Msgr. Richard C. Antall: Worship for God…or for Us?

In 1866, the English novelist Anthony Trollope wrote a book entitled Clergymen of the Church of England. It was serialized in the Pall Mall Gazette, an important magazine of opinion, and reflected both Trollope’s religious background as a confirmed Anglican and the grandson of a clergyman and his analysis of the need for reform of the Church of England.

Trollope had already written brilliant fiction about ecclesiastical affairs in his Barchester Towers series of novels, but his nonfiction essay has many interesting insights. His comment about the discernment of bishops in the Anglican communion is particularly arresting because he said that a man needed personal dignity as much as piety and more than mental ability to be selected as a candidate. I won’t comment on any application to the discernment of bishops in our own Church and country. ….

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