Audio version of this Simply Orthodox article is available below. Audio version departs from the article at a few points:
Saint Paul ends his letter to the Romans with a chapter most people skip. Chapter 16 is just names—Tryphaena, Tryphosa, Persis, Rufus, Asyncritus, Phlegon. Thirty-some people, most of whom we know nothing about except that Paul loved them and wanted to say so. It reads like a man scrolling through his contacts and pausing on each one: “she worked hard for you... they were in Christ before me... greet my beloved Epaenetus.”
I’ve been thinking about that chapter a bit lately, because I owe you an explanation for my periodic silence, and the explanation isn’t just a list of things I’ve been up to—the reality is more like a list of names.
Localized Ministry at Saint Mark
The catechism ministry at Saint Mark Greek Orthodox Church in Boca Raton has grown again, currently to about 60 inquirers and catechumens. New people walk through the door every week, and the team that receives them is real: Father Mark, Father Anastasios, Frank, John, Romy, the deacons, several other volunteers, and me. We have a Discover Orthodoxy table every week at coffee hour—a place to greet newcomers and give them somewhere to land—and a dual team during our annual cultural festival. I meet people pretty regularly for coffee and catechetical conversation—I sit with them and walk through the Bible. I teach. In the last month alone, I taught two evening evening class and a Sunday catechism session.
Probably the biggest thing I’ve done over the summer is put together a 26-week written lesson plans for our Discover Orthodoxy ministry. What we are moving into now is having a teaching rotation so the team can carry it together—handouts, schedules, the whole infrastructure for two “semesters” of catechesis.
This Substack is an extension of that ministry. When I’m not posting, it’s usually because I’m doing the work the posts are about—and doing it with people who make such a difference in the 3D world here in South Florida.
The Baptism
We baptized Alexandra (“Sasha”) Sophia. I need to tell you about that day, because it was the kind of day that makes everything else make sense.
Sasha, our daughter who was born earlier this year—went under the water and came up belonging to Christ, and the church was full of people who brought her there. My mother flew in from California. My mother-in-law and father-in-law came from Arizona. Sasha’s godmother was there. They sat in the nave alongside people I never could have predicted would be in my life five years ago.
There were my godsons—young men who came into the Church and who I’ve walked with, and who showed up for my daughter the way you show up for family. There were long-time and cradle Orthodox friends who’ve become essential to us, the kind of people who are just always there, quietly, reliably. There were partners in ministry—people I teach alongside, plan alongside, build things alongside, run things by. And there were whole families who came to Saint Mark in the last couple of years as curious outsiders and converted and are now our good friends. Our lives have become intertwined.
After the baptism, 25 of us went out to brunch. Twenty-five people. Our kids played together at breakfast as we broke bread together at a very, very long table and enjoyed each other’s company. I looked around that restaurant and saw a web of relationships that didn’t exist a few years ago—nearly all of them connected to a specific community in Boca Raton and the strange, beautiful fact that we keep showing up there.
Gregory, our son who turns 5 this month, was the best helper a dad could ask for. He took it seriously. He knew something important was happening to his sister, and he wanted to be closely involved to the point that he would mimic Fr. Mark’s blessing of the water with the sign of the cross.
That day is in large part the reason I’ve been quiet lately. Not so much because it took time away from writing (and it did), but because it reminded me what the writing is for. And sometimes it’s more important to focus on what is presented in front of you, rather than what is posted online.
Podcasts & Articles
My podcast Brews, Beards, and Shipwrecks is still putting out content.
Bad Books of the Bible isn’t publishing right now, but we’re recording—going through the Wisdom of Sirach chapter by chapter with rotating clergy guests. I’ve also been teaching a catechism-Sirach integration class that pulls those threads together. All of that material will eventually show up here in written and recorded form, complete with downloadable slide decks.
On top of that, I have dozens of practical catechetical articles in queue, but they need to be further developed, refined, edited, and incorporated into a planned release schedule. The pipeline is full. The spigot is just slow.
Music
I’m finishing the third Royal Ruckus album inspired by Fred Rogers (here is #2). I have another album coming soon, a collaboration with Eligh of Living Legends, who is one of the most respected artists in the indie rap game. But it’s not just me and Eligh. It’s DJ Sean P on the decks and Cookbook in the mix—the people behind the production and beats. These are friendships that happen to also be creative partnerships, which is the best kind.
School
I’m in two graduate programs. A Master of Theological Studies at Antiochian House of Studies—coursework finished several years ago, with my thesis proposal in progress now. And I have also started working on a Doctor of Ministry in Christian Education—several classes done, aiming to be dissertation-ready by this time next year. Two programs, one brain, not enough coffee in South Florida to bridge the gap.
Day Job
I became Director of Education at the company I work for—which means I spend a good bit of time booking and developing continuing education classes for insurance adjusters and attorneys. I earned my WIND-P designation, I just passed the Associate of Insurance 101 exam, and I travel for work building relationships across Florida and the southeastern United States. Here I am, developing education for other people while falling behind on my own educational blog.
Family
Gregory is in preschool, loves art, and he’s doing jiu-jitsu, which means I’m now a dad who sits on the mat and watches his preschooler grapple. Polina and I will soon have a one-year-old and a five-year-old. That’s not a side note, it’s the main thing, and everything else fits around the edges.
The Names
Paul didn’t write Romans 16 as a status update. He wrote it because the connections matter—the coffee with the inquirer, the class you taught on a Wednesday night, the album you’re finishing with friends, the daughter you baptized, the kid grappling on the mat. These aren’t distractions from the work. They are the work. The names are central to the point.
I’ve been quiet here because I’ve been loud everywhere else—but loud in the way Saint Paul was loud at the end of a letter, just naming the people he loved and trusting that the names were enough.
The silence is ending. The Sirach material is coming. The Thinking Theologically recordings are coming. The writing is coming.
In the meantime—greet one another with a holy kiss. Or, you know, a comment below. Either way.
All the best,
Jamey