Friday, February 20, 2015

Williams Back?

As of today, Owen Williams reappears on the ACA Diocese of the West Information Page as
The Episcopal Visitor

The Right Reverend Owen R. Williams, Bishop in Residence and Pastor of St. Mary's

However, Frederick Rivers's name and title appear above Williams's, so I assume he outranks Williams. On the other hand, neither the ACA nor the Diocese of the West constitution and canons mentions a "vicar general", so we don't know what Rivers's specific authority is in this matter. For that matter, neither the Diocese of the West canons nor the St Mary of the Angels bylaws mention a title of Bishop-in-Residence or Pastor. Does Rivers outrank Williams because the vicar general reports to the presiding bishop and not the visitor? Who knows?

And they haven't restored his biographical profile on the diocesan web site.

Williams hasn't yet returned to the Diocese of the Northeast as a suffragan, either. I'm wondering what sort of deliberation, frenzied or woozy, accompanied these corrections. This just reinforces the idea in my mind that everyone involved, from the Presiding Bishop to the Episcopal Visitor, is operating under impaired judgment.