Two videos today. That’s a win considering I’ve been fighting RSV for two weeks.
Both were Bishop Grote’s lectures on Esse and Bene Esse — the question of what’s actually essential for the Church to be the Church. Stone frames it around five marks of unity: one God worshipped, one faith held, one sacramental system, one hope anticipated, one Spirit animating. The question underneath all of it is whether episcopacy belongs to that essential minimum or sits above it as something highly preferable but not determinative.
The second lecture brought in Cyprian, whose imagery for the Church’s unity is hard to improve on — one light, many rays; one source, many rivers; one mother, many children. Beautiful and demanding at the same time.
Grote also addressed how the episcopacy can be cheapened — there are men walking around with “valid” orders because they paid for three first-class tickets from Brazil to have hands laid on them. It’s simony in a new coat. And it’s exactly the kind of thing that makes the bene esse position harder to hold without qualification.
Still landing on bene esse. But Grote makes you work for it.
Tomorrow: more videos, health permitting.
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