{"id":1232,"date":"2013-06-19T18:17:22","date_gmt":"2013-06-19T17:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/?p=1232"},"modified":"2013-07-03T09:51:17","modified_gmt":"2013-07-03T08:51:17","slug":"take-your-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/?p=1232","title":{"rendered":"Take Your Seat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"http:\/\/www.dreamstime.com\/-image579249\"<\/a>In days gone by, the chair was a symbol of authority. In Roman law courts, for example, the magistrate sat<\/i> to give judgement. In medieval times, nobody would sit themselves down while the king still stood; and to sit upon his throne could be viewed as treason.<\/p>\n

On 16 July Bishop Alan Hopes will be installed as the fourth bishop of East Anglia. Since he is already a bishop there will be no Rite of Ordination. The central part of his installation ceremony will involve him sitting in a chair.<\/p>\n

The chair in question is the cathedra <\/i>from which the Cathedral takes its name. The seat reserved only for the diocesan bishop and upon which no-one else may sit, including the Papal Nuncio during this year\u2019s Chrism Mass, or Cardinal Murphy-O\u2019Connor the previous year.<\/p>\n

Taking his seat is a sign that Bishop Alan is taking authority within our diocese.<\/p>\n

However, the authority of the chair goes beyond medieval courts and Roman legal systems, with a deeper significance than merely one of power.<\/p>\n

The chair was originally the symbol of teaching. The teacher sat with his pupils (literally, his \u2018disciples\u2019) around him, drawing on his words and example.<\/p>\n

The authority of our new bishop, then, springs from his role as one who teaches. He is a successor to the apostles, sent to us to teach Christ.<\/p>\n

The invitation of Bishop Alan\u2019s installation service is to view him as a teacher rather than a manager; as one who, by his words and example, can inspire us to learn better the way of Christ.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In days gone by, the chair was a symbol of authority. In Roman law courts, for example, the magistrate sat to give judgement. In medieval times, nobody would sit themselves down while the king still stood; and to sit upon … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001003,"featured_media":1234,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-previous-comment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/1142275928nHN01k.jpg?fit=299%2C450&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001003"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1232"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1415,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232\/revisions\/1415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}