Word hunting
Last month I attended a large church gathering, a meeting that we in The Episcopal Church call a Provincial Synod. While there, one of the participants got "dinged" in a comment from the Presiding Bishop for referring to "The National Church." Sure, I get it: our Church includes those from many other countries, and this is evident especially in settings such as The General Convention -- even though the GC meets in the United States.
What to call the church instead puzzles me, in part because for years I've filled out applications and grant requests which asked me to list activities in my home church, diocese, province, and -- yes -- national church. So renaming it is fine, but I'm not coming up with anything better than "wider church." For now, that's what I'm using on the latest bio I've been asked to send to our province. But surely there's something more creative. I've also heard "broader church," but I don't like that any better. "Broader" also has elicited ridiculous comments about "broads" in the church. Obviously, I don't find that funny. I am, though, open to suggestions for another word.
What to call the church instead puzzles me, in part because for years I've filled out applications and grant requests which asked me to list activities in my home church, diocese, province, and -- yes -- national church. So renaming it is fine, but I'm not coming up with anything better than "wider church." For now, that's what I'm using on the latest bio I've been asked to send to our province. But surely there's something more creative. I've also heard "broader church," but I don't like that any better. "Broader" also has elicited ridiculous comments about "broads" in the church. Obviously, I don't find that funny. I am, though, open to suggestions for another word.
posted by Raisin at
2:37 PM
4 Comments:
The "Federal Church?" ;-)
How about 'that building in New York that could float off into the ocean and no one would notice?'
But, in seriousness, Episcopal Relief and Development has been in this same hissy fit about not being called the ER-D; their reason being that no one understands what that is. As if anyone has any greater understanding of what "Episcopal Relief and Development" is. I'm not a fan of acronyms, but nothing has been offered in its place that is catchy. It's a pain to have to spell out "Episcopal Relief and Development" every single time in an e-mail. If you want to rename, fine. But you have to have something really catchy to put in its place, or people simply revert back to what it was called before.
The Episcopal Church.
Archer, I seem to recall that it quit being the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief for a similar reason.
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