An American Patriarch? Ask the Greeks

Och has a conversation underway about American Orthodoxy. I didn't mention this over there, but I actually like competing jurisdictions wherein parishes have to be welcoming and friendly to attract newcomers and converts. Naw, that idea's too Protestant to be really Christian.

Catching Up


Here's a comment about how secular traditions don't arise in an economic vacuum.

As I opined on Och's blog, this year's Lent was disappointing, but I imagine that disappointment is part of the martyrdom that Lent cultivates.

Part of my disappointment was tied to my inability to refrain all blog activity during Lent. When a chorus of criticism was directed against Ancient Faith Radio, my hackles were raised. Added to that was a tongue-in-cheek attack on my beloved Obikhod and on AFR as Ortho-Protestantism. Listen, AFR is the closest thing to Mom and apple pie in my book.

I switched to Gabriel's blog to begin presenting a view that the Church/State symphonia is simply a manifestation of a larger clergy/laity relationship. Under our republican government, the parish and diocesan council replaces the Emperor as the laity's representative. For this partnership to be effective, there must be cooperation as well as constraint.

More about symphonia here.

This makes me a card-carrying supply-sider fellow-traveler. Yes, I add Laffer curver to my portfolio. Wordsmythes, be nice.

Just When You Thought That Good Economics Was Consigned To The Woodwork

The Federal Reserve's moves to prop up Bear Stearns Cos. will come to be seen as "the worst policy mistake in a generation," the former head of monetary affairs at the Fed.

The action is comparable to "the great contraction" of the 1930s and "the great inflation" of the 1970s, said Vincent Reinhart, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, who retired from the Fed last fall.