 I want to talk in this video about my experiences of going to an Orthodox church for the first time. And in fact, I didn't just go once, I went actually for the entire, I guess, the weekend of Good Friday up until Easter, or as they call it, Posca usually. So I want to talk about my experience there, and also, I guess, an opportunity for people who might live relatively close to me, because I'll go ahead and give you the spoiler. I'm working with some people to perhaps create an Orthodox parish near where I am. So I'll get to that in a second, because I actually have a lot to talk about. So if you're a viewer of my live streams, I haven't so much done videos on this, but if you watch my live streams, one of the frequent, I guess, topics of conversation is over the past year or so, I've become more and more convinced that the Orthodox church is basically the truest of form, the teachings of the apostle, I guess the real church, you know what I mean? And of course, this has all been theoretical, like it's all been like me on the internet thinking about things, which of course, if you're just doing it on the internet, it doesn't count, right? Until you're out there, until you're actually invested in it, it means nothing, right? It's just like an argument on the internet, which, you know, that's not important at all. So I think in a live stream, I forget exactly which one, I actually won a subscriber of mine in West Virginia, actually ended up contacting his priest up in West Virginia, and he invited me out to come make a little visit. So this was actually several months ago, and it's just every single week didn't work up until coincidentally the week of Easter, Easter weekend. And so that was kind of serendipitous, it was kind of providential. So I actually got the ability to go to an Orthodox church on arguably the most important week of the year. So firstly, why did I go all the way to West Virginia, right? That's a good question. And my thinking was, and I think this is exactly the thinking of a lot of other people, because I'll tell you, there are lots of guys like me who have been like, yeah, I understand theologically like the Orthodox church, it's the, I guess the most truest to form, it's the actual church that preserves the church's traditions without any kind of modernization or corruption and things like that. A lot of people have reached those kind of conclusions nowadays, but even if you live near an Orthodox church, it's often a very psychologically difficult thing to just, oh, here's this like totally alien world that I don't know anything about, and I'm just going to walk into it, right? I don't want to say like it's a kind of a nervous thing, oh, I'm like socially awkward about it, but there is a sense in which you want someone like instructing you in it, right? Now I'll go ahead and say that if there's one thing I learned in this whole endeavor, it's that you don't need to be worried about that, but I'll just tell you what happened. I don't know, I actually tried to record this video yesterday and I like basically got the 20 minutes and I was like, oh my goodness, I've been talking too long. So I might have to talk about this in another video, but I will just tell you my experience, the important things for those of you who either are looking specifically at the Orthodox church or just kind of like trying to discern all the cringe varieties out there that you want to avoid, this is my experience. So I actually got in, let's see, I think I got into West Virginia around, so I mean driving all the way to West Virginia just to be clear, like that's a long time for me to drive, but I figured it was worth it to get that introduction if I can have someone inducting me, I guess into the church's practice. It's a lot easier psychologically, I think, than going in cold turkey, but even that would be an easy thing and let me explain why. I got in actually Thursday night, they were doing a service and I drove up at the church and I have no clue how they do things, right? So I actually didn't even, I guess it was at the tail end of the service and I just waited outside, like just hanging out by my car because I was like, I don't know, is it wrong for me to go in like late or something like that? Ends up it isn't. So you know, I met the priest, the priest was letting me stay with him and I actually met a couple guys who watch my channel and know about me and stuff like that and of course the whole church kind of knew that I was coming here, which was a little weird, but either way I stayed the night at the priest's house and we actually ended up staying up real late, it was like 2 a.m. and he was like, I actually ended up staying, I was sleeping in a little bit even though he went to the church. So during all of Holy Week, they basically do like three services a day and they're long services, they're longer than the usual stuff from what I can understand. In fact, I mean, there were probably some days that people were there at church, like basically the equivalent of a full-time job and so I go to my first service that Friday, right? And I want to say it was around the middle of the day and all the worries that I had about like the, I don't know, I don't want to say the awkwardness of going into a new church, but maybe something like that. All the worries I had were like instantly assuaged once I went in there because the easiest way that I can describe it, okay? If you're, if you have like a Protestant background or even a Catholic background nowadays, you will realize like how like man-centered a Protestant service is nowadays, like you go in, if you go into like a low church Protestant church, let's say you go to a Baptist church, right? You walk in, oh, you know, some, hey guys, welcome to Sunday morning worship. We're so glad we're with you. Like, you know, they're talking to you, you know, you do, you stand and sing and all this kind of stuff. Everything's kind of organized and you got to stay in your seat and it's like ill-advised to like go to the bathroom or show up late, like all that kind of stuff. And the easiest way I can describe it is like Orthodox worship is so God-centered that you're not even, you are not even the focus of attention, you know what I mean? Like, so it's not a really terrible thing. I think it might be ill-advised, but like it's not a big deal if you come in a little late or you have to move around. In fact, that's what people are doing. They're not like they're standing up and they're kind of going to different icons, they're praying, they're kind of doing their own things, or a lot of times they're just kind of standing there. But the important thing is it is not for the entertainment of the audience, you know, the priests are doing their thing, you know, everyone's kind of, you know, metaphorically facing God because you're facing the altar. So like any awkwardness you might have about going to an Orthodox church, I will just tell you as soon as you step in there, you will realize how misplaced it is because it's just like it's not about you. Like that's the easiest way that I can describe it. You know, and there are other things as well, like that's basically all you need to go in. I will go, I will go ahead and tell you like you can walk in. I mean, there are other details you learn like, oh, when do people do the sign of the cross? Oh, what kind of clothes do people wear? Like my mistake again, which isn't like a terrible thing, but like I realize, oh, everyone's wearing like long sleeves and I only brought short sleeves. I mean, it's not like they're going to kick you out or they care. But like just in general, there's a focus on clothing that doesn't bring attention to yourself or doesn't like reveal too much of your body. Now, of course, all women were wearing headdresses and or scarves, whatever you want to call them, and full length skirts and stuff like that. And they didn't have makeup on like just things like that and people would usually wear colors that just don't bring attention to themselves. Like even something like this, I feel was, you know, maybe a little out of place, right? But of course, none of that like, don't let that hold, you know, don't let that be a requirement for you going or not like worried about being worried about what you're going to wear. Because again, the important thing is people are not focused on you. Like that's the whole point. And I will say, you know, I was in the same place. Eventually, I think I went to service or so in and I was like, Oh, I should probably take my watch off. It's too flashy. It's stuff like that, you know what I mean? But it's not it's not like someone's hounding you. It's very much no one is looking at you. So that weirdly enough, if you're having like this kind of nervousness about it, like just don't worry about it. Like even if there were people there wearing t shirts and shorts, I will I will tell you that. So like come as you are kind of thing, like, I mean, dress respectfully, but if if you're not going to go because of some silly reason like that go. So like how the services worked. Now, of course, they were they were longer. Like if you go to like a Protestant church, there are a lot of churches who, you know, if they have services that last an hour, people start complaining, right? But the easiest way like, you know, any kind of high church thing, but especially Orthodox, right? It's kind of like, you know, Protestants will separate things into they will have, you know, music time and then they'll have like a sermon and they'll have Sunday school and they'll have Bible studies on Sunday night or something like all of all these different things, which in the Orthodox Church are basically wrapped into one thing. And that's one of the reasons I think it's longer than a service there. Now, the services that I was going to, which I went to a lot of. It was again, it was like two or three a day, basically, there were a couple that I did skip. But, you know, they they kind of pack everything into one. And of course, the environment of the church is totally like different from, you know, a lot of again, low church, low churches, right? You know, everything, it's very decorative. There are murals of the life Christ and all this kind of stuff and smells of incense or icons all over the place, all this kind of stuff to facilitate, you know, otherworldly, like godly thoughts as opposed to, wow, look at the white walls. I wonder if there are any cute girls here like that, you know, I don't know. I don't know what you guys think about in a white wall church, but whatever. So like that's basically how it is. And of course, I didn't fully understand everything that's going on to the service. I'm kind of interested in, you know, I think I'm going to get a book on, you know, basically a prayer book or whatever, you know, the thing that they also use for the liturgy and stuff like that, just to kind of figure out what they're doing and all in all the priests are doing. But yeah, just don't worry about it. It is it is like totally different from the rock concert experience of all the I mean, this should go without saying because these are like practices that people have had for millennia that existed. I mean, well, maybe two millennia right that, you know, have existed. Actually, I mean, they even predate that a lot of it goes to, you know, the Jewish practice before Christ and stuff like that. And so it's very much calibrated to, I guess, preliterate societies like, you know, you are supposed to be able to go there. They do Bible readings. They do songs. They do prayers, all this kind of stuff all packed into one. It's not this kind of atomized religion that we have nowadays where again, it's like, oh, we'll go to a Sunday sermon, then I'll do my do my quiet time where I read the Bible and think up what I want it to say. All that kind of stuff like that. That's not how it is, right? That's the easiest way I can describe it. So I went to nearly all of the services while I were there while I was there and there were a whole lot of them. I think there was one that I skipped like the one right before Pascha midnight. I did not go to because the priest kept the priest who I was staying with. He kept being like, you know, you don't have to come to this one. You don't have to come to this one. You don't have to come to this one. And it was because like, I think it started in like 830 and it was supposed to be they read through the entire acts of the apostles. Apparently that's a tradition. So I did skip that one and it would have been a long one. Maybe it heightened my enjoyment of Pascha. I'm not quite sure. Maybe it would have if I had gone either way. So how they do things for Easter, for Pascha, right? You know, there are a lot of churches out there that will do like, you know, kind of morning survey, like sunrise services for Easter. Like everyone will come out at 6 a.m. Maybe 5 a.m. And they'll have a service at sunrise, right? That is the thing that some Protestant churches will do. Well, the Orthodox Church does it at midnight, which was very interesting. So we show up at midnight for this service. And although probably that one was, I don't know. I don't want to say it was the longest, but it felt like the shortest, you know what I mean? Because it's in a big contrast like the services the week before are very somber. They're very dark, like in terms of color. And then, you know, we have the service like we go around the church and, you know, walking around with candles and, you know, they light everything up. They throw flowers on the floor, like all this kind of stuff to decorate it, make it very festive and things like that. And of course, if you don't know, you know, Orthodox around Pascha, around Easter, they will have this greeting that they always greet each other with. You'll walk up to someone and you'll say Christ is risen and they respond truly his risen. Right. So the priests and the congregation, they were doing that at the same time during the services. Like they were actually kind of yelling it. It was very festive, very active on the midnight service. So that actually went by really quickly, I feel like, even though, well, we had the service and then we had a meal and I think I was up to like five thirty. I think everyone was. And then everyone went home to sleep and then they came back for, I guess, an afternoon meal and service and stuff like that. And to what I understand, it's a typical thing when they have divine liturgy on Sunday as a normal thing. They will also always have a meal afterwards. And, you know, I got varying views on how long the liturgy usually is on a Sunday because again, I'm going to irregular services here. I was I went to like three hour services and stuff like that. But a lot of people would say, oh, it's around two hours. It depends on how many people are receiving communion or whatever. And I will also say so on the length of the services, one, I think I said this before, like they're packing a whole bunch of things into one thing. So I think, you know, the it didn't bother me as much as I thought it was going to bother me like me just kind of being in a service for forever. And you are standing like in in in Rokor churches at least you are standing for the service. So your lumbar is going to get chiseled. Well, at least mine was going to all these services in a bunch of days. But you know, doing it once a week is probably different. But you know, the way I think of it is like the week before I had gone out there, I actually was kind of for I wasn't forced to. But I went to an amusement park with some of my family members. Now, I as you can probably guess, if you know me, I love amusement parks. I cannot stand them. But you know, my thinking was if I stood in in line for these stupid Harry Potter rides for two and a half hours, which I did, it was a waste of time, I can stand two and a half hours for God. You know what I mean? That that's my thinking. OK, so and those rides were like less than five minutes. It was ridiculous. Either way, so yeah, the the if you're worried about going into an Orthodox church, I would just say don't be like you will see you will feel you just go and you will feel very silly about the way that you might have worried about it before. I mean, I wouldn't say that I was like so socially awkward about it. But I mean, like I still where I am, I have to drive several hours to get to one anyway. And I was like, so I really jumped at the opportunity to get this kind of introduction. So I met a lot of great people, had a lot of great conversations, religious conversations, you know, other kind of conversations. Very cool people out there and the amount of people converting to Orthodoxy is truly impressive. You know, I think a lot of churches are worried worried about drying up. But the Orthodox Church, because I guess it's been so true and like especially nowadays people are becoming kind of aware of it. There everyone I talked to was talking about all the people who had converted. Now, I was up in rural West Virginia, right? So there aren't so many people, you know, they had some, you know, they I think the priests did say they basically had a convert parish, but, you know, they didn't have like hundreds of people. But I will say on my way back, the priests in West Virginia, he actually put me in contact with a monastery in Roswell, Georgia near Atlanta. OK, and the reason is, you know, I was I was trying to see if we could get an Orthodox mission or something like some kind of like something near where I live, you know what I mean? That we can do, even though it's not like there are many Orthodox out here, but just kind of a thing to to allow people to be familiarized or, you know, have some experience with the Orthodox Church. So I talked to these guys at Roswell who have jurisdiction in South Georgia, you know, about about kind of doing something in Valdosta. And I'll talk about that in a second. But I will say in terms of people converting one of the priests there, or maybe he was a monk or maybe I'm not entirely sure how, you know, the all the stations work out. But, you know, he had said that it used to be back in the day. They would have every year they would have maybe three adult converts, right, who were baptized as adults. Maybe they married a Russian wife or something like that and they converted, whereas now they're having something more like 70 converts, 70 baptisms a year, which is just a massive, massive like gain, like, I don't know. And I talked to some of the monks who had been recent converts there, younger or novice monks, or I should say, which I don't think they haven't like taken vows yet. And they, you know, so just everyone I talked like there are a lot of guys, even the guy who had contacted his priests to contact me to bring me up in West Virginia, he was still a catechumen. I don't think he was baptized. Although there was someone, I guess a subscriber up there who did actually get baptized. So I did get to see baptism. He was baptized and then an older couple who had converted. They were getting baptized as well. So, yeah, it was just like, I don't know, it's the time is very ripe. They're very interested in starting new churches. And again, I went to Atlanta to talk to these guys. I talked to the dean of, I forget exactly his title, but he's basically in charge of George Alabama in Mississippi. And he really wanted, he sounded incredibly interested in starting something in Valdosta, some kind of event. So I will go ahead and say, because I've been going on very long in this video. And I still like, I haven't got through like 10% of what I want to say. So I'll probably have to call it quits eventually, but I will, I will say the important thing now. If you are in South Georgia or if you are in North Florida and I say those very generally, if you are South of Macon in Georgia, if you are North of Gainesville, if it doesn't matter where, I'm going to put my email below and you need to contact me. If, because I want to have, I need to compile a list of people who might be interested in going to an Orthodox service or something like that that may be put on in Valdosta, might be put on in Florida. It all kind of depends. Now there are Orthodox churches, like on the margins of, like I think there is one in Gainesville, like a OCA church. I mean, the people I've been talking to are Rokor, Russian Orthodox Church out of Russia. You know, they're, they're kind of more liturgically conservative. And there are other things like, I could talk about the difference, you know, later on, but I mean, more or less all the Orthodox church professes the same beliefs, but there are, I think that Rokor has kind of a, more, I guess, conservative loyalty to some of the traditions and they don't modernize things like that. So I think they kind of have a reputation of being a little more solid, right? I mean, not to discount OCA or any, which is Orthodox Church in America. So if you're anywhere in the region, if you'd be interested, please email me and talk to your friends about a do whatever, like anyone who might be interested, because I know, I know for a fact there are many people who would jump at the opportunity to do something like this. So if you're interested, I guess kind of where I landed with the guys in Roswell is that I would go about trying to seek people who would be interested in coming. And when we have enough people and maybe, I guess, venue in Valdosta or there about, you know, I'll contact him and it will arrange something. I don't know, maybe some kind of liturgy or service or some kind of thing or just something for kind of Q and A thing. I don't maybe just familiarize people with Orthodoxy. And now I, again, spoke to the guy who's in charge of Georgia. I have not spoken to whoever is in charge of Florida because, you know, I live pretty close to the border. So another option might be doing something in Florida as well because, you know, that whole region is basically unchurched. Like there might be an Orthodox Church in Tallahassee. I'm not entirely sure about that. And I'm pretty sure there are some in Gainesville, but like North Florida on the Panhandle. Like I don't think the one in Tallahassee is Rokor. And so I don't know if anyone is in contact with the people who do that for Florida, but if you do, it would be nice to know like that's available. So either way, if you're in the region and you're interested, please contact me. This is like an opportunity I kind of want to jump on. And I have a lot more to say. I will probably talk more about this in live streams or something else because there's a lot to say about it. But the main thing I want you to take away is, A, if you live in the region, contact me, because that's important. And B, if you're worried about going to an Orthodox Church because you think it's going to be weird or you think it's going to be like something alien, there is a sense in which it will be alien, but that is not, like don't think that that means that it's going to be like socially awkward for you. You know what I mean? Like if you're nervous about it, that's very silly because again, it is very God-centered. Like you are not there performing, right? You're not the focus of the attention and you will realize that very quickly when you go into an Orthodox Church, but I will go ahead and tell you that because it will make you more likely to go, okay? So that's what I want to say. There's nothing, I mean, I do recommend you contact a priest, maybe email him or call him if you plan on coming to his place, but if you don't, if you don't want to, like if you just want to walk in, like there's nothing really weird about that whatsoever. Even if you don't feel like you have the most appropriate clothes, I would recommend go ahead and do it. Boomers were in there with T-shirts and stuff, like you'll be fine. Yeah, so that's about it. So everyone in West Virginia, I plan on coming up there again. I want to thank everyone who, I guess, I don't know, was up there. It was really great hanging out with people. I did not have enough time. I was up there for a weekend. It felt like a month, but it also felt like I didn't have enough time and I plan on coming up there at some point. There's also a monastery up there which I did not have time to go to. So that's going to be partially my justification for going back up to West Virginia. So anyway, thank you. Thank you for everyone listening. Email me and Christ is risen.