“O Lord Jesus Christ, eternal God, who within time hast become perfect man from the womb of the Virgin: from thy heavenly throne hearken to our prayer for this land. Prepare it for us as a temporal homeland such that we may easily and safely travel therefrom to our true homeland with thee. Give strength […]
Of Traditional Music
One of the primary purposes of the Ludwell Orthodox Fellowship is to start conversations about how Orthodoxy can best be enculturated into our contemporary society. It is our belief that there are elements within our traditional culture which are capable of being “baptized” and therefore of becoming vehicles of Orthodox faith and piety for us […]
The Curious Case for Cajun Orthodoxy
By Barry “Phil” Philliber Cajun people represent a curious culture nestled and nurtured within our broader Southern civilization. Most observers – when reflecting on Roman Catholicism in the United States at large – tend to focus on immigrants from Italy, Ireland, Poland, and Central and South America. The Cajun story is often overlooked in this […]
The Appalachian Tradition of “Old Christmas”
From our earliest of days, the people who settled the mountains of Appalachia have sought diligently to preserve their heritage, culture, and language. Our much derided accent, ancient customs and mountain knowledge is a source of pride to millions of Americans. Even today, there is a comfort and longing from folks all around to return […]
Stonewall Jackson
On December 4, 2021, one of the last true country music stars passed away. Stonewall Jackson was born in Tabor City, North Carolina, on November 6, 1932. Growing up with an abusive stepfather and little in the way of formal education, Jackson served as a submariner in the U.S. Navy before moving to Nashville to […]
Orthodox Saints for Dixie: December
A Selection of Saints of the British Isles & Western Europe & Africa By Walt Garlington ♱ St. Birinus, Apostle of Wessex, 3/16 December Birinus, a native of Lombardy, consecrated Bishop by Asterius Bishop of Genoa, and then sent by Pope Honorius to convert the West Saxons. One of his earliest converts was Cynegils, King […]
Orthodox Granny Women
By Olga Sibert Come on in. Sit down. Rest yourself. Settin’s cheaper’n standin’. Here in the Appalachians we have a person known as a Granny Woman. I was privileged to grow up with one and I pray, God willing, I will be one myself someday. On this past May 6th, as I was researching and reading […]
Come Home, Y’all
Each of us has ancestors, both physical and spiritual, who gave us [our] language, culture and, most importantly, [our] faith … To lose touch with that past, with those ancestors, means to become spiritually dry. — His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All-Russia Some say that Orthodoxy suffers from a lack of converts here […]
Hillbilly Thomists or Hillbilly Hesychasts for the South?
By Walt Garlington “Through this (theoria) a man is deified, not through reflecting on words or visible things, but taught by silence.” — St. Gregory Palamas Mr. Joseph Pearce gives a very good illustration of how the West has gone astray after leaving its first love, the Orthodox Church, for Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. At […]
Ortho Dixie: Orthodox Christianity and Southern Identity
By Stephen Borthwick Anyone who has grown up in the melting pot of immigrant religiosity of the industrial northeast has a very specific vision of Southern religiosity – evangelical, provincial, low-church, and rabidly anti-Catholic, among other things. Even growing up in a household sympathetic to the South, I had plenty of condescending ignorance about the […]
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