Orthodixie

The folks over at Get Religion do a marvelous job of covering the media’s coverage of religion. Seminarian Symeon Kees (who is less than one month away from being a married man) recently posted a survey about common errors in religion reporting.

I now draw your attention to the following paragraph, stolen from a news article about the theft of a relic in a church in Massachusetts. While the story is a sad commentary on our times and evil in general, the following two sentences made me laugh out loud. (Forgive me.)

The church has not had a break-in since the 1980s, when a Eucharist was stolen. That item was eventually recovered after an anonymous caller directed the previous head of the church to the Eucharist.

That last sentence is priceless.

Here’s the serious article involving theft of a relic of St Andrew.

Thanks to an Ad Book solicitation for an upcoming event in the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America (check it out), a pic was needed — not, mind you, a shot of any ol’ Joe …

What, you think we don’t know Jack?

(The clergy of St George, Houston – from left to right: Deacon Joseph Carter, Priest John Salem, Archpriest Joseph Shahda, and Priest Joseph Huneycutt.)

Fr John Salem shall be elevated to the rank and dignity of Archpriest on Sunday, November 2nd. Stay tuned to our parish webpage for further details.

The title of this post is taken from an old Joe Jackson tune – “Five Guys Named Moe” (written by Jerome Bresler/Larry Wynn).

Years ago, back before they put the curvature in the earth, my parents took me and a friend to a big concert in Charlotte with some big name bands and artists:

The Four Tops, Charlie Daniels, Gallery, Johnny Nash, Billy Preston …

The final act was a very noisy rock band named Black Oak Arkansas.

(Think “banging gong, clanging cymbal” – minus the love part – and, as far as I could tell, they were speaking in tongues.)

Anyway …

They pranced on stage ranting and raving, barefoot and shirtless – hairy men, in spandex pants.

I was shocked. Seeing as how I was with my parents, I was even more shocked. After the opening number, the lead singer – a cat called Jim Dandy – said:

“People call us animals … they say we’re wild, untamed, nasty …”

The crowd – save for me and my parents, of course – was going crazy in hypnotic agreement.

“Well, brothers and sisters, we’re not animals” — and to the roar of guitar and crowd, he proclaimed — “We’re all alike!”

That’s when my dad said, “Come on, I ain’t like him, let’s get out of here.”

There I sat, a few years later, at a Pentecostal worship service with prophecies in tongues … interpretations … medical diagnosis … ranting in the microphone, and Wurlitzer punctuation marks.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about Uncle Ernie.

Uncle Ernie sat – well, stood – up on the front row. He was every bit of 92 years old, and he kept wigglin and movin, a hoppin’ and a jumpin’.

The pastor, still working the crowd into a frenzy like a spirit filled auctioneer, yelled: “Oh, and look at Uncle Ernie! His leg done caught the spirit!”

Sure nuf, all you had to do was look at Uncle Ernie to see that his right leg was just a wigglin, abnormally out of control. Imagine Elvis, skinny at 92, with one frog leg, one human.

The pastor kept up the excitement, saying: “Yes, Lord – ol’ Uncle Ernie’s leg is praising the Lord! Soon he’ll be runnin’ ’round the building!”

Y’all —

Would you believe it? That ol’ man took off and …

The Orthodixie Podcast on Ancient Faith Radio.

In the midst of prosperity the mind is elated, and in prosperity a man forgets himself; in hardship he is forced to reflect on himself, even though he be unwilling. In prosperity a man often destroys the good he has done; amidst difficulties he often repairs what he long since did in the way of wickedness.

— St Alfred the Great, Founder of the English Nation

Taken from Fr Josiah’s blog.

Pawleys Island, South Carolina is pretty peaceful (though far from empty this time of year)!

I would offer pics, but I’m on dial-up.

While away from the mic this week, AFR is offering a repeat podcast — one which generated many emails!

The Orthodixie Podcast on Ancient Faith Radio.