ABSTRACT
The issue of power, its possession and use, is always problematic for groups claiming
identity with Jesus of Nazareth. This is inevitably true for the Church of England, by
law established, whose titular head is the monarch, whose bishops hold privileged
social status but whose thought has come to be deeply pervaded by the doctrine of
the incarnation. Anglican theology, much rooted in the idea of divine mercy, has
increasingly spoken of divine love and, more latterly, of God’s favor to the poor
(Davies, 2005). While the tensions engendered by these considerations are numerous
one lies at the heart of the church’s own developing episcopal organization: the
relationship between diocesan and suffragan bishops. This we now analyze through
issues of vocation, episcopal appointment, career development, leadership needs,
and the personal engagement of individual men of faith with the church as a social
institution. Once more we employ notions of symbolic exchange to express an
emphasis upon personal worth embedded in relationships and to complement ideas
of spiritual capital.
