No, but after a few more days in our Orthodox Christian mission parish here in the sweltering subtropics of south Louisiana, we may be open to theological revision. Turns out that the air conditioner that cools both the rectory and the attached church space can’t keep up with the intense heat and humidity of this time of year, and folks are sweating buckshot during services. The poor priest and his family are living in a sweatbox, and heaven knows what the electricity bill is going to be.

We’re told that it would cost around $4,000 to get an a/c capable of cooling only the church, so we could split the two systems. The thing is, all of us in the parish are tapped out. There aren’t many of us, but we’ve all given to the max … yet there are still needs we didn’t anticipate, despite our best planning.

Starting a church is hard.