On Bishops - remembering Philip Strong

With Justin Welby's recent appointment, my thoughts have been on Bishops. Actually on one particular Bishop, Philip Strong, who was a pioneering missionary in Papua New Guinea from 1936 and then leader of the Anglican Church in Australia from 1962 to 1970.
I knew him in his last few years, and he was a passionate and prayerful Anglo-Catholic, but what made him very significant was a radio broadcast he made in PNG in 1942, which can be read at http://anglicanhistory.org/aus/png/strong_message1942.html.

He led a large mission force who were faced with the approaching Japanese invasion. Strong said clearly in his broadcast that he, and his co-workers had to stay.

 'We could not leave unless God, who called us, required it of us, and our spiritual instinct tells us He would never require such a thing at such an hour.

Our people need us now more than ever before in the whole history of the mission.  .  .

No, my bothers and sisters, fellow workers in Christ, whatever others my do, we cannot leave. We shall not leave. We shall stand by our trust. We shall stand by our vocation.'

Of course in Britain the lot of the Bishops and clergy is not like this. The new archbishop will not face a terrifying invasion. But if we are to be a church which has a backbone, we need to remember people like Philip Strong, and his missionaries, eight of whom were martyred by the Japanese.

Strong advocated taking people into the hills, rather than staying to be killed, and his practical advice as well as his honest and heroic vision is a  model for us all.