Thoughts on a year with the Greeks

It seems that my sojourn with the Greeks has ended, as an OCA mission is being established in my hometown, so I'll debrief a little bit.

It was a pretty good year. The priest was good, we made some friends, and it was probably good to see how other traditions do things. I had spent some time in an Antiochian parish and occasionally attended Greek parishes, but that's not quite the same as really being there, you know? I highly recommend the experience, though it was certainly rough at times.

Really, the roughest part was the commute. It is very nice to be able to have church in town, which, in this case, means a 10 minute commute. I could even walk or ride the bus if I wanted now. The trip made it hard to participate regularly in the full cycle of services.

Anyway, in my "Archbishop-Job-imitating-some-other-guy" voice: "YAY YAY OCA."

A thought on "freedoms", the Constitution, etc.

Perhaps the stability of the American project and its concern for the rights of its (landed, white) citizens has more to do with its foundations in the English common law tradition than the genius of the authors of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.