St Ignatius of Antioch writes: "It is manifest, therefore, that we should look upon the bishop even as we would upon the Lord Himself" (Epistle to the Ephesians, 6.)Photograph: His Grace, Bishop George of Mayfield, with Fr Michael Protopopov in Moscow, February 2009.
I think this photo should be printed on the cover of some Zizioulas book.
ReplyDeleteWell, you seem to be in the unique position of being able to make this happen!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'd be tempted (with all due respect) to apply to Zizoulas a sentence that appears just before the one I quoted:
ReplyDelete"Now the more any one sees the bishop keeping silence, the more ought he to revere him."
I assume the Bishop is standing in front of an icon and doesn't have a halo himself?
ReplyDeleteSean
Spoiler alert!
ReplyDeleteIs it just me, or do these Bishops present the literal image Greco-Roman Emperors or high-level potentates (despota) more than Christ? I mean that my imagination has acrobatic gymnastic to see the kenotic Christ here.
ReplyDeleteLooked at purely in terms of outward insignia and vestiture, sure, you have a point. But I can't imagine anything good coming of any attempt to strip such things away.
ReplyDeleteHere is one place where Met. John might actually be helpful. I don't know his opinion on vestments specifically, but I could well imagine him saying that the Bishop when vested for the Divine Liturgy is the image of Christ in the eschaton or parousia, i.e., the King of Glory. It may be difficult for us fallen men to recognise Him as the 'kenotic' Christ of the Gospels, but St John the Theologian, to take just one example, had no such difficulty when Christ, whom he had known as a lowly carpenter, appeared to him on Patmos shining like the sun.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that helpful comment. I knew there must be a way to approach the question theologically, but it simply wasn't coming to me.
ReplyDeleteTo address the question more broadly, I think it also appropriate to point out just how thoroughly imbued Christian liturgy has been with Roman court ritual since at least the fourth century. While it's true that there has been a special appropriation of imperial regalia by the bishops after the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire, this should perhaps best be seen as part of a process that goes back to deepest Christian antiquity.