I’m finishing up an essay I’ve been working on all day, about Orthodox Christianity and conservatism. My wife told me something funny that our priest, Fr. Mark Christian, passed on to her about what it’s like to be Orthodox in south Louisiana. Fr. Mark says that when he goes into stores during the Easter season and gives the standard Orthodox greeting for this time of the year, he gets some very locally particular feedback. For example:

“Christ is risen!”

“Yeah, you right!”

Or:

“Christ is risen!”

“Hell, yeah!”

Gotta love it. A Protestant man I met at Pascha services not long ago, and who is considering converting, said he was amazed to discover Orthodoxy in Baton Rouge. “I know 30 guys around here who would be here next week if they knew about it,” he said. Y’all come check us out sometime.

By the way, on less irenic Orthodoxy in the South matters …

… as I anticipated, Father Justin Frederick has been removed from his post as head of the OCA’s Dallas deanery of priests because of the letter made public in which he said that the deans were strongly opposed to Mark Maymon being made the new bishop of the South, given how Maymon had behaved in Dallas (stealing e-mails, etc.). That’s almost a relief; I feared Fr. Justin would lose his parish. Anyway, his was a noble gesture, one I believe probably saved us from having Bishop Mark Maymon forced upon us. We’ll see how things come out in July on this front, but for now, I am grateful for Fr. Justin’s noble sacrifice.