwai-Mabiu. Mwai-Mabiu offered exceptional leadership as he sought to revive the Mount Kenya region and the entire Kenyan nation, particularly in the mid-1940s–1980s and 2000–2012, through his oral “liberation theological discourses.” These efforts were well captured in his preaching as a roving pastor in mass seminars and in evangelism. His Afro-Pentecostal theology, which he propounded in the FGCK (a church he co-founded), provided the forum that he used as a platform to launch and advance his liberationist Afro-Pentecostal approach. Was Mwai-Mabiu a liberationist or a conservative ecclesiastical leader in his theo-social doctrinal matters; or was he seeking to indigenise theological discourses in his Afro-Pentecostal outfit? The concern of this article is to unearth the nature of leadership that Mwai-Mabiu employed and to describe the relevance of his Afro-Pentecostal oral and liberationist theologies. What were his fundamental concerns? Was his “ministry” evangelised in a cultural vacuum, rather than an inclusive environment that relied upon already existing networks of the host area of ecclesiastical operation? The methodology of this article comprises interviews conducted in four phases: 1) with Mwai-Mabiu himself; 2) with his wife; 3) with three focus discussion groups (FDGs) in interviews between 2016 and 2018; and 4) by the researcher with people closely related to him, namely Bishop Joshua Kiongo Kimani, assistant Bishop Rev. Joseph Muriithi Karugendo, elder Joseph Munene, elder Benson Ngiri, and the pioneers of the FGCK. Later, in May to October 2019, the researcher conducted further research to seek clarification on some areas that did not come out clearly during the first interviews. A review of the relevant literature was also conducted.

ОТЕЦЬ КЛИМЕНТІЙ ШЕПТИЦЬКИЙ — КАНДИДАТ НА ЄПИСКОПА-ПОМІЧНИКА ЛЬВІВСЬКОЇ АРХИЄПАРХІЇ З ПРАВАМИ НАСТУПНИЦТВА

In 1917, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi is returning from Russian captivity. And although he arrives to his native eparchy with the glory of a tsarist prisoner, nevertheless, the period of his exile has greatly affected his health. Realizing the challenges facing him, he begins consultations with his closest associates on the candidacy of a bishop-assistant for Lviv Archeparchy. Lviv Chapter considered the Metropolitan’s native brother, Father Klymentii Sheptytskyi, to be the most suitable candidate. However both of them, he personally, as well as Metropolitan Andrey, were categorically against it. Despite this, the Capitular Fathers tried, often bypassing the person of Metropolitan Andrey, to convince the Apostolic Capital to use its authority and under obedience to make Father Klymentii agree to accept the title of the Assistant Bishop of Lviv with the rights of succession. And although in the meantime His Most Reverend Bishop Ivan Buchko became the Assistant Bishop of Lviv, nevertheless, the case of Klymentii Sheptytskyi candidacy for the BishopAssistant of Lviv Archeparchy with the rights of succession was in procedure until December 22, 1939, when Metropolitan Andrey secretly ordained Father Josyf Slipyj as his assistant and successor. In the Central State Historical Archive of Lviv there are several files containing correspondence which shed light on the issue of the candidacy of Father Klymentii Sheptytskyi for the bishop-assistant of Lviv with the rights of succession. It is this correspondence that formed the basis of the present article. All documents are published for the first time. Keywords: Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Pope Pius XI, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi, Archimandrite Klymentii Sheptytskyi, Father Olexandr Bachynskyy, Lviv Metropolitan Chapter, Father Pankratiy Kandyuk.

Fighting the Tide: Church Schools in South Buckinghamshire, 1902–44

In 1902 elementary school provision in Oxford diocese – England's largest – reflected the national picture: 72 per cent were church schools, with total rolls of 54 per cent of school-age children. The bitterly contested 1902 Education Act apparently protected the future of church schools, but in practice its provisions severely undermined them, particularly in growing areas of the country. By 1929, Oxford's assistant bishop reported the schools’ situation as ‘critical’. This article examines the impact on the church schools of one rural deanery in South Buckinghamshire, between the 1902 and 1944 Education Acts. Several schools found themselves under threat of closure, while rapid population increase and a rising school leaving age more than quadrupled the number of school-age children in the area. Closer working with the local education authority and other denominations was one option to optimize scarce resources and protect the Church of England's influence on religious education in day schools: but many churchmen fought to keep church schools open at all costs. This strategy met with limited success: by 1939 the proportion of children in church schools had decreased to 10 per cent, with potential consequences for how religion was taught to the other 90 per cent of children.

Artystyczna fundacja kanonika Johanna Jakoba Brunettiego dla katedry wrocławskiej

ART FOUNDATION OF JOHANN JAKOB KANON BRUNETTI FOR THE WROCŁAW CATHEDRAL The text concerns the creation of the first Baroque chapel erected at the southern aisle of the Wrocław cathedral in 1672, and its interior. The founder of the chapel was Wrocław Canon Johann Jakob Brunetti (1629–1692), who came from Massa di Carrara, Tuscany and was laid to rest in the chapel’s crypt along with his brother Johann (1646–1703), the assistant bishop. Despite its modest size the work deserves attention for its preserved decor – the altar and two epitaphs made of Dębnik marble and rich acanthus frieze, contrasting with the dome’s vault, decorated with coffers and rosettes. The applied forms indicate good knowledge of both Italian Renaissance and early Baroque traditions displayed by the designer of the work, Carlo Rossi, who came from the vicinity of Como, Lombardy. It makes the chapel an interesting work of art of dual stylistic character, which along with the chapel of St. Cross at the Church of BVM on Piasek Island, initiated the erection of further works of this type at the cathedral and at the Dominican and Premonstratensian churches in Wrocław.

Governing Body of the Church in Wales

In April, a Bill was considered to enable women to be consecrated as bishops. The most crucial amendment for consideration was that ‘the Bench of Bishops will provide pastoral care and support for those who in conscience cannot accept the ordination of women as priests and bishops through the ministry of an Assistant Bishop or Bishops’. The Archbishop resisted the amendment on the grounds that, if it were passed, the Church would be appointing a male bishop who had doubts about the validity of the orders of a woman bishop. Such a bishop and his followers would have real doubts as to whether the sacraments presided over by her were real sacraments, and real doubts about whether anyone ordained by her, male or female, was actually ordained.

Rafael Lasala y Locela, obispo auxiliar de Valencia. Su postura ante la extinción de los jesuitas

El presente trabajo expone la figura de Rafael Lasala y su papel como obispo auxiliar de la diócesis de Valencia a la que estuvo vinculado hasta su elección para la de Solsona. Se ofrecen dos visiones de su actuación: la de sus panegiristas y la de sus críticos, merced al poder que tuvo en sus manos y la utilización partidista que hizo de él en la pugna por el control de la enseñanza en Valencia. Muerto el arzobispo A. Mayoral, fue él quien redactó el Dictamen favorable a la extinción de la Compañía de Jesús.

Posługa chorym w myśli zakonotwórczej bł. Józefa Sebastiana Pelczara

Józef Sebastian Pelczar (1842-1924) był profesorem (1877-1899) i rektorem 1882/83 Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. W 1899 r. został biskupem pomocniczym, a od 1901 r. biskupem diecezjalnym w Przemyślu. Posługa chorym była ważną częścią jego działalności.

Leonardo Boff: Complicity and Criticism

Leonardo Boff, a 47-year old Franciscan from Brazil, has become one of the best known names in Catholic theology owing to the controversy surrounding his book lgreja: Carisma e Poder (Ed Vozes, Petrbpolis, 1981). The close coincidence in time of Boff’s interview with Cardinal Ratzinger in Rome about the book, and the publishing of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith’s criticisms of some aspects of liberation theology, has caused some misunderstanding about the issues at the core of the controversy. Two widely-held misapprehensions had better be cleared up now, before we venture any further. They have been repeated over and over again in the press—when Boff and Ratzinger met, at the beginning of last September, one of the things they warmly agreed about was the shoddiness of the media coverage of the affair.First of all, it was not—this time—Rome that made the first move. On the contrary. Boff had appealed to Rome. When his book was attacked by Dom Romer, Assistant Bishop of Rio de Janeiro and President of the Archdiocesan Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith, he turned to the Vatican. His own very detailed account of the affair, “Minha convocaçao à Sagrado Congregaçeo para a Doutrina da Fé: um testemunho pessoal” (which appeared in Revista Eclesiástica Brasileira vol. 44, fasc. 176, Dec. 1984, pp. 845—852) confirms this.Secondly, and more importantly, the book does not in fact appear to be about liberation theology specifically. Any controversy involving so prominent a writer of liberation theology is bound to have a “political” dimension,

DOCUMENTATION

A Pastoral Letter from Colin Winter, Bishop of the Diocese in exile, Robert Mize, 6th Bishop of Damaraland, Richard Wood, assistant bishop in exile, Edward Morrow, Vicar General and James Kauluma, suffragan bishop of Damaraland.