Things in My Life

I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian and a Reader, a member of an Eastern Orthodox Church in America.

The Holy Orthodox Church of Christ is my beloved. Participating in her life, both the Divine Services and other social occasions, are, I can honestly say, the happiest and most fulfilling moments of my life. Below are the photos of me taken when I was tonsured a Reader in October of 1990 by Archbishop Dmitri of Dallas of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church in America.

This one shows me in front of the iconostas of the current parish in which I am a member and participate, St. Philothea Greek Orthodox Church in Athens, GA, which is under the omophor of Metropolitan Alexios of Atlanta.

I converted to the Holy Orthodox Church at the end of April in 1983, from the Episcopalians, and with my family was Baptized at St. Nina of Georgia Mission of the Orthodox Church in America. Upon my conversion, I took St. Constantine the Great as my patron due to his profound influence on the missionizing and evangelism of the Roman Empire. Later, I went to seminary at St. Vladimir's Seminary.

I very much enjoy looking at *how* the Divine Services are put together, the books the hymns are taken from and the way those hymns are put together each day throughout the year. I also enjoy thinking and writing about things of the Church (some of my articles are on these pages - see below).

I live in Athens, GA and work at the University of Georgia Library in the Georgia Newspaper Project. I've worked at academic libraries since my days at Sewanee, at the DuPont Library. This type of work is also a great love of mine. I've also worked for the Vanderbilt University Library and the St. Vladimir's Seminary Library. I am also into desktop publishing and proofreading. One of the major projects I've worked on is the OPT Directory of Orthodox Parishes and Institutions in North America, both the original 1992 and the updated 1994 editions - for those I did pretty much the whole thing: database construction and management, page layout and proofreading, and the actual production of the masters used for printing.

Studying and working with languages are also among my greatest joys. I enjoy looking at the way languages develop and evolve (for example, the way the Romance languages developed from Latin). God willing, I plan to give these gifts of writing and of languages which God has blessed me with back to him by working to translate Patristic texts for the Church (I also know Greek) and in whatever other way He sees fit to call me to.

In person I am a rather reserved, quiet and introverted individual, which is one of the main reasons I have decided not to have children... I think adults can understand the personality I have and where I’m coming from whereas a child would only find me almost unapproachable (I substituted at an elementary school once and it was not a good experience). Although I also believe that there are sound theological reasons for a couples' deciding not to have children, having to do with the multiple purposes of marriage and the the diversity of callings within marriage to which couples may be called.

I have a very dry sense of humor and I enjoy comedy and can laugh at good jokes, but I don’t smile much at all... it’s not that I’m angry or unhappy all the time, I just don’t. (I know many people, and especially children, would find this unnerving.)

I'm traditional in a lot of ways, but I don't believe in the subservience of the wife. (I believe both are co-equal partners and co-workers!) I think a wife can also be dynamic in the marriage... some may be called to be homemakers, but others may be equally called to be career women with no intent to give that career up upon marriage. Maybe thinking that way doesn't make me a 'Normal Orthodox Man' but hey... I'd rather be abnormal and see women - and especially Orthodox women - fulfilling themselves in the careers they want, with leadership roles in the Church, if that be what they are called to do.