The Office of Bishop

[BronxBriar]

Dear Friends,

Am I correct to assume that Reformed Churches do not utilize the office of bishop? If I am correct, is it because the church polity that developed during the Reformation saw no need for it? Found it not scriptural? Something else?

Thanks for your help.

 

[rmwilliamsll]

Dear Friends,

Am I correct to assume that Reformed Churches do not utilize the office of bishop? If I am correct, is it because the church polity that developed during the Reformation saw no need for it? Found it not scriptural? Something else?

Thanks for your help.

not quite true...the hungarian reformed church has bishops

(Editio Calvin, Budapest 1999. Compiled and written by Ferenc Dusicza)
The Reformed Church is, in terms of numbers, the largest denomination in Hungary, after the Roman Catholic Church. The Calvinist trend of the Reformation in Hungary adopted two confessions at Debrecen in 1567: the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Second Helvetian Confession. The existence of the Reformed Church in Hungary dates from this Debrecen Synod of 1567. Among the Presbyterian churches it is the only one that has had, and still has, bishops in additions to general curators (lay presidents) at the head of Church Districts. At present the registered number of Reformed Hungarians world-wide is about three and a half million. Of these, some two million live in Hungary. In consequence of the dismemberment of Hungary after World War I, many congregations - even whole Church Districts in Transylvania - were separated from our Church and placed beyond the borders of this country. These believers continue to live in their old homes, but in alien linguistic and religious surroundings. In the United States there are some 70 Hungarian Reformed congregations in two separate church bodies. In addition to these, Hungarian Reformed believers live in considerable numbers in Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and Latin America. The Reformed Church in Hungary maintains close fraternal relations with our Hungarian coreligionists living abroad, whether in neighbouring countries or dispersed throughout the world, partly through the World Federation of Hungarian Reformed Believers, and partly within the framework of the Consultative Synod of the Hungarian Reformed Church. Reformed believers amount to about 21% of the Hungarian population of ten million. 1200 congregations live in four Church Districts and 27 seniorates. We have 1402 church buildings.

from: http://www.reformatus.hu/english/english.htm

but the reason is curious. to say the least

Hungary was one of the richest nations in Europe. But the owners of the great ecclesiastical and secular latifundia became self-serving under a succession of weak kings; they cruelly oppressed their serfs, and, by brutal suppression of the revolts of peasants striving to better themselves, beat them down once again into serfdom. The defeat at the hands of the Turks at Mohács in 1526 and the occupation of more than half of the country by the invaders, was interpreted by the majority of the nation as God's punishment for the corruption of the mediaeval church. Thus the religious and ethical condition of the nation was fertile soil in which the seeds of the Gospel could be sown through the comforting message of the Reformers' preachug. The great Hungarian Reformers, Mátyás Déuai Bíró, István Szegedi Kis, Mihály Sztárai, and Imre Ozorai, were worthy representatives in this country of the grand teachers of the Western Reformation. But the most eminent of them was Péter Méliusz Juhász, Bishop of Debrecen. The achievement of the successful preachers and learned Reformers was greatly enhanced by the patronage of zealous magnates ready to serve this cause. In the towns, the magistrates took a stand for Protestantism, whilst the aristocratic patrons protected their chaplains on their lands, and the travelling preachers, often released from prison, found shelter and peace on a Protestant estate.

from: http://www.reformatus.hu/english/history.htm

it was at the battle of Mohács that killed so many people occupying both civil and eccelesistical position, like bishoprics. that the reform moved into a vacuum and assumed the positions left vacant in the war. so the names stayed the same.....so the hungarian church is organized more hierarchically than any other presbyterian church, but presbyterian at the core.

 

[Polycarp1]

Speaking as an outsider, purely to give information, many students of Church history, including some of the Reformers, noted that the "overseers" episkopoi and the "elders" presbuterioi in Acts and Paul's letters seemed to be interchangeable terms for the same people/offices. They therefore regarded the traditional distinction of bishop and presbyter (priest/elder) as erroneous, and restored what they believed to be the original equivalence of the two.

 

[Knight]

IIRC, the word used in the NT for the name of this office can be translated as Overseer or Elder.

Many Reformed churches use an Elder system.

 

[A. believer]

Dear Friends,

Am I correct to assume that Reformed Churches do not utilize the office of bishop? If I am correct, is it because the church polity that developed during the Reformation saw no need for it? Found it not scriptural? Something else?

Thanks for your help.

You might find these blog entries on Protestantism and the Historic Episcopate of interest. The link will take you directly to Part I, and you can scroll up for Parts II and III.