The varieties of show-business experience

Recently, I had a conversation with a rabbi who runs a synagogue in Southern California. The language and idiom of show business permeates that part of the country — everyone in the Los Angeles area, it sometimes seems, has a connection to the entertainment industry — so it didn’t surprise me when he told me that he thinks of himself as the “showrunner” of his synagogue.

I’m two-thirds of the way through a Master of Divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary, on my way — God willing and the people consenting — to ordination as a priest in the Episcopal Church. And the more time I spend in this new vocation, the more I think my rabbi friend has it exactly right. The overlap between clergyman and executive producer is considerable.

I spent 35 years in the television business as a writer, producer, and showrunner — the person responsible for the creative direction