Still giddy with delight!

The election of His Beautitude, Jonah Paffhausen, formerly of Ft Worth, is in my humble opinion, providential. It speaks many things, not the least of which is a complete break with the past.

I'm so happy I can't stand it.

That being said, we all know that it's not going to be easy. But Jonah laid down some interesting markers. His speeches reflected very much his writings and it can be said that ecclessialastically, he's got his priorities spot on. For one thing, he praised the Diocese of the South, the one diocese in the entire Orthodox world which is based on the tithe. Parishioners tithe to their parish, the parish tithes to the diocese, and the diocese gives it back to new missions to help them in their first years. If this isn't biblical, I don't know what is.

His Beatitude stressed this, even going so far as to call our diocese, "the miracle of the South." He's right. The Diocese of the West is well on its way to copying the Dallas template and in time, we can hope that all of the other dioceses follow suit.

more to follow...