BRAVO, BISHOP ALAN, FROM ACROSS THE POND

Bishop Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham in the Church of England, wrote a fine post about bullying in the church titled Bullying of and by clergy: a way ahead?.

It seems to me, along with some comments earlier this month, that everyone knows what bullying is, and when they feel bullied, but the description needs to be in terms of the behaviour that has to change. If we don't do that the onus stays in the wrong place, and things will never improve. The vast majority of claims I have drilled into dissolve into mutual recrimination. So I have to say that the perception of "bullying" boils down to a symptom of organisational malaise, the abuse of power.

We need procedures in place, as for whistleblowing, available to individuals; but this is not enough.

The key to progress is to have a public framework describing the proper use of power against which all behaviour can be measured.

Such a framework makes any anomaly look like an anomaly, rather than just a random incidence of "shit happens."

Much of what Bishop Alan says could apply to any church, not only to the Church of England, but especially to hierarchical churches. And bullying goes both ways, even in hierarchical churches.

Bullying is very much about the abuse of power, the exercise of power in unacceptable ways. The focus must to be on examining behavior and measuring behavior against objective standards.

One final frontier remains, however. Church culture, deferential, hierarchical and often inclined to hypocrisy, breeds an alignment gap between aspiration and active accountability at the top. The Church is full of good intentions but some bishops, forgive me for saying but it's the truth, fear and loathe that kind of open accountability. Confronted recently with a proposed standard policy on appointments, out poured reasons why this was an impossible bureaucratic imposition to clip their wings. Ironically, much practice is consistent with what was proposed, and the law will probably carry my Lords kicking and screaming where they don't want to go.

In my humble opinion, the words above are so very true and are those of a courageous bishop. Bishop Alan quite often goes boldly where other bishops fear to tread. When we met over dinner while I was in England, I asked him, only half-jokingly, if he was content with his status as a suffragan for the rest of his service as a bishop. I do wonder if, because of his willingness to openly and publicly tackle subjects that few bishops are willing to take on, his advancement in the church might suffer. I hope and pray not.