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"Hurricane Katherine", my nickname for the new US Episcopal Church, may be taking hold. Ruth Gledhill of The Times has Let's see if we can get Rowan Williams to use it now.

At her today, Bishop Jefferts Schori, who had a late vocation to the priesthood, was asked about her career before ordination.

I spent the first part of my adult life as an oceonographer. I did my masters work along the coast of Oregon on things that live in the sediment -- in the mud. (Laughter from the room) ... And I'm still fishing.

The Presiding Bishop-elect then explained that she took a PhD in oceonography, researching squids and octopodes (that's the correct plural of octopus, in case you didn't know).

That masters work could prove useful in the next few months. I expect that the bishop's strong commitments to evolutionary science will produce a bit of mud-slinging from some conservative evangelicals in the United States; some may even find fault with her Roman Catholic roots; while others will struggle with her gender; and still others with her liberal views on human sexuality.