Of Zebrafish and Episcopacy

I got home from the zebrafish meeting late last night, exhausted from three days of nearly continuous science. All in all it was a fantastic meeting. Several people came up to my really pathetic poster and offered advice about how to improve my techniques and agreed to provide me with reagents that would be helpful for my studies. I also had several "Aha!" moments in the last couple of days' sessions. This week I'm going to work through the experiments I thought of to see what still seems like a good idea in the harsh light of day.

When I awoke this morning, I turned on the news and was overjoyed to discover that during our closing sessions at the fish meeting yesterday, the House of Bishops was electing the first woman primate in the Anglican Communion. Yes, our new Presiding Bishop will be the Most Reverend ma'am, thank you very much! Despite the groans of despair and continuing bitching about schism, I think this is a wonderful day for the Church. I hope that Presiding Bishop-elect Jefferts Schori enjoys a fruitful and felicitous term as Presiding Bishop. Seeing as she's only 52-years-old, she'll be a relatively young 61 when her term is complete, meaning she'll have the opportunity to remain active in ministry after she has stepped down as primate. Of course, her age and relative lack of experience -- she was ordained only 12 years ago, and consecrated bishop in 2001 -- are being used against her by the conservatives who probably just wet themselves when her election by the House of Bishops was announced. Her rapid ascent to the top of the church hierarchy speaks to her strengths and smarts, I would say. The conservatives don't want to come out and say that she shouldn't be PB because she doesn't have a penis, but that's basically what they believe.

I think that she may show in the next nine years that she has bigger balls than any of the lunkhead "traditionalists." And praise be to Jesus for that!