Shepherding in a new era

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This article was published 25/08/2018 (2917 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Known as shepherd of the flock, guardian of the faith and chief pastor, the role of bishop carries significant responsibility and power in the Lutheran and Anglican churches.

But two Winnipeg ministers about to take on that role plan to add chief innovator to the job description.

“We’re actually looking at using new metrics in how we see the church,” explains Archdeacon Geoffrey Woodcroft, who becomes the 13th bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Rupert’s Land on Nov. 16, replacing Bishop Donald Phillips.

“We’re not focusing on bums in pews and money in (offering) plates, but we’re asking: how is God calling us to do these things?”

“The measure of the congregation isn’t how many people are there, it’s how faithful the people are who are there,” adds Rev. Jason Zinko, who will be ordained as a Lutheran bishop on Sept. 8.

Zinko replaces Bishop Elaine Sauer as head of the Manitoba/Northwestern Ontario Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.

Sauer is returning to pastoral ministry after 12 years as synodical bishop. Phillips is retiring in mid-November from the position he has held since 2000.

Just as their predecessors did, the new bishops will work from adjacent offices in the Anglican Lutheran Centre on Nesbitt Bay in Fort Garry, but Zinko and Woodcroft have the added advantage of stepping into their new roles just weeks apart.

“It’s exciting times for us and it gives us a lot of opportunities and possibilities” for co-operation, says the 43-year-old Zinko, a former triathlete who frequently cycles to work from his west Winnipeg home.

“Both Jason and I represent a new start,” explains Woodcroft, 56, a guitarist and singer/songwriter who regularly performs with his longtime band, the Narwhals.

“And the new start is to meet the present need of what the church is to be to the world.”

He suggests what the Christian church is called to do is to move from debating doctrines and beliefs to asking how to care for the world in a generous and hospitable way.

“We are the body of Christ no matter where we are,” Woodcroft says.

“As one body, we actually have an obligation to care for the community. As bishops, we have an obligation to care for and grow that body in faith, belief and action.”

Both Woodcroft and Zinko acknowledge they have to deal with the realities of declining membership, fewer resources and aging buildings, but they prefer to reframe those issues as creative challenges.

“We’re not interested in people going to church, we’re interested in people being the church,” says Woodcroft, priest at St. Paul’s Anglican in Fort Garry for the past 15 years.

“We need to break the culture of scarcity.”

Zinko argues that church attendance was once driven by peer pressure and supported by popular culture, and without those, churchgoers may have to work harder at expressing their faith.

“I would say the church is not actually in decline,” adds Zinko, who served congregations in Winnipeg and Brandon since his ordination in 2000.

“I would say society no longer does the work of actively advertising the work of the church for us.”

As they prepare to don the purple clerical shirts signifying the office, put on the bishop’s ring and take on the title, both Woodcroft and Zinko admit to a few mixed feelings.

“It is a lonely office to be in because it changes the relationship I have with my colleagues and my friends in ministry,” says Zinko, who last month attended a training event for new bishops organized by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The role can have multiple dimensions and many ways of wielding authority, says national Bishop Susan Johnson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.

“Find a way to be authentic, true to who you are, as you fulfil your new responsibilities,” the Winnipeg-based bishop advises in an email message.

“Every bishop does this in a slightly different way.”

The role becomes a bit complicated for Woodcroft, since as bishop he oversees all priests in the diocese, which includes his wife, Rev. Jennifer Sisson, priest at Good Shepherd Anglican Church.

But since Anglicans and Evangelical Lutherans are in a full communion relationship, which allows clergy of each denomination to serve in either, the solution to that issue was to ask Zinko to act as bishop to Sisson.

“We definitely have to change, but I think the church is also calling for a change,” Woodcroft says as he prepares to shepherd the diocese through whatever is ahead.

“There’s a call for us to be real in the world… I think both Jason and I are going to dive into that.”

brenda@suderman.com

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