Our Katharine wades into "Dirty Water"

I'm a "Dirty Water Girl."

Remember the song by the Standells? No?

Oh then, please, allow me to refresh your memory:

(Spoken:)
I'm gonna tell you a story
I'm gonna tell you about my town
I'm gonna tell you a big bad story, baby
Aww, it's all about my town

Yeah, down by the river
Down by the banks of the river Charles (aw, that's what's happenin' baby)
That's where you'll find me
Along with lovers, fuggers, and thieves (aw, but they're cool people)
Well I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston, you're my home (oh, you're the Number One place)
Frustrated women (I mean they're frustrated)
Have to be in by twelve o'clock (oh, that's a shame)
But I'm wishin' and a-hopin, oh
That just once those doors weren't locked (I like to save time for
my baby to walk around)
Well I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston, you're my home (oh, yeah)

Ah, there. I do believe I can start the day now.

ANYWAY, to hear and read that Our Katharine was in Boston yesterday was almost as exciting as the FOUR HOMERS IN A ROW as played in the brilliant winning game by The Red Sox against the NY Yankees last Sunday night.

(One more shameless piece of Dirty Water Pride: The Sox are #1 in the League standings with 13/7. The Yankees are in #4 with 8/11. Woo hoo! I have a T-shirt that says, "I have two favorite teams: The Boston Red Sox and anybody who beats the Yankees." It's dangerous to wear in the NY Metro area, but hey, a girl from Dirty Water has gotta do what a girl living in The Garden State's gotta do.)

You can find the audio of her interview with Boston Globe Reporter here.

If that link isn't 'hot' you can also find it half way down the report of her visit which you can find here.

I've also printed it below for your convience.

Episcopal leader holds firm on gay rights
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff April 25, 2007
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Saying "I don't believe that there is any will in this church to move backward," the top official of the Episcopal Church USA said yesterday that the election of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire has been "a great blessing" despite triggering intense controversy and talk of possible schism.
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In an interview during a visit to Boston, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori compared the gay rights struggle to battles over slavery and women's rights, and said she believes that it has become a vocation for the Episcopal Church "to keep questions of human sexuality in conversation, and before not just the rest of our own church, but the rest of the world."

Jefferts Schori said that it could take 50 years for the debate over homosexuality to be resolved, but that she believes it will happen. She said she hopes that the Anglican Communion, an umbrella organization including the Episcopal Church and the Church of England, will stay together.
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"Where the protesters are, in some parts of Africa or in other parts of the Anglican Communion today, is where this church and this society we live in was 50 years ago, and for us to assume that people can move that distance in a year or in a relatively instantaneous manner is perhaps faithless," she said. "That kind of movement and development has taken us a good deal of pain and energy over 40 or 50 years, and I think we have to make some space so that others can make that journey as well."
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Jefferts Schori, a 53-year-old oceanographer who was ordained an Episcopal priest just 13 years ago, has been attempting to guide the 2.4 million member Episcopal Church through controversy since she was elected the 26th presiding bishop last summer, three years after the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire triggered the controversy by choosing the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man in a long-term partnered relationship, as its next bishop.
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The Anglican Communion has been embroiled in a debate about whether and how to punish the American church for its consent to Robinson's election, which some Anglican primates view as a violation of biblical teachings about sexuality.
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"This is an issue for some clergy and a handful of bishops in our own church, and for a handful of primates across the communion, who believe that this issue is of sufficient importance to chuck us out, but the vast majority of people and clergy in this church, and I would believe across the communion, think that our common mission is of far higher importance," Jefferts Schori said. "If we focus on the mission we share, we're going to figure out how to get along together, even if we disagree about some things that generate a good deal more heat than light."
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Jefferts Schori was in Massachusetts to visit with local Episcopal clergy, who are meeting in Brewster. She spoke to the Globe yesterday morning in the office of Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, leader of the Diocese of Massachusetts, at the diocesan headquarters in downtown Boston.
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"This is a ministry filled with joy and challenge, and for somebody who thinks that the cardinal sin is boredom, it's feeling like a good fit," she said of her new role. "Anglicans have always said that our role is to live in tension and to live in the midst of tension, and, frankly, the only thing that doesn't exhibit tension is dead."
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Asked about her message to those who are critical of the direction of the Episcopal Church, she said: "If we are not willing to reexamine our assumptions about who is in and who is out, I don't think we are adequately faithful in our spiritual journey. We may come to different conclusions about who is fit for inclusion in the community, but I don't think it excuses us from a willingness to wrestle with that question."
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Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.
Photograph by George Rizer/Globe Staff