June 23, 2006
+Katharine
When I was in seminary, I thought Julian of Norwich was a guy. When I found out she wasn’t, I got curious. Then I discovered that though she seemed a bit bananas, she was yet in a lot of and maybe even constant demand for helping folk stumbling along the Way, a few centuries later, even me.
She lived in some sort of cubicle attached to the side of a church in such a way that she could still see the altar and all the while be accessible to passersby. Maybe it was a precursor to drive-in windows. They’ve proven very handy to the general public and they also offer some anonymity to them as wants it, like us addicts not only to the sauce, but maybe to some inordinary lust after power, for example.
I got a T-shirt for CP at GC2006 that says “God is not a boy’s name.” That sort of issue never seemed to bother Julian any, but I suspect she’d probably be at least mildly amused. Though I’d be the last to suggest it, maybe Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori could open a few more doors if she just let go and let Jefferts, or maybe even Jeff?
No? Just forget I ever said it. For all is well and all will be well, and all that’s well will end well or whatever. Julian said that as if she was either in her right or left mind, whenever. I believe it, and I’m even more certain about it than ever now that +Katharine by whatever name has got the con.