I’m learning again this Pascha.

A little meat can still make you sick. My diet is largely vegetarian even outside of Lent and so I tried to take it easy in the wee small hours but it wasn’t good enough. I’m now in bed at the hotel waiting for everything to settle. Sigh.

How good it is to have a full church. They were standing in the aisles last night and the church was warm with the energy and life of that holy night. How I would love for that to be every day!

To appreciate the effort that everyone takes to make Holy Week a reality. Of course the Priest works but there were many others who took the time from their day to lend a hand. Thank you.

That even when the services seem to be a matter of getting up there and getting through there are still parts that speak to your spirit. They’re the same words for sure, but there is always a new place in your life where they can fit.

A sense of gratiude for my own home and bed. I live in hotels every weekend and the hospitality is great but I’d trade it right now, and every time, for my own bed with a cat sticking his nose into my face.

faith rediscovered in the secular wilderness.

Truly He is risen!

to all of you on the occasion of Pascha.

Christ is Risen!

are probably the hardest service for people to attend during Holy Week. It’s a long service, two hours and change, there’s not much movement, and plenty of standing. It’s the one service some long time Orthodox avoid.

But it’s important. First it continues the Orthodox way of immersing those who attend in Scripture. Some people think that because they have a Bible study and a text of two in the service that they’re a “Bible Church” but we Orthodox are soaked in Scripture every single liturgy. The Passion Gospels are the epitome of this, the whole service is Scripture held together by the framework of an Orthros service.

Second, the Passion Gospels tell the story of Holy Week, the “why” behind all of what we are doing. Why is Great and Holy Friday “great”? What is the story behind the Resurrection? The Church wants us to know and so we read not just a snip or two but the whole story, from multiple viewpoints so when we ask like they do at Passover “Why is this night different than all the others?” we have, on our own passover, our Pascha, an answer.

like the DHS report identifying abortion opponents as potential “right wing extremists” not to create a sense of paranoia but rather to help people be wise about the times. God is still God, our Faith will endure, and ten thousand years after the United States, or any other country for that matter, is a curiousity of ancient history the Church will remain.

But there is another truth in play. Truly the Church has been sleeping and events like this should, as one poster to this blog has said, “Wake us up…” to see that we have to be alive, vital, willing to reach beyond ourselves, and willing to come to terms with and act on the idea that Christianity is powerful and subversive to the dominant paradigm. The time for discussion is over, it is time to do and be.

I don’t know, does that mean I’m a potential “right wing extremist” too?

lists people opposed to abortion as potential “right wing extremists”.

From page 2 of their recent report.

Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.

Some time ago I spoke of how social and political conservatives eager to give the last President sweeping powers in the name of fighting “terrorism” were placing themselves in danger because Presidents, and their vision of what the word “terrorist” means can change and the power we thought we gave the President to fight one kind of person can easily be applied at home to people and groups unpopular with whatever Administration is in power.

Well, it looks like that has happened. We were willing to give a person our civil rights for the illusion of safety and now the table has turned.

being tired come Monday but its the best kind of tired in the world, the tired of Lent completed, Pascha celebrated, a tired full of the anticipation of spring.

I suppose I’ll write a little bit along the way but mostly I plan to soak it all in.

By the way, I hope you like the picture. I took it last fall outside the church in Wausau, Wisconsin where my family and I spent much of our lives. All I can say is that I have traveled far.

of the coming collision between sexual orientation and religious rights.

Had the chance to look in on Orthodox Christians for Accountability and their coverage of the stories resulting from the recent decsision to return the Diocesan Bishops to Auxiliary status. I was grateful to see that others have taken up the call for civility and Christian conduct in how we approach this issue.

I feel better.

As we come into Holy Week the recent decision to return the Diocesan Bishops of our Archdiocese to auxiliary status is still front and center. Of course it has to be. This is a dramatic thing and many people remain puzzled about why its has happened. Right now there are more questions then answers.

I’ve tried to go on websites like Orthodox Christians for Accountability to find out information and make sense of all this. I have an obligation to do this so I can help the people I serve make sense of what is happening and how this will affect their lives. I hate to have to go to such sources but the truth is that the official word right now is largely silence. Sadly, I think that silence has made things worse.

The problem is that something has to fill the vacuum created when an action is taken without an explanation to follow. In this case that vacuum has been filled with a lot of name calling, speculation, and people taking anonymous pot shots at each other. To get to the valuable information you have to wade through a swamp of conspiracy and speculation and that makes finding and seeking out the truth difficult. And all I want to know is the truth.

I’ve written ad nauseum about how we need, even in our disagreements, to at least be Christian with each other but I feel like my words are falling to the ground. Not only are people still not understanding what has happened but they have also added a mountain of harsh words that, even when this is all over, will still be open wounds for many years.

I don’t know why our Metropolitan did what he did. I find it difficult to comprehend but isn’t there a way to say that without calling him names and implying all kinds of dark nuances? I don’t know why certain Priests in our diocese don’t like Bp. MARK, the person they describe in their letters isn’t even close to the Bishop I know, but why does this struggle have to become a matter of open letters and taking sides? It seems like we had a small fire started and then the rumors began raining down on it like gasoline.

The truth is that whatever happens to our Bishops may be less drastic then the damage we’re doing to each other by the way we’re discussing their status. We’re in the process of creating caricatures out of each other and that may be harder to undo then anything else. But who cares about that? This is war and the object is to win even if we’ve forgotten about what we’re fighting for.

Sigh. I just feel sad about it all. I’m sad that we can’t talk about this like adults, like Christians. I’m sad that valuable time and energy will be dissipated not in seeking out the truth and that which is good for the Church but rather in flailing about in senseless and unncessary combat. We have to talk about this. We have to work this out. But first everyone has got to take a deep breath and count to ten.

And I’m still waiting.