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.

Many boards have what they call avatars -- little pictures individual to each member which appear by the messages. Is this use offensive to Hindus?


Bingley

Given that "walkabout" is an English translation of the (ab-)original word, I doubt that it's use in another English-speaking country will offend many Australian natives.

It's a thoroughly standard word applied to two things: the Queen, and a small missing object. The Queen goes walkabout whenever she visits anywhere, and you can complain that your pen has gone walkabout.

Now that's odd, I was just about to say a synonym for the missing things is "grown legs". But something that's gone walkabout is probably just misplaced and will reappear at some point, but something that's grown legs is probably gone for good and you have to get another one from the stationery cupboard.

The Australians use the word to explain why someone is missing (is it always a male thing by the way?) from his usual places – “He’s gone walkabout.” In fact he’s gone off somewhere out of contact and on his own. This seems in keeping with our using the word to refer to a missing object, but not when we apply it to the act of the Queen, or whoever, when going around the fringes of a crowd and having a few words here and there. She is certainly not missing, she is there in plain view, just walking about. It's a neat enough way to describe the action though.

Father Steve, we all have our foibles, but since I don't believe (sorry, yeah, I know you're a man of the cloth, but) that you're "a callous lout", I think you must have been telling us about a lunch break: COLA, USUAL LOT; TACO ALSO, LULU. And I rather hope not LOLA, USUAL COT.

Surely, he meant CALL SOUL OUT ?

to describe this sort of cart-and-pony-show

Do you always say that? I've heard only "dog-and-pony-show."

Google notes only seven uses of "cart and pony show" while it notes 23,700 uses of "dog and pony show." Once again, I find myself in a distinctly minoritarian posture. My spine is so accustomed to this that it is actually comfortable.

a distinctly minoritarian posture

If you're in the Diocese of Olympia you've got the entire Greek Pantheon on your side, so I wouldn't sweat a little minoritarianism.

English dioceses tend to be named from the see city in which the bishop's chair (cathedra) is located within the principal church (cathedral). Thus: the Diocese of London, the Diocese of Durham, the Diocese of Salisbury.

American dioceses tend to be named after the state in which they are located. Thus, the Diocese of New York, the Diocese of California, the Diocese of Tennessee.

Some American states contain more than one diocese and have oddly geopgraphic names. Thus the Diocese of Upper South Carolina and the Diocese of Western North Carolina.

Some have more interesting names, based on their history. Thus, the Diocese of El Camino Real and the Diocese of Rio Grande.

When the Diocese of Olympia was carved out of the Washington Territory, it was assumed that the see city would be the state capital: Olympia. Those who named the diocese were wrong about this, as the see ended up in Seattle.

The City of Olympia was named after the nearby Olympic Mountains, which were named after the home of the Greek gods.

Thanks for the explanation, Padre. I was all at see there for a while!

Speaking of which, I was at the Haghia Sophia (St Sophia) in Istanbul yesterday morning. What an amazing building! You see the pictures, but you get no idea of the scale or the richness of it all. Worth an hour of anyone's time.

Father Steve, you're a minoritarian now? Does your bishop know?
Speaking of bishops,would you mind explaining "suffragan"? It sounds like that kind of bishop can expect to have a hard time...

Speaking of bishops,would you mind explaining "suffragan"?

There are three subspecies of bishops in the American Episcopal Church: bishop, bishop coadjutor, and bishop suffragan. There are no archbishops because this is the Colonies and we were allergic to arch-anything, at least at the time of the American Revolution.

A diocesan bishop is called a "bishop" and is sometimes also called the "ordinary" -- in reference to his/her role in ordaining priests and deacons.

A bishop coadjutor is a person elected to succeed the diocesan bishop upon the latter's retirement. Such a bishop is elected "early" in order to provide some overlap between the retiring ordinary's term and the term of the successor ordinary. While the retiring bishop remains in office, the newly-elected bishop is called coadjutor. This title drops off (sort of like the umbilicus on a newborn baby) on the day the ordinary retires.

A bishop suffragan is subordinate to and an assistant of an ordinary, with no right of succession. The term "suffragan" derives from a Middle English word which derived from a Latin word that mean "to support." [It is also the root of the word suffrage, in the sense of the right to vote.]

The old joke is that the difference between a suffragan and a coadjutor can be discerned by the first thing they say to the ordinary in the morning. The suffragan says "Good morning, bishop. How may I help you today?" The coadjutor says "Good morning, bishop. How are you feeling?"

Thanks, Father Steve. A bishop coadjutor is a person elected to succeed the diocesan bishop upon the latter's retirement. Dang--wouldn't it be simpler to just call him the back-up?

I'm glad you put in reference to his/her role in ordaining priests and deacons. You can guess why! Yes--you would have had to read another ridiculous alternative suggestion!