In just under 11 hours, my friend Kevin and I will be embarking on a journey to Chicago to attend the 14th annual Ancient Christianity and African-American Conference. From what I hear, it’s a can’t-miss event. It will feature Fr. Moses Berry, Fr. Patrick Reardon, Fr. Paisius Altschul, and a small host of others. I’ve also heard a rumor that an Orthodox celebrity might be in attendance. We’ll see.
On the way, we’ll stop by our sister OCA parish in Nicholasville, KY, to see some old friends and probably make some new ones. Also, this will allow us to split the driving up into two chunks. We really didn’t relish the idea of driving for 9-plus hours only to run into Chicago-area traffic at the end of the long journey. Yuck.
As a result, I’m going to try and follow the suggestion of a friend and blog about the journey. I imagine I’ll mainly do it here. But, I’ll also going upload to flickr as much as possible, and perhaps post a few random things on YouTube. We’ll be coming back on the 4th, so that should provide plenty of stuff to note, observe, or generally ponder in the interim.
I’m really excited about this trip. Not only is it pretty college student-friendly (read: inexpensive), but it will allow some networking and a chance to simply meet new people. Also, I’ve never been to Chicago or anywhere in the Northern Midwest. (The closest has been Cincinnati, which is barely outside Kentucky, so it basically doesn’t count.) More than that, though, I’m excited to attend the workshops and lectures. Which, it looks like this year’s conference will focus on repentance and its different aspects as revealed in the story of the Prodigal Son.
I’m not sure what I’ll post here. But, stay tuned and see. As Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel would say, “The next song I’m going to play is *insert title*. I hope you like it. I can’t wait to hear it myself.”
Oh…and if any of you will be at the conference, let me know. I love meeting new people. 🙂