The Diocese of Olympia -- the Episcopal Church in Western Washington -- is in the process of electing a new bishop suffragan to assist the Ordinary. There are five candidates to become the new assisting bishop. There will be an election soon and, in order to introduce all of the candidates to the electors all around the diocese, there is a sort of road trip process where a busload of candidates and spouses travel from place to play holding regional meetings. The diocese called this the "walkabout" although it might have been more accurately descriptive to call it "rideabout" given the mode of transportation actually employed. The term walkabout has been used by many others dioceses to describe this sort of cart-and-pony-show whereby candidates for election as bishop meet their constituency.

Someone raised an interesting issue. "Walkabout" is an Australian term which has religious significance to the people native to that continent. The question is: Does the appropriation of a religious term from another culture potentially offend those who use it to describe something sacred to them? I never gave it a moment's thought ... but I can be a callous lout.