Hermaphrodite bishops?

Or to put it another way, "Mummy, where do baby bishops come from?"  "If there are only daddy bishops and no mummy bishops where do new baby bishops come from?"

Well yesterday I had a "baby bishop" in my office, so that was a good opportunity to find out. Bishop Onesimus Park is the new Anglican bishop of Busan in South Korea and is currently in the UK to attend the annual training conference for newly appointed bishops - the "baby bishops' conference" as it is often called. Bishop Park was keen to find out about Faith2Share and how he can build networks of support with others committed to the mission of God's people as he is.

But back to episcopal gender.  Today the General Synod of the Church of England is rushing forward the legislation which may give us female bishops later this year. (Of course there have been female Anglican bishops in many parts of the world for decades but England is about to catch up.)  My question about the hermaphroditic nature of bishops is a serious one, but I speak corporately. In his great wisdom God created some creatures to be hermaphrodites but humanity he created male and female - and I guess he did it for a reason.

Gender differentiation implies gender complimentarity and complimentarity works best when there equality of esteem, status and role. An episcopate (corporate) which is uni-gendered deprives the church of the fertility and creativity that it requires to grow and thrive.

I was pleased to hear from our Korean baby bishop that at the 'baby bishop conference' they are being nurtured and fed by just as many women as men (even if the women lack episcopal recognition - for the time being).

A more difficult question.  Has our refusal to allow the birth of female bishops amounted to episcopal infanticide?