10/22/23
Videos of the speeches are now available here.
10/5/23
We are so thankful to those who helped make our inaugural conference a smashing success. This includes the speakers, the emcee, and all attendees (many of whom traveled a great distance to be there), visiting clergy, St. Thomas Orthodox Church especially Fathers Mark Tyson and Onouphry Keith, the good people of Tobaccoville, folks on the ground that day and those in the behind-the-scenes planning who volunteered their time and efforts to make sure things ran smoothly, and friends and family who prayed for the gathering from afar.
Our AV volunteers consisting of Ben Wiegold (audio recording, and with his wife Emily, video and audio syncing and editing, as well as the creation of unique thumbnail images, promo videos, and professional intros/outros) and Josh and Amanda Goins (video recording and then working as a seamless team with Ben) have labored tirelessly in their production of truly high-quality finished products. We are blessed beyond all belief to be able to begin sharing with y’all many conference highlights and hope to at some point also make available transcriptions of some of the presentations.
In the meantime, enjoy the videos and this lovely essay about the day’s event. Also, be sure to peruse SouthernOrthdox.org where we’ve been creating and sharing edifying content since November 2021.
With gratitude and love in Christ,
Rebecca “Iliana” Dillingham
Co-founder of the Ludwell Orthodox Fellowship
ilia@southernorthodox.org
What is the Philip Ludwell III Orthodox Fellowship?
The Philip Ludwell III Orthodox Fellowship is an association of Orthodox Christian believers from diverse jurisdictions who seek to serve the Church’s evangelistic mission in the South by promoting the enculturation of the Orthodox Faith into the South’s unique ethos and “older religiousness.”
Our First Conference!
The purpose of our inaugural conference is to bring together like-minded Orthodox Christians from across the South to discuss the Orthodox evangelization of the South and the enculturation of Orthodoxy into the distinctive Southern ethos. Are Southerners a distinct people? Do we have a distinct culture? If so, can this culture be “baptized” into Orthodoxy?
👉 Speakers:
Dr. Donald Livingston
“Why the South is the Most Religious Part of America”
Donald Wilson Livingston is a retired professor of philosophy, Emory University. He is past Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, and founder and president of the Abbeville Institute. He serves on the editorial staff of Chronicles, A Magazine of American Culture and is the author of “Hume’s Philosophy of Common Life” and “Philosophical Melancholy and Delirium: Hume’s Pathology of Philosophy,” both by University of Chicago Press. Livingston converted to Orthodoxy in 2012 and is a parishioner at Holy Ascension Orthodox Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
Dr. Clark Carlton
“Ethnophyletism By Any Other Name …”
Clark Carlton is an author and editor of the Ludwell Orthodox Fellowship. He has also taught philosophy for more than twenty-five years. A native of Tennessee, he earned a B.A. in philosophy from Carson-Newman College, an M.Div. from St. Vladimir’s Seminary, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Catholic University of America. He is the author of “The Faith” Series and has been published in the Saint Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, the Journal of Early Christian Studies, Christian Bioethics, and Histoire de la Littérature Grecque Chrétienne des Origines à 451.
Father John Whiteford
“Southern Agrarianism and Orthodoxy”
Father John is a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) and head priest at St. Jonah Orthodox Church in Spring, Texas. He’s a former Nazarene Associate Pastor who in November 1990 converted to the Orthodox Faith soon after completing his B.A. in Theology at Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Oklahoma. Father John’s the author of “Sola Scriptura: An Orthodox Analysis of the Cornerstone of Reformation Theology” and the general editor of the “St. Innocent Liturgical Calendar.” You can also read his writings at his blog aptly titled Fr. John Whiteford.
Metropolitan Jonah Paffhausen
“The Southern Fields are Ripe for the Harvest”
Metropolitan Jonah is rector of St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox Church in Stafford, Virginia, and is abbot of St. Demetrios of Thessaloniki Monastery in Spotsylvania, Virginia. His Eminence also serves the Holy Archangels Orthodox Foundation. In 2008, he became the first Orthodox convert to be elected as primate of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), and since 2015, Vladika has been a bishop in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR).
Father Mark Mancuso
“Front Porch Wisdom Meets Holy Rus: Reminiscences of Archimandrite Damian Hart”
The Very Rev. Archpriest Mark T. Mancuso is rector of St. Elizabeth the New Martyr Orthodox Church in Columbia, South Carolina. He is dean of the Carolinas & Tennessee deanery of the Eastern American Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, and is a member of the Diocesan Council. Father Mark is also featured in the delightful 2013 documentary “Orthodox in Dixie.”
George Michalopulos
“Should We Take the Black Pill, or Can We Crawl Out of the Belly of the Beast?”
George Michalopulos originated Monomakhos, a popular Orthodox website devoted to politics, culture, and religion. A pharmacist by profession, he resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with his wife Gail Sheppard. Both are active in local Orthodox church affairs.
👉 Location:
Tobaccoville Community Center, 4225 Tobaccoville Road, Tobaccoville, North Carolina 27050
👉 Date & time:
Saturday, September 16, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
👉 Conference schedule:
8 to 8:45 a.m. • Check-in, coffee and pastries, welcome, and opening prayers. Please try to check-in by 8:45 at the latest so that we can get the conference underway at 9 a.m. sharp!
9 a.m. to noon • Speeches by Dr. Livingston and Fr. Whiteford, followed by Q&A; morning session concludes with speech by Met. Jonah, followed by Q&A with Vladika. (Note: All the day’s Q&As emceed by Texas gentleman and newly illumined Buck Johnson, host of the Counterflow Podcast.)
Noon to 1 p.m. • Prayers, lunch, and fellowship.
1 to 3 p.m. • Afternoon session opens with speech by Dr. Carlton, followed by Q&A; speeches by Fr. Mancuso and Mr. Michalopulos, followed by Q&A.
3 to 4 p.m. • Panel Q&A discussion with all the day’s speakers (minus Met. Jonah), discussion on “Southern Orthodox Music,” and then closing prayers.
4 to 5 p.m. • Free time. See “Nearby food” options below.
5 p.m. • Vigil at St. Thomas Orthodox Church.
👉 Church services:
We not only encourage everyone to attend Vigil on Saturday evening but also Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning at St. Thomas, which is a 4-minute drive from the Community Center. Parking options for church services will be explained at the end of conference just before closing prayers.
👉 Lodging:
The closest hotel is the Days Inn in King, which is a 6-minute drive from the Community Center. The university area of Winston-Salem has four hotels all within 10 to 16 minutes from the event site. Those are the Baymont by Wyndham, Hampton Inn & Suites, DoubleTree by Hilton, and Quality Inn. And for you outdoor enthusiasts who want to soak in some of the Piedmont’s natural scenery, there are three campgrounds 15 to 20 minutes due north of Tobaccoville on US Highway 52 in the Pinnacle area, including beautiful Pilot Mountain State Park (the “metamorphic quartzite” knob rising to a peak of 2,421 feet and seen in the right-hand corner beyond the tobacco fields of the feature image at top).
👉 Nearby food:
If you’re wanting to pick up a quick bite to eat after the conference but before Vigil, there are quite a few restaurants in nearby King. From the community center, turn left on Tobaccoville Road; turn left at the 4-way stop onto King-Tobaccoville Road; when you cross US Hwy 52, the road turns into Main Street and there are many locally owned establishments (Amazing Thailand, Town & Country, Little Italy, King Kitchen, and P.B. Clark’s); plenty of fast-food (Chick Fil-A, Zaxby’s, Bojangles, Wendy’s, McDonalds, and Pizza Hut); and three grocery stores (Food Lion, Lowe’s Foods, and Wal-Mart Super Center).
👉 Wineries:
If you have any extra time during your visit to the North Carolina Piedmont, the region has a bountiful supply of wineries, like Divine Lama, Cellar 3201, Pilot Mountain Vineyard, The Wine Cellar, Flint Hill Vineyards, JOLO Vineyards, Shelton Vineyards, Medaloni Cellars, Childress Vineyards, and Raylen Vineyards.
👉 Organic milk & produce:
And if healthy food is your thing, agrarianism is alive and well in our neck of the woods. Here are a few good options in Tobaccoville, and nearby King and Pfafftown: Harmony Ridge Farms, Nomad Farms, Anders Family Farms, Robertson Family Farms, Fair Share Farms, and Keiger Dairy Farm.
We pray you have safe and peaceful travels to our Inaugural Conference. We understand that it will be a long trek for some of y’all and that nothing is cheap these days, but we firmly believe in the value of this event, the importance of in-real-life fellowship, and the worthiness of planting the seeds of Orthodoxy in the fertile “Christ-haunted South.” May God keep and protect you on your journeys and your time here in the Tobaccoville area.
If you are unable to attend the Conference but would like to support the long-term work of the Fellowship, please consider making a one-time or recurring donation by clicking here. Thank you!
