Orthodox Biz Blog

I could hear the frustration in her voice as we talked. The head of a non-profit, she was upset about her Website. It hadn't been updated in a year, and she desperately needed to get control of it. She had fundraising product to sell, supporters to keep updated, and prospective member information to distribute.

Welcome to my blog. Please write me with your questions and comments. Many thanks to Glen Chancy for putting up my picture for me.

HOW WAS TUESDAY? Fascinating. I attended a Best of the Northwest business awards event in the northwest area of Philadelphia, which includes the neighborhoods of Germantown, Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill. My friend Nancy Malmed received

A few years back, I had the opportunity to deliver my standard presentation on Jihad to a Greek Orthodox Sunday school class. Towards the end of the presentation, I started fielding questions. A few of the ladies in the class were really interested in the role of the Middle East in fulfilling Biblical prophecy. I was taken aback by the questions. I knew the ladies were cradle Orthodox, but the tone and content of the questions betrayed both a knowledge of, and a belief in, the Dispensationalist view of the ‘End Times.'

Welcome to my blog. Please write me with your questions and comments.

How did I get here? I heard about Orthodoxbiz.com through an email from Glen Chancy, and so I was drawn into the fold of Orthodox Christians with businesses.

How to begin? As a retired teacher (but teachers never really retire), let me

Techies love acronyms. So much so, in fact, that we often sound like we're speaking a foreign language to normal humans. That's too bad, because a lot of times the acronyms obscure information about really, really useful tools.

As an Orthodox Parish Webmaster, 2006 marked the year that I wanted to take the parish's Web presence into the 21^st Century. First I did a Bulletin Board/Discussion Forum . Then I did a large-scale photo gallery. In the Fall of 2006, the next stop for the Web presence of the Orthodox Church of St. Stephen the Protomartyr was to go dynamic.

My wife and I were filling out the paperwork to join a homeschooling umbrella group when we hit a huge snag. The umbrella school we planned to use is Christian-based, but it's run by very, very Protestant people. They had a statement of faith which all potential members had to sign. The statement of faith was, essentially, a Protestant catechism which included such fundamental Protestant beliefs as justification by faith alone and the Bible as the only rule of faith.

Looking over the statement, I immediately picked out nine heresies I could actually name. That was out of only eight clauses in the whole document. Their version of fundamental, commonly accepted Christian truths was like a mini-catalog of errors rejected by the Orthodox Church.

I speak frequently at civic clubs and political organizations on the subject of Christians in the Middle East. My undergrad background was heavy on Balkans studies, and so I spent a lot of time studying the life of Christians under Muslim rule. Little did I realize, of course, when I was taking classes like Ottoman History and Arab Politics back in the early 90's, that someday the topics of Jihad and Dhimmitude would be paramount concerns in the 21^st Century.

Images are important. Orthodox Christians know that better than any other Christian community, which is why we struggle to keep our churches adorned appropriately. Many of our icons, of course, depict scenes from the life of the Church. Great events in the Christian past are rendered in gold leaf and hung for all to see and venerate. We understand how important it is to visually chronicle our past as a community, and to honor that past.

"Haven't you written anything about what you actually do for living?"

That question floored me. It shouldn't have, but it did.

I mean, I was in Google.

Whenever I tell someone that I teach the harp, they always assume that my students are children. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Over the years, my adult beginner students have outnumbered the children. I like adult beginners........and they like me.

Success is built into my classes. I nurture a "can do" attitude. We take baby steps and have fun along the way