anything Bermudians have not seen before since turmoil in the staffing of the Anglican Church is alarming in its regularity.

There was considerable hope that Anglican Bishop William Down, a sensible, people oriented priest without pretensions, would stay in Bermuda long enough to get some things done in the Anglican Church and to give some of the older, meddlesome priests time to retire. When his work permit was recently extended for a long period, there seemed to be a real chance that Bishop Down would soldier on and try to calm his church. It was not to be, maybe he felt the task was impossible given the cast of characters, and citing "family reasons'' he has decided to return to England to become, basically, a parish priest.

Part of the problem in the Anglican Church has been too many Bishops with no-one staying long enough to put a stamp on the diocese. They have also been very different men with varied approaches, almost as if someone hoped that one day an appointment would turn out to be ideal. It seems to us that what the Anglican Church in Bermuda needs is a long period of service from a strong and persuasive but sensible Bishop.

Clearly that Bishop should now be a Bermudian. Bishop Down believes that the next Anglican Bishop should be Bermudian and elected on the Island. But there are dangers. The internal jealousies of the clergy which have caused such problems in the past are still with us. Those people who opposed the appointment of Rev. Ewen Ratteray as Archdeacon and caused such headaches for Bishop Down are still around and about. Appointing a Bermudian Bishop may not be easy.

It should be clearly understood that some of the Anglican clergy use Bermudianisation as a disguise for their own ambitions and when they say they want Bermudianisation they really mean, "I want me.'' At times this ambition fails to take into consideration any number of other factors which are part of the suitability for church appointments. Just as in many other jobs, simply being Bermudian may not be enough. In general, suitable and qualified Bermudians certainly should have their pick of jobs but the operative words here are "suitable'' and "qualified''. Far too often in all areas of Bermuda there are people who demand jobs on the basis that they are Bermudian but, in fact, are not suitable or qualified for the job. The clergy of the Anglican Church have to understand that, just as anyone else has to understand it.

The sensible thing would be for the Anglican Church to accept Archdeacon Ratteray as Bishop without fuss. If they do not, we suspect the Archbishop of Canterbury will appoint him in the end.

But them maybe Bishop Down had it right when he decided to leave Bermuda. We would not blame him if he felt: "If they want to make all this trouble, let them fight it out for themselves. I'm out of here.''