St. Maximos' Hut

I went "tomb hopping" with Fr. Michael, his kids, and a bunch of other folks from St. Innocent on Friday night - we visited six other Orthodox churches in the Cleveland area, got short tours by Fr. M, hung out with Fr. Stephen and his youth group at St. George Antiochian, saw St. Theodosius (featured in The Deer Hunter) in the dim light of candles and with clouds of incense, some amazing icons at St. Vladimir's, and generally had a great time. Along the way, we discussed a feature of church history I know little about, the "Eastern Rite" Catholic churches. There's an interesting discussion of these churches here.

Anyone interested in seeing Orthodox churches ought to consider a Friday night visit on Holy Friday.

In the growing economics of religion literature, I haven't seen anyone take up this particular topic - it seems like one that is made for an economic analysis and, to the extent there are records of individual churches or bishops 'switching sides' between Orthodox and Catholic allegiances in various areas of Eastern Europe over time, might even be susceptible to some econometrics. Could be a good seminar paper for some grad student.