Eyes roll when Rabbi Hayim Herring tells his fellow clergy that they should spend an hour a day on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
Listeners at his seminars smirk when he says blogging should be considered mandatory or that they should post short video clips from their sermons on YouTube.
It’s a lot better than the reaction he used to get.
“They used to look at me as if I’d just said a four-letter word,” said Herring, the former senior rabbi at Beth El Synagogue in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park. Now he’s executive director of STAR (Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal). In its seven years, the organization has seen more converts to what many call one of the dirtiest words in religion: marketing.
One wonders why they included the quote from Ms Schori. The Episcopal denomination has failed miserably attracting the younger generation.