Orthodixie

Sometimes just plain ol’ reality is far better and more “creative” than fiction. For example, my interview with the “Big Banana” was priceless — though the Big Yellow One probably thought it was right on the money.

I‘m hoping to one day get a report that the Small Town Heroes came to play some Byzantine Bluegrass at an Orthodox Tent Revival.

This story (Choir Eye for Retired Guys), parading as an actual story, is also worth a try.

Then there’s things that just happen, which are totally subjective, and hard to explain.

Finally, in the midst of the Don Imus controversy, innocently enough, there was Cap’n Hoe.

Award Host
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Taking a posting break from humour (I told you this wasn’t the funniest blog), several have written me to trumpet the following piece. I’m all in favor of Orthodox and Catholic joint efforts — working together — toward the Kingdom, and I generally find our relations in the blogosphere a great blessing. Yet, forgive the paraphrase, as things now stand (I mean what has changed?), you cannot call the Church your Mother … while acknowledging two Papas.

Orthodox leader suggests “dual unity” for Eastern Catholics

Constantinople, Jun. 19, 2008 (CWNews.com) – The Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople has responded favorably to a suggestion by the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church for a system of “dual unity” in which Byzantine Catholic churches would be in full communion with both Constantinople and Rome.

Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople welcomed the proposal in an interview with the magazine Cyril and Methodius, the RISU news service reports. The acknowledged leader of the Orthodox world suggested that the “dual unity” approach would produce something akin to the situation of the Christian world in the 1st millennium, before the split between Rome and Constantinople.

Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of Kiev, the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church– the largest of the Eastern Catholic churches– had offered the possibility that Byzantine Catholics might seek communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, without giving up their communion with the Holy See. Patriarch Bartholomew expressed distinct interest in the idea, saying that “the mother Church in Constantinople holds the doors open for the return of all her former sons and daughters.”

Patriarch Bartholomew acknowledged that a restoration of unity would require study, and important differences would have to be overcome. However, he observed that major steps have already been taken to resolve disagreements– most importantly the revocation of the mutual decrees of excommunication issued by Rome and Constantinople against each other in 1054.

While Catholic and Orthodox theologians continue their efforts to reach agreement on doctrinal questions, Patriarch Bartholomew said, “the people at the grass roots have to come together again.” He pointed to the “dual unity” idea as a possible step toward practical unity.

If you wish, here’s the rest.

My teen-aged daughter is, of course – by default – a Priest Kid (or PK for short). A while back, on a retreat down in the border town of Pharr, Texas, she met another gal, a PK, and they became long-distance friends.

Recently, she told me of a T-Shirt that this girl and some other PKs were marketing which featured, on the front in big letters: P. K.

And on the back it read: “We believe because we HAVE to!”

Of course, pretending to be a sober-minded Daddy Priest, I said, “Uh, no.”

BUT … really … believing because you have to is not such a bad deal.

Life gets a lot more difficult when we grow up and get out on our own and are responsible for our own beliefs. Scarier still is the thought that we will, at least the way I believe – We will some day be judged not so much by what we said we believed, but by those works which, by God’s grace, we did according to that belief.

Even the Saints, themselves, were not infallible. They, too, were sinners – strugglers just as we are. On this side of hagiography, we tend to remember – and rightly so – the virtues of the Saints. And yet, in their own earthly lives there were those who knew them differently.

There’s a saying: “Eternal rest with the saints … but you wouldn’t want to live with them!”

For the rest of the story …

The Orthodixie Podcast on Ancient Faith Radio.

The fabulously bizarre image is stolen from a portion of The Last Judgment — Image Source

Awards notwithstanding, this is still not the funniest blog. Sometimes, there’s a rant or two. But some, funny or not, seem worth a read …

Kids at Christmas. Aren’t we all?

It’s obvious: Cows Can’t Spell.

Sometimes I simply post FWDs from folks. The one about Gilligan’s Island brought in a lot of traffic.

Making fun of Southerners, even for Southerners, is always fun (not to mention Blondes).

There are times when humour fails and rants are in order. Forgive me.

After all those years of books, movies, televangelists and the like — The number of the Beast was finally revealed.

I still find this one funny: a visual & a song.

This post, a review on the first Narnia movie, was the last (on this blog) to feature a comment from Mary “Stolzi” Stolzenbach. May her memory be eternal!

As previously mentioned, awards notwithstanding, this is not the funniest blog. However, here’s some past posts which, at least to me, were fun well worth reading.

Back in January of 2005, Of Course Sponge Bob is Gay sought to understand Dr James Dobson’s campaign against beloved cartoon characters. (None of the old links in that piece are essential — nor do they now work — except the final one, which is essential.)

Forgive me, but before I moved to Houston I used to say: “There’s two kinds of bad drivers: women … and men who drive like women.” Saudi Arabia might want to take note. (Since moving to Houston I have discovered that I can no longer properly define “bad driving.” I’m just a man.)

REMEMBER: Always turn those cell phones off in church (especially on Good Friday).

This is not really funny, I’m not even sure it makes sense, like bad drivers in Houston: all things are relative.

Back before all her broadcast sorrows, bizarre as it may seem, there was a connection between Britney Spears and the “Gospel of Judas.”

Speaking of Judas, here’s a piece on my visit to the parish of St Judas the Wonderwinker (some links, like the veracity of Judas’s Gospel, have expired).

More later …